Skip to content
By using Twitter’s services you agree to our Cookies Use. We and our partners operate globally and use cookies, including for analytics, personalisation, and ads.
  • Home Home Home, current page.
  • About

Saved searches

  • Remove
  • In this conversation
    Verified accountProtected Tweets @
Suggested users
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Language: English
    • Bahasa Indonesia
    • Bahasa Melayu
    • Català
    • Čeština
    • Dansk
    • Deutsch
    • English UK
    • Español
    • Filipino
    • Français
    • Hrvatski
    • Italiano
    • Magyar
    • Nederlands
    • Norsk
    • Polski
    • Português
    • Română
    • Slovenčina
    • Suomi
    • Svenska
    • Tiếng Việt
    • Türkçe
    • Ελληνικά
    • Български език
    • Русский
    • Српски
    • Українська мова
    • עִבְרִית
    • العربية
    • فارسی
    • मराठी
    • हिन्दी
    • বাংলা
    • ગુજરાતી
    • தமிழ்
    • ಕನ್ನಡ
    • ภาษาไทย
    • 한국어
    • 日本語
    • 简体中文
    • 繁體中文
  • Have an account? Log in
    Have an account?
    · Forgot password?

    New to Twitter?
    Sign up
vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

Conversational account. For work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian. IKEA builder.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

Tweets

  • © 2020 Twitter
  • About
  • Help Center
  • Terms
  • Privacy policy
  • Imprint
  • Cookies
  • Ads info
Dismiss
Previous
Next

Go to a person's profile

Saved searches

  • Remove
  • In this conversation
    Verified accountProtected Tweets @
Suggested users
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @

Promote this Tweet

Block

  • Tweet with a location

    You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more

    Your lists

    Create a new list


    Under 100 characters, optional

    Privacy

    Copy link to Tweet

    Embed this Tweet

    Embed this Video

    Add this Tweet to your website by copying the code below. Learn more

    Add this video to your website by copying the code below. Learn more

    Hmm, there was a problem reaching the server.

    By embedding Twitter content in your website or app, you are agreeing to the Twitter Developer Agreement and Developer Policy.

    Preview

    Why you're seeing this ad

    Log in to Twitter

    · Forgot password?
    Don't have an account? Sign up »

    Sign up for Twitter

    Not on Twitter? Sign up, tune into the things you care about, and get updates as they happen.

    Sign up
    Have an account? Log in »

    Two-way (sending and receiving) short codes:

    Country Code For customers of
    United States 40404 (any)
    Canada 21212 (any)
    United Kingdom 86444 Vodafone, Orange, 3, O2
    Brazil 40404 Nextel, TIM
    Haiti 40404 Digicel, Voila
    Ireland 51210 Vodafone, O2
    India 53000 Bharti Airtel, Videocon, Reliance
    Indonesia 89887 AXIS, 3, Telkomsel, Indosat, XL Axiata
    Italy 4880804 Wind
    3424486444 Vodafone
    » See SMS short codes for other countries

    Confirmation

     

    Welcome home!

    This timeline is where you’ll spend most of your time, getting instant updates about what matters to you.

    Tweets not working for you?

    Hover over the profile pic and click the Following button to unfollow any account.

    Say a lot with a little

    When you see a Tweet you love, tap the heart — it lets the person who wrote it know you shared the love.

    Spread the word

    The fastest way to share someone else’s Tweet with your followers is with a Retweet. Tap the icon to send it instantly.

    Join the conversation

    Add your thoughts about any Tweet with a Reply. Find a topic you’re passionate about, and jump right in.

    Learn the latest

    Get instant insight into what people are talking about now.

    Get more of what you love

    Follow more accounts to get instant updates about topics you care about.

    Find what's happening

    See the latest conversations about any topic instantly.

    Never miss a Moment

    Catch up instantly on the best stories happening as they unfold.

    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      By way of Happy New Year wishes, here’s what I hope can be a helpful, perhaps even a bit healing thread, as we enter Year 5 of our culture wars. This thread is rated UN-13: Unironic and suitable for Normies, possibly disturbingly adult for children under 13.

      4 replies 38 retweets 176 likes
      Show this thread
    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      You’re a channel in a 7 billion channel universe. There are no NPCs (“non-playable characters”) here. Whether or not you make a living off media, you’re a part of it. Even if only 5 people follow you, and 3 are family, and you only do DMs/texts/emails, you’re an active agent.

      1 reply 9 retweets 51 likes
      Show this thread
    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      How should you use your reach, whether small or big? Who (not what) deserves attention? What form should that attention take? Your personal rules of engagement that you choose for yourself, times 7 billion = our world.

      1 reply 2 retweets 36 likes
      Show this thread
    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      A key rule of engagement: whose sensitivities should you respect? Almost NOTHING is stopping you from offending anyone you want. Despite what you may have heard, it’s trivial to hurt anyone while keeping yourself mostly safe. Safe addictive sadism is feature #1 of the Internet

      1 reply 11 retweets 76 likes
      Show this thread
    5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      Talking about anything you like and ignoring any sensitivities disturbed is actually kinda a legit shortcut to fame now. There’s MANY alt-media infrastructures, circuits of podcasts/blogs, and devoted support-with-$ audiences that will fast-lane you to *profitable* alt-celebrity

      1 reply 1 retweet 38 likes
      Show this thread
      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      So long as you actually dislike people you break away from, and like the people waiting to welcome you, being “censored” by people you offend is a reliable Streisand-effect trigger to alt-fame among others who dislike them. The fastest route to the top. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect …

      12:03 AM - 1 Jan 2019
      • 2 Retweets
      • 42 Likes
      • 🎄YULE ☆ IDOL 🎄 (bot) Sanjiv Kumar Amory Manuel Alex Wagner Setu Saurabh .³ Jens Dr. ϽΓΣⱤẛ∁ akhil
      1 reply 2 retweets 42 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          I’ve been in this game ~12 years now, mostly being sensitive to causing offense, avoiding needless provocation, shutting up on topics where I thought others might know better or have more legitimate voices. Basically staying in my lane by some notion of courtesy in my head.

          1 reply 1 retweet 31 likes
          Show this thread
        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          Result? A variety of less inhibited people have zoomed to 100x my reach in 1/10th the time screaming “I’m being censored!” all the way 😂 Cracks me up. Zero regrets. I like the platform and rules of engagement I’ve built for myself. There are 7b like it but this one is mine.

          2 replies 3 retweets 74 likes
          Show this thread
        4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          I did learn the “edgy” playbook in a previous life and decided I didn’t like the tradeoffs involved in using it to get big reach. It really isn’t very hard. In more peaceful times we called it link-baiting. There is a robotic script to being an edgy taboo-shattering provocateur

          1 reply 1 retweet 53 likes
          Show this thread
        5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          Social reach is a pick-2-of-3: fast, cheap, good. If you acquire big reach fast, and cheaply (by gratuitously offending people etc) the reach won’t be good. And by that I mean by *your* standards, not mine. You’ll find yourself in bed with people you’ll want to disavow later.

          1 reply 3 retweets 51 likes
          Show this thread
        6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          Fast+good = get paid by an institution. If you’re aligned, that’s good. If you’re misaligned it’s torture. And despite all the moaning about narrative monocultures and the Discourse, there’s plenty of varied institutional outlets to fit almost every sensibility. Look around.

          1 reply 1 retweet 36 likes
          Show this thread
        7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          If you’re actually any good, and willing to jump through some hoops, you’ll find institutions willing to fund *anything* you want to do/say. The problem is not lack of variety but too much competition. What you want said is probably already being said, professionally and better.

          1 reply 0 retweets 33 likes
          Show this thread
        8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          That leaves us with cheap+good, giving up on fast. “Good” reach doesn’t mean you won’t piss people off. You always will. But it will be a side effect of your creative work rather than your unconscious wounds and repressed demons.

          1 reply 2 retweets 40 likes
          Show this thread
        9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          You’ll piss the right people off for the right reasons, and if they compete, they‘ ll do so via substance in their work based on alternate premises, not via toxic beefs or cheap “debates.” And if they win, you’ll actually appreciate it because knowledge will have been produced

          2 replies 2 retweets 43 likes
          Show this thread
        10. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          But more importantly, your *own* reach will be “good” in the sense that relationships you form will be real human ones that you’ll want to keep for life most of the time. Where you might be on different sides of specific reductive labels but on the same side of “human.”

          1 reply 2 retweets 42 likes
          Show this thread
        11. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          Because ultimately “censorship” in free parts of the Internet (without Chinese characteristics) only matters if you care about the people who can’t hear or talk to you. If you don’t, screaming “censorship” is posturing. You’re being heard by the people you want to be heard by.

          1 reply 0 retweets 37 likes
          Show this thread
        12. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          But If you do, learn to find and connect to *both* the humans beneath the partially overlapping tag clouds. Yes, forming a for-life-by-default deep connection with another human being means connecting to a hidden part of yourself as well.

          1 reply 2 retweets 28 likes
          Show this thread
        13. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          In fact, many hidden parts. Every deepening of the relationship is a new way to continue the infinite game between you two, a deeper knowledge of yourself and the other. And yet you’ll never be clones so long as you’re alive and thinking for yourself. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_and_Infinite_Games …

          1 reply 2 retweets 24 likes
          Show this thread
        14. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          So in 2019, do yourself a favor and forget about the people “censoring” you and instead focus on people with whom you might be able to form a slowly deepening infinite-game relationship for life, peeling away label after label, connecting as two entangled full humans.

          2 replies 25 retweets 90 likes
          Show this thread
        15. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          If this sounds like marriage that’s no accident. Marriage is merely the relationship where failure to operate in “till death do us part” mode is costliest. But it’s an ethos you can bring to any relationship you value. You can’t invest this much in 7 billion but you can do ~150.

          1 reply 4 retweets 42 likes
          Show this thread
        16. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          I don’t care what your tribe is, but I hope you’ll build it slow+cheap or cheap+good. I hope you resist the temptation of fast+cheap. I don’t care about your ideology/politics. All I care about is that you build your social world around the “good” reach of for-life relationships.

          3 replies 7 retweets 70 likes
          Show this thread
        17. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          If you do that — make it a resolution perhaps — then even if I violently disagree with you about everything from immigration to IQ to climate change, I’ll defend your right to exist and do your thing your way, with your chosen people, and I suspect you’d do the same for me.

          1 reply 2 retweets 35 likes
          Show this thread
        18. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 1 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          So happy new year, here’s to a good 2019, and let’s try to wind this dumb culture war of fast-and-cheap tribes as quickly and painlessly as we can. We’ve all got better things to do. Really. Even if it seems right now that “owning” your outgroup is the best game in the world.

          3 replies 7 retweets 94 likes
          Show this thread
        19. End of conversation

      Loading seems to be taking a while.

      Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.

        Promoted Tweet

        false

        • © 2020 Twitter
        • About
        • Help Center
        • Terms
        • Privacy policy
        • Imprint
        • Cookies
        • Ads info