Tweets

@mbuckbee @tylertringas Yes! The moment I really knew @TransistorFM was working was when the people who were signing up didn't know who Jon or I was.

"People you don't know signing up for your product in sufficient numbers" is the sign you're looking for. 💯

@typeoneerror I have lots of ❤️ for anyone trying to build stuff. Hoping to help people before they walk too far down the wrong path.

@tatfig Yes! I've seen this with @megamaker as well.

One of the most gratifying things was taking time off and seeing members just naturally taking care of each other, leading conversations, welcoming new members...

@benbarbersmith Can you tell me more?

It's definitely not my intention to stress people out. Just speaking from experience, and what I've seen work/not work for other people.

I have lots of ❤️ for anyone trying to build stuff. Hoping to help people before they walk too far down the wrong path.

I discussed a lot of this with @ironmikebve on his podcast:

"When everything falls into place, and you're not relying solely on your own effort to make something happen, but you're able to ride the market, a business can be incredibly life-giving."

🎧 https://share.transistor.fm/s/4b141369

Years ago, I started a snowboard shop in my small suburb, thinking that the thousands of snowboarders in my area would want to "shop local"

But what I didn't consider was their existing momentum: they were happy to drive into the big city and shop at stores with more inventory.

Pay special attention to existing momentum: are people already in motion? What does customer velocity look like currently in that market?

Getting a new customer shouldn't feel like a "heavy lift;" it should feel relatively simple and effortless.

Why? If you're working *really hard* to convince someone to become a customer, they're not self-motivated.

You want self-motivated customers.

When you're working on a new product idea, look for evidence of organic demand.

You shouldn't have to "pull too hard" to attract customers; the market should be doing most of the work for you.

Getting that initial $2k MRR can feel like you've validated an idea.

But often, it's not there. There's no underlying demand pulling your business forward.

The danger is building a business that is completely reliant on the founder's relentless drive

https://twitter.com/tylertringas/status/1402276241655439379

The challenge for high-performance entrepreneurs is that they can make almost anything work – for a while.

Grit, determination, and hustle are important, but they can lead to false positives.

It's quite common to build a business that's just "sort of working."

At the beginning of a new business venture, being a founder with lots of willpower, skills, energy, and drive can actually hurt you.

Let me explain...

What were some of your favorite syndicated comics as a kid?

For me:
Calvin & Hobbes
Far side
Bizzaro

@lkr We still have our Netflix subscription.

There are definitely less “must-watch” shows on Netflix lately.

Apple+ has had our recent favorites (Ted Lasso, Severance).

Prime seems to always have something classic to watch.

And we keep Disney+ because we love Star Wars + Marvel.

@webby2001 Fantastic newsletter as always. You always give me lots to ponder.👍

Excited to see what you’re up to next! 💫

@shaisc It’s always been the Achilles heel for creators.

Platforms will give you strong organic exposure in the beginning, but then ratchet down as soon as they’ve acquired a sufficient advantage.

Often, we’re providing free content so that the platform can sell ads.

@VishalRewari 🙏

@noahflk 😥

@iChris Story of my life.

<at Home Depot>

<clerk motions to me>

“Sir, any questions about these power tools?”

<I motion to my wife>

“Talk to her. She wears the tool belt in this family.”

@tomcreighton me too!

I've just written my Member of Parliament (@MelArnoldMP) this email:

"I didn't vote for @JustinTrudeau, but I support the current government's plan."

Also: I haven't voted Conservative since early 2000s, but I've purchased a membership and will vote for @JeanCharest_ as leader

@cgenco @chrisachard YESSSSSSS

@takeitev Yup, exactly.

This is coming for us in North America as well.

We can expect more extreme heat and wildfires this summer. 🔥🌲

Here’s one simple action we can all do:

✍️ Write your political reps right now. Urge them to commit to carbon emissions targets with a clear plan (nuclear, etc) https://twitter.com/billmckibben/status/1519523035786584065

@louisnicholls_ Haha. Well played.

I should give SparkLoop a try. 👍

One example of a decentralized/distributed discovery mechanism that actually worked was torrents.

The number of "seeders and leechers" for a given piece of content helped surface its popularity.

You could also search by topic/keyword.

@alanklement Except anyone who’s done content moderation at scale will tell you there’s nothing simple about it.

@Klonick’s paper explores the challenges here:
https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/1598-1670_Online.pdf

I'm mostly thinking about how discovery works on the internet: it relies heavily on centralized platforms that have accrued a large user base.

Podcasting is probably the most decentralized, but discovery (getting more listeners) is still dependent on centralized platforms.

@alanklement Twitter isn’t a government. It’s fundamentally different (no judicial, legislative branches).

Also: our court systems shows that any form of content moderation is not “simple.” 😜

@decodedwealth Yeah. I’m not sure!

🎯

Elon saying “Twitter must be politically neutral” is overly simplistic.

Neutral according to whom? Neutral by whose standard?

Real-life content moderation is not that easy. https://twitter.com/polotek/status/1519505315288342532

@mikeherreraTD @thgchoir @mxpx @mikeherrerapod So good. 👍

I miss those days.

@MBrooksUK Mastodon’s UX is so confusing. 😬

What’s AP?

@pod_preneur @joerogan @JoeBudden @alexandracooper @BlueMicrophones @anchor @TransistorFM Thanks so much for using Transistor to host your podcast!

We really appreciate it. ❤️

@MBrooksUK Yes. Podcasting is the most decentralized, but for discovery (and getting more listeners) we’re still dependent on a lot of centralized platforms.

@ctwtn To me, hosting is decentralized in that we can all host our own stuff if we want.

(In this case, even hosting on AWS would be ok, because they’re not controlling distribution. They’re just the plumbing)

Anyone you know who’s built an audience, built it off some form of centralized distribution.

For many in my crowd it was Hacker News initially, then Medium, Designer News for a while, Product Hunt, Reddit. (And we’ve used Twitter the whole time)

Can we imagine another way?

RT @mijustin: One thing we haven’t been able to decentralize is distribution.

Indies who create newsletters, podcasts, blogs, music, art o…

RT @joshtab_: Great post by @mijustin: "Finding a great market is like showing up to a good party." https://justinjackson.ca/party

@bonder Yes! Was a big FidoNet user as a kid!

(probably age 10-13)

I don’t think a new, decentralized communications platform should be built on the blockchain, but the idea of peer-to-peer nodes is powerful.

It worked even back pre-internet when we had to sync FidoNet message boards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet

This is also true for crypto projects.

To attract an audience, everyone’s doing arbitrage on large, centralized platforms.

What’s the solution?

One thing we haven’t been able to decentralize is distribution.

Indies who create newsletters, podcasts, blogs, music, art on decentralized protocols (RSS, email) are still getting all their traffic from Google, Twitter, FB, Spotify, Apple, etc.

We’re not truly free (yet).

@panphora Haha. It's at the bottom.

http://justinjackson.ca/articles

http://justinjackson.ca/bootstrap

@panphora 👋 http://justinjackson.ca

@jayclouse "Community"

"On the importance of naming things."

This episode of http://Makers.dev (with @cgenco and @chrisachard) was great. 👍

🎧 https://share.transistor.fm/s/8050c9a2

(Also worth listening for Christian's home automation discoveries)

@alanklement @elonmusk https://twitter.com/mikebutcher/status/1518910652810727426

@TransistorFM I presented some ideas on making your podcast stand out at @podsummit:

@alanklement @elonmusk His opinion about content moderation is one thing, but his rhetoric that this is a service to humanity because he is going to "improve free speech" is the ridiculous part.

Anyone who's covered the history of moderation thinks he's in for a hard road:

https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1518789369011732480

@alanklement @elonmusk Sure. So he’s just saying he’s going to have new rules and policies.

Twitter already has those:
https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/defending-and-respecting-our-users-voice

Twitter (as a private company, with no judiciary branch) can’t “match the law” because the law was specifically written for the government.

@mjwhansen no. please no.

@alanklement @elonmusk That's ridiculous.

"Free speech" has a specific meaning. In the US, it "means the free and public expression of opinions without censorship, interference and restraint *by the government*."

Making moderation decisions on a private platform doesn't increase/decrease that right.

It’s me. https://twitter.com/wesbos/status/1297896603286724610

@iChris That is joyous.

@davenemetz Folks who host their podcast on @TransistorFM get an estimate of their subscribers.

Otherwise, there’s no 3rd-party “@tubelytics” or “App Annie” for podcasts.

You will get a sense of rank from @ChartableDotCom.

https://transistor.fm/public-podcast-stats

@simonswiss 😮😮😮

Not enough podcast heads know about @huffduffer: bookmark audio you find around the web and generate a custom podcast RSS feed to listen to later.

https://huffduffer.com/

(Est. 2008!)

@justinvincent @elonmusk 💯

(We’ve already seen attempts at this with Reddit, 4chan, 8chan… and early Twitter)

🎯 https://twitter.com/BrendanNyhan/status/1519118949656539138

@jamesvandyne @TDR_PR 😮😮😮

@simonthompsonco @ma_franks @YaleLJournal If you’ve ever been in a courtroom, you’ll know every “rule of law” has exceptions, grey areas, and that making situational judgments is necessary.

(And that’s with multiple levels of judiciary).

If Elon decides to become arbiter and moderator, he’ll face the same challenge.

@minhasv @christoph_codes How will you know what % was open-sourced?

How will you know that what's open-sourced is actually being implemented?

@simonthompsonco @ma_franks @YaleLJournal Twitter already has a policy on violent threats: https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/abusive-behavior

Why would platforms be the arbiter of defamation?
https://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment1/defamation-and-false-statements-under-the-first-amendment.html

Twitter already has a policy on obscenity:
https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/media-policy

@minhasv @christoph_codes Folks love to label completely rational concerns/questions as "excessive."

It's OK to ask questions and to have concerns. 👍

To answer your question: shadow-banning could be used and is really hard to detect (as a user).

HN has been using it for years. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13026617

This @josephfcox article is a reasonable counterpoint to my concern about "Elon reading our DMs:"

"I can't fathom Musk would risk that level of legal exposure for some unspecified gain." – @MalwareJake

https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvneym/elon-musk-reading-twitter-dms-direct-messages

Market first.

If there’s not enough customer demand, no amount of passion will fill that gap. https://t.co/MIjUknQeQC

@einarvollset @jessethanley Finally had time to check this myself.

When I compare my web timeline with Tweetdeck they're exactly the same (with the exception of ads).

@plehoux @missiveapp @ConfBadge @buildyoursaas You can listen to the whole episode on our NEW @buildyoursaas podcast website:

https://saas.transistor.fm/episodes/going-from-0-to-2-million-in-arr-in-7-years-the-missive-story

(Links to @ApplePodcasts, @spotifypodcasts, @OvercastFM are also there)

@LeviNunnink He's saying it goes way beyond that.

"The boards of directors review all major strategic decisions. And there are separate committees of independent directors who don’t have any ongoing involvement in running the business that assess CEO performance."

@LeviNunnink Folks who study corporate governance (like Bert Spector, Northeastern University) argue that there is a substantial difference.

https://theconversation.com/elon-musk-argues-twitter-would-be-better-off-in-private-rather-than-public-hands-corporate-governance-scholars-would-disagree-181382

How did three French Canadians go from $0 to $2 million in ARR?

I spoke with @plehoux (of @missiveapp) about their startup journey.

Really interesting how they used: their first business (@ConfBadge) to fund the development of their new SaaS.

🎧 Full episode on @buildyoursaas.

@LeviNunnink In practice, I'd argue that there is accountability, in that shareholders and boards are incentivized to avoid negative press (because it can have a negative effect on share prices and public perception).

https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/15/twitter-hits-back-again-at-claims-that-its-employees-monitor-direct-messages/

@neilsuperduper @ratiovernon Agreed.

@LeviNunnink The amount of scrutiny public companies get isn't perfect, but there's certainly more oversight there than having a completely private company (especially when it comes to a platform as big as Twitter).

Midday espresso @ratiovernon 💯

@SeanMMasters I'd argue that there is accountability, in that shareholders and boards are incentivized to avoid negative press (because it can have a big effect on share prices).

https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/15/twitter-hits-back-again-at-claims-that-its-employees-monitor-direct-messages/

@SeanMMasters I realize the system is far from perfect, but folks who study corporate governance (like Bert Spector, Northeastern University) argue that there is still accountability in the system.

https://theconversation.com/elon-musk-argues-twitter-would-be-better-off-in-private-rather-than-public-hands-corporate-governance-scholars-would-disagree-181382

@SeanMMasters It's certainly possible (DMs really should be encrypted), but currently, there's some amount of public accountability (shareholders, board, and the SEC at the very least).

@mateusjatenee Oversight and accountability:

Shareholders
Board
CEO
VPs
Managers

It's certainly possible (DMs really should be encrypted), but currently, there's some amount of public accountability (to shareholders at the very least).

Worth considering: as a private owner, Elon will have tremendous leverage to do whatever he wants.

He can say he won't shadowban, and that he'll increase transparency.

But under the hood, there's nothing stopping him from checking your DMs.

https://twitter.com/elipariser/status/1518594947393466368

@DescriptApp For podcasting:

📆 Schedule in @savvycal
🎙️ Record in Riverside
🖥️ Edit in Descript
🎧 Publish on @TransistorFM

@emmetgibney @kylefox Has he talked much about what he’s going to do on the business side to turn the Twitter ship around?

@nanorepublica @megamaker Pairs up courses with products? Not sure I had understand.

@theHirad No, I’m saying there are no scientifically observable "universal principles of free speech." 

“In reality, free speech is a social construct encoded into law by different jurisdictions.”

https://justinjackson.ca/elon-musk-and-free-speech

@simonthompsonco @ma_franks @YaleLJournal You keep repeating that, but structurally that doesn’t make sense.

For a private company to do this, they would need to ascend to government-like status (and somehow implement their own court system to be judiciary).

Highly recommend that you read both papers.

@theDanielJLewis @ma_franks @YaleLJournal Did you read the paper? She covers a lot of ground. 👍

@emmetgibney @kylefox It’s still not clear what his incentives are (or if he knows what he’s doing here).

Elon already borrows significant amounts of money to finance his lifestyle (and has little incentive to pay them off).

https://financialpost.com/personal-finance/high-net-worth/elon-musk-short-on-cash-keeps-borrowing-more-and-more-money-even-as-tesla-stock-surges

@simonthompsonco @elonmusk Not really.

As Dr. Franks explains here:

“The free-speech right protected by the First Amendment is a negative right that applies only to government action.”

I recommend reading the whole paper:

https://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/beyond-the-public-square-imagining-digital-democracy

For a proper exploration of why

🐦 Twitter is not a public square,
📜 the First Amendment was written to restrict governments, not private companies,
💭 we need to "imagine [better] spaces designed for democracy"

Read @ma_franks' paper in @YaleLJournal:
https://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/beyond-the-public-square-imagining-digital-democracy

I'm not a legal expert, but I believe people espousing this view misunderstand the First Amendment:

The rules were written specifically for the US govt to follow (to protect citizens from the govt).

Structurally, these rules wouldn't make sense on a private platform.

@simonthompsonco @elonmusk Twitter can't really adopt US First Amendment "free speech rules" because structurally, these laws were written for the US government to follow.

(They also require a judicial branch for enforcement)

The laws weren't written for private companies.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/first_amendment

If you're truly curious about

📜 the history of free speech,
🖥️ how it applies to online platforms,
👩‍💻 and the complexity of moderating user-created content,

Read @Klonick's paper in Harvard Law Review:

https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/1598-1670_Online.pdf

@einarvollset Nice. Thanks.

Looking forward to reading your piece on the topic.

@einarvollset Nope. I'm not a Jack stan/fan either.

(And apparently, Jack is more aligned with Elon)

https://twitter.com/jack/status/1518772756069773313

@einarvollset My POV (and sources) on Elon buying Twitter to “increase free speech” are here:

https://justinjackson.ca/elon-musk-and-free-speech

@SarahADowney But the guidelines of the First Amendment only limits the government from restricting free expression.

Those guidelines were never meant for the private sphere.

If you care about this the way you say you do, the answer is better legislation (not our individual interpretation).

@kylefox @adamwathan @ianlandsman @jack I guess it depends on “who Twitter is for” and “what Twitter is for” and how inclusive it’s meant to be.

@SarahADowney Again, what you’re advocating for here is just another way of moderating content.

It is no more “free speech” (as defined by US law).

For example, in the EU’s version of free speech, platforms would have less say on who gets banned (and the government would have more).

@locusm This is true.