Imagine the reaction on Twitter if Darwin published the Origin of Species today. It was bad enough for him at the time, but imagine what it would be like now. If he had an employer, there's a significant chance he'd be fired.
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We think of social media as a way to exchange ideas, but although it's undoubtedly a way to exchange conventional ideas with people who already agree with them, I worry it might actually suppress some of the biggest ideas.
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And by suppress, I don't mean just that Darwin would not have been actively tweeting about evolution. I mean he might have actually been less likely to follow up his initial ideas about it.
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He was independently wealthy.
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Extreme negative feedback too early halts development.
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People do conduct research, and write books (even controversial ones) in the age of twitter. Unless the process *of writing* the book (and its intermediate states) are 'exposed' on twitter, Darwin should be fine
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I think the best use of twitter might be to discuss various 'interests' with people who share those interests, but not really use it for validation of your 'core work' and ideas thereof. So you can chat about lisps, but if you plan to write a radical new lisp, don't tweet.
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Agreed! Also it’s much easier to share your idea anonymously. Look at Bitcoin. It’s an idea that is criticized by many but it also has its supporters.
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I'm not sure: many people are actually more motivated by rubbing the people the wrong way. These people get driven by outrage. May be Darwin was such a person. May be someone else would be.
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Darwin was not a disagreeable, ornery sort. He was more the retiring intellectual. Thomas Huxley was the zealous public supporter of the idea of evolution.
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