Tangentially, I find myself in the mainstream about Twitter. I tried it for a few weeks and couldn't figure out what it was for, what was <i>actionable</i> (my favourite word from my go-go thirties) about it. It felt like Facebook status updates with wimpy group chat on a quad short espresso.<p>Which made me feel old. Whenever throngs of people love something and I can't figure out what it's for, I immediately think of mainframe programmers sking what on Earth anyone would ever want to do with an 8 bit microprocessor, a couple of K of memory, and a paper tape reader.
<i>It is not the stupidest question in the world. It's a terribly important question. But I don't think it's the most important question facing Twitter right now. Twitter has yet to cross the chasm to mainstream usage. It's not immediately obvious to anyone why they should use Twitter</i><p>See this is why I have a problem with the "get big and everything else will happen" philosophy that so many in the valley share: It's twisted logic.<p>If a startup can't make money now, then yes, it's possible that they might make money later. That's sounds more like trying to win the lottery twice though. Odds are it won't happen. In fact, Google is the <i>only</i> time it's happened that I can think of off hand.<p>Now, if a startup can turn a profit from the start (or soon enough) then it is pretty much guaranteed to continue making that profit no matter how big it is. In fact, <i>it doesn't even need to get bigger</i>. It can if it chooses, but it doesn't have to.<p>Why do people continue to focus on the bubble mentality of trying to profit from popularity alone? Even when it works, it isn't sustainable.
I'm dead-<i>blazé</i> about the Twitter "controversies". It's like an endless stream of always the <i>same</i> praises and complaints, questions and answers, positive and negative outlooks. Can we please move on?
It's interesting that anecdotes about Obama have entered into the popular consciousness as parables in the same way that was once reserved for stories of Jesus or Buddha.