What Makes a Good Tweet

I've been using Twitter for two years. I check it almost everyday and follow about 150 people. It's a unique social graph for me in that I follow almost no friends or colleagues. I don't use it to interact, I use it to be informed and to learn. By the way, Fred Wilson has been writing some interesting stuff on the different social graphs we use and what he calls "implicit social graphs" -- social graphs that get built for us rather than by us -- definitely worth reading.

Anyway, so much of what I see each day on Twitter is wasteful: boring personal messages, links to sites I'm not going to click on, self promotion, etc. But I keep checking it reguarly because every few days I find a gem -- a piece of information or an insight that makes me laugh out loud, makes me more informed or smarter or causes me to look at things differently. I love when that happens.

I realize different people use Twitter for different reasons so they're free to Tweet whatever they feel like Tweeting.  But over the last two years I've noticed that the best Tweets, the Tweets that are really valuable, seem to have these  four things in common:

  1. No web links; all of the information is communicated in less than 140 characters
  2. No hashtags (#), they're annoying, unless they're added to make the Tweet funny, which can work sometimes -- see @bronxzoocobra
  3. No @s, unless it's a Retweet; generally conversations on Twitter are lame
  4. They aren't a simple statement of what someone is doing or where someone is; e.g. "mowing the lawn" or "at the movies"

To do this well you actually have to think pretty hard, you have to initiate, you have to create. That's why these kinds of Tweets are the best, and probably why they're so rare.

Apple Earphone

Apple_earphones_with_remote_and_micOver the past six months I've cycled through at least six pairs of earphones; I lost one or two, most of them broke. Most were pretty inexpensive but I did spend about $80 on the Bose in ear headphones. The sound was awesome but they're very delicate and terrible for exercise.

I just picked up a pair of Apple's earphones that include volume control and a microphone that can be used with your cell phone. These earphones are by FAR the best out there:

Sound is awesome

  • They feel sturdy and seem less likely to break
  • The microphone is really convenient
  • Very comfortable and they don't fall out of my ears no matter how fast I run
  • They don't have rubber buds that are easy to lose and never seem to fit right

They're only $30 Once again, Apple wins with a great product.

Textbooks

Not including a two-year stint in preschool, I have attended school for 20 years -- kindergarten through graduate school. In that time, the content and tempo of the majority of my classes had been driven by big, expensive, boring textbooks. I really noticed this when I was in graduate school and paying for the classes and books myself. What value was the professor adding I thought? Why couldn't I just buy a bunch of business textbooks, force myself to complete the problems, save myself $80,000 and call myself an M.B.A.? For this reason, I was thrilled to read an energetic rant by Seth Godin yesterday on why he believes assigning a textbook to a college class is the equivalent of academic malpractice.

I agree.

Let's consider the value that the institution is adding to a student's education when a class is dictated by a textbook.

  1. A schedule (usually the chapters in the textbook are spread out over the course of the semester and matched to individual weeks in some logical order; occasionally this order isn't the same as the order of the chapters, so there's some thinking going on there...)
  2. Motivation (in a classroom environment a student might be reluctant to disappoint his or her classmates/professor)
  3. Classroom discussion (debate, real world examples, etc.)

Am I missing anything?

The schedule is worthless and the classroom discussion can be replaced for free by discussion forums on thousands of different blogs. So all the institution is really providing is an environment where a student feels some pressure to keep up.

Not much different than kindergarten.

Note: What I've described here represents a majority of the classes I took in college and graduate school. There were several classes where the professor ditched the textbook and brought remarkable value to the class through a combination of his or her own published work, passion, real world experience and highly engaging discussion. I hope Seth's post inspires more educators to do the same.

Overpaid or Underpaid

Something to think about... Are you overpaid or underpaid for the work that you do?

If you're overpaid, be careful. It's likely a matter of time before your employer and/or clients make an adjustment. How can you prevent this from happening?

If you're underpaid, how are you going to get more for the work that you do?

If you think your pay is just right, think again. And see above.

Fake Followers

I read the other day that some 'Tweeters' are buying followers (e.g. $100 for 5,000 followers.) Some are even creating phony Twitter accounts to fraudulently increase the number of followers they have.

While this may sound kind of silly, if you're trying to spread something, it makes a lot of sense as it will likely have the result of increasing your number of real followers; as we know, people like to follow people that other people are following, just because they're being followed.

I'm watching Twitter's progress pretty closely these days because I think it's so fascinating to watch this little startup evolve into what could be the most powerful communication tool ever conceived.

Diversify Your Job

There are all kinds of books, blogs and articles telling people that they should get out of their boring jobs, start their own business and go to work for themselves. While I fully agree with the spirit of this advice, the fact is that we all already work for ourselves.

The problem is that we only have one customer -- our employer.If that “customer” goes out of business or decides it doesn’t want to work with you anymore (lays you off/fires you), then you’re completely screwed. This describes most people’s current lot in life, i.e. most people only have one job. Does anybody else think this is crazy?

The advice shouldn’t be to go off on your own and start a new business, the real advice should be to diversify. Find a way that you can have income coming from several different employers and/or clients.

A smart investor would never put all of their money into one company. A smart company would never put all of their resources into one client. That would be stupid. Because if that company or client disappears, then so do you.

Why is this different for workers? Why is it acceptable for a worker put all of their time and energy into one company?

Monday through Friday

Monday through Friday contains 120 hours and makes up 71% of our lives.  I've been thinking a lot about what I do during these hours and whether or not I'm using them as effectively as possible. 

Here's the breakdown for me:

  • 54% - Work (65 hours)
  • 33% - Sleep (40 hours)
  • 4% - Exercise (5 hours)
  • 4% - Spending time with friends and family -- in person or over the phone (5 hours)
  • 4% - Chilling out -- reading, watching TV, internet, research, paying bills, etc. (5 hours)

Because a reasonable amount of sleep, or at least rest, is a requirement for me, I'm spending 77% of my Monday through Friday doing something that is more or less involuntary.

If you're anything like me it's crucial that you're getting a BIG return on the effort you're putting into your work.