TGGP laments his use of Twitter, but I’m using it much more now due to a gig with the somewhat notorious Topix. It’s a news discussion site with a very laissez-faire attitude toward commenters, for good or ill. (I say good.)
We’ve launched a new site called Politix that’s currently primed for mobile users, but a desktop site is soon to roll out. Highest profile press coverage here and here.
So now I’m writing trendy (or rather, trending) news pieces – lots of Trayvon Martin and Romney gaffes – with the occasional “weekend style” Freakonomics-esque curiosity. If you’re so inclined, here are some representative posts of mine: 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Yea yea, I’ve heard of the case against news, but if you consider that for most people news is a kind of Schelling point that allows strangers to have something to talk about at parties, then a case for the news can be made.
Besides, it’s my livelihood now, so I’d be a fool not to promote it.
April 2, 2012 at 3:04 pm
I think Twitter is great; it forces you to hone your thoughts into clear, concise little chunks.
April 2, 2012 at 5:34 pm
So do commercials and other tv soundbites.
April 3, 2012 at 12:01 pm
Yes – they have absorbed the lesson that a small message is most transmissible.
April 3, 2012 at 9:10 pm
Another feature of small messages that advertising uses, but that can benefit us: small versions of ideas are sticky and easy to hold in your head. It’s hard to (mentally) take out a book-sized or even paragraph-sized idea chunk and constantly be seeing how it fits with other concepts. The more skilled you are at getting things down to a small chunk size, the more you can compare them to other things, the better for abstract thinking.
I’m not personally familiar with her work, but my boyfriend tells me that Rand was big on slogans and short ideas for this reason.
April 3, 2012 at 8:34 pm
> Yea yea, I’ve heard of the case against news, but if you consider that for most people news is a kind of Schelling point that allows strangers to have something to talk about at parties, then a case for the news can be made.
At a time investment of half an hour a day or more, that’s a heck of an expensive Schelling point. Even religions generally demand less than 10 minutes a day (averaged over a week)…
April 3, 2012 at 8:43 pm
It sounds like you’re referring to evening television news? I’m referring more to the casual news “news grazers” are likely to see, e.g. via Yahoo! when they check their email, or through FB peers.
I realize that probably greatly skews toward the young, but then I did say “talk about at parties.”