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1/6 How full nodes ACTUALLY work. Running a #bitcoin full node means you are FULLY verifying EVERY transaction on the network, PAST and PRESENT. This is crucial for trustlessness: YOU check everything. A lot of alt coin "full" nodes fail to satisfy this definition. 
2/6 Full nodes give users FULL control over the network, no matter what miners do. Your full node will ONLY accept a completely VALID blockchain. Hard forks won't affect you unless you explicitly choose to replace your full node software.
3/6 If you don't run a full node, others have CONTROL over you. They can deny you access to the correct blockchain, and force you onto their preferred hard fork. If you can't independently verify whether you sent/received coins, you are POWERLESS.
4/6 This includes so-called SPV nodes (or wallets). These nodes only verify the Proof-of-Work. Miners can change ANY rule, and your SPV node will follow, as long as their blocks have the most Proof-of-Work. Segwit2x was an ATTACK that specifically tried to exploit this.
5/6 Pruning does NOT affect your ability to verify the blockchain. A pruned full node downloads, verifies, and then discards historic data. This lowers disk space usage from 160GB to 3GB. It does mean you can no longer share this data with others, but luckily PLENTY of others do.
6/6 Running two nodes is NOT better than one. The network doesn't need more connections or bandwidth, it needs YOU to control YOUR coins through YOUR full node. You MUST connect your wallet to it. E.g. Check out Electrum Personal Server by @chris_belcher_ bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/elect…
