Ben Rattray

Partisan primaries are the biggest solvable problem in our politics today. Emphasis on *solvable*! 70,000 more words about that here 📕: uniteamerica.org/book And/or the :60 second summary on @Morning_Joe:

Anyone interested in great coaching for entrepreneurs should check out Dave’s work and course.

An important book comes out today: Outrage Machine, by @TobiasRose. Beautifully written, with powerful metaphors, to understand how social media came to be designed as it was, and what it has done to societies as a result. Links to many stores here: hachettebookgroup.com/titles/tobias-…

@andrewchen Always enjoy your random thoughts. Minor but consequential potential typo - did you mean to say “imho twitter is likely to be “killed” by threads in its current form” or “not likely”?

Some random thoughts on Threads now that it’s been a few days: - wow wow so many signups. It’s all the more impressive given it feels like a big change in strategy from their previous cross-sell situation, when the Messenger app was linked to the bottom of the big blue app. I haven’t seen any overt cross-sell prompts/etc from IG/FB (but maybe someone can correct me here). The fact so many folks have signed up - far above and beyond the small group that might be following Elon vs Zuck or whatever tech twitter meme of the day - tells you there’s a lot of latent demand here. Interesting to note the geo breakdown which includes a lot of developing markets, not just the US. Of course the issue is that Google+ (which failed) also had huge initial signups, and the Threads team will be familiar with all their mistakes and hopefully not repeat them. But I think not force-feeding all Meta users with Threads is a good idea - we obv don’t know anything about the retention (yet), though the Threads team is definitely tracking closely. Given that the app is adding so many users so quickly, and you’re into large enough numbers that there’s likely very low-intent, low-connectivity type users. The latest retention is likely to be much worse than the initial. So when the new user signups begin the peak, we’ll get a flurry of (wrong/misguided) “threads is over” media articles, when the real question is if the density of the network supports activity - imho twitter is likely to be “killed” by threads in its current form. I think you have to look at the content creator side to understand why. While people love a big conflict story, but the reality is, if you are an active creator on the Twitter network and you have a lot of followers, you are much more likely to just cross-post content than to switch to the other network exclusively. - a lot of creation is likely novelty and small network size. Obv we are seeing a lot of novelty value and thus people are posting a ton right now, but curious to see how long it lasts. Similarly, the network feels smaller and more intimate. Historically it’s been hard to figure out how to keep posts/DAU high while scaling the network, because of “context collapse” - new media formats (usually) drive creator switching. Obv Threads is very very new and the team over there likely has 2+ years of product roadmap already in mind. Part of the product roadmap, I have to guess, has to be some major ideas on making content creation easier, better, or maybe just… different. That’s the only way to get creators to permanently stick to something, either because you are recruiting people who are great at a new format of short vids, or audio, or pithy texts, or otherwise. If Twitter is about short text messages and Threads is as well, I think the outcome is more likely stalemate where both services are at least somewhat successful, rather than one being much bigger than the other - the use of the IG graph to bootstrap the network is impressive. Lots of cool ideas: Porting over the username, bio, verified status etc. Being able to “pre follow” people who haven’t yet signed up. Lots of cool stuff here. - lots of cool innovations at the edges. In using the Threads product, I’m enjoying all the small design decisions. The feed surfaces more, and you mute — kind of an opt-out, rather than twitter’s opt-in follow scheme. The product is currently simpler but got a lot of the core actions right away Anyway, it’ll be cool to see how this all plays out - as others have noted, it’s been a while that a new v 1.0 of an app from a large company has seen a ton of traction

Thanks @bhdoherty for chatting with me about @climatecap and how we got started! forbes.com/sites/bdoherty…

Change.org wouldn’t be what it is today without your support, Reid. Deeply grateful for your wisdom and generosity throughout our journey.

Proud that @Change is becoming largest nonprofit-owned tech platform for social change link.medium.com/DdZgeGISLjb

Leila was a remarkable force for building the more equitable and beautiful world we all need. In the wake of her tragic passing she leaves a great legacy for the next generation of social entrepreneurs to carry forward. You are deeply missed, @leila_c. nytimes.com/2020/01/30/bus…

A beautiful and important talk by @johannhari101. Highly recommended

We're growing! Center for Humane Technology is looking for stellar additions to our team across Communications, Policy, Partnerships, and Research. Please take a moment to check out our open roles at humanetech.com/jobs!

Over 2.7 million people in Chile have used Change.org. Last week's media coverage shows the power and appetite of people across the country to create positive change in their communities and country!

Congrats to the remarkable @KajalOdedra1 for today's launch of "Do Something: Activism for Everyone". Kajal knows as well as anyone in the world what it takes to create change, and we're lucky to access the lessons she's learned by mobilizing millions amazon.com/Do-Something-A…

Bravo to the @WaysMeansCmte for hosting an historic hearing on #paidleave today. I'm proud to support @paidleaveus who brought advocates to Congress today. twitter.com/PaidLeaveUS/st…

What steps to improve Twitter’s positive impact is it difficult for you to make because of the negative impact it might have on Twitter’s share price? #AskJackAtTED

Grateful for the opportunity to talk with the brilliant @ChipConley about humility as a gateway to wisdom in the digital age tunein.com/podcasts/Busin…

Happy International Women's Day to one of the most inspiring and powerful people I’ve ever known. I’m grateful to be on this journey with you, @preethiherman

.@rogerwaters from @pinkfloyd signed Vic's petition asking @maroon5, @trvisXX and @bigboi to #TakeAKnee during their halftime performance. He emailed Vic this footage of his own band kneeling, and to say why it matters. Will @adamlevine listen to his idol?

Congrats to my good friend @twinmiki on launching another extraordinary book with a force of brilliant energy, unapologetic but compassionate iconoclasm, and deep love we need more of in the world. Check out the movement here: disrupther.co

My brother Nick just released the debut music video of his new pop duo, Glamour Pony. Ironic, edgy, and hilarious - youtube.com/watch?v=rjPfOh…

Just saw @reidhoffman share insights about his newest book, Blitzscaling, with Gayle King. Wise and counter-intuitive advice for building world-changing companies at a time of rapid change and uncertainty. cbs.com/shows/cbs_this…