Thread by @jnordvig

I started using twitter in earnest this year, and today I reached 10K followers. I do not know all of you personally, but I do know many of you professionally, and I really respect your views/input/content etc. Some observations on twitter in general (=THREAD)

I used to be skeptical of twitter. In part because I wanted to keep research content for my clients only, and because some of the stuff I look at is very niche. But then came the COVID shock, and suddenly everybody was interested & there was a lot of new/important data to crunch

The COVID shock showed the power of data, to a huge audience. I had to express my views in public, especially back in Q1, when there were so many basic misunderstandings.

I do not have a goal of having a ton of followers in itself. You could just advertise and get a lot if you wanted. That would serve little purpose. The goal is to have a large, high-quality following...

...why is it good to have a large (quality) following?
- you can get more feedback
- you can do better surveys
- you gain credibility (probably up for debate, but there is some truth to it, if someone has a few followers, you get taken less seriously)

I used to be banned from twitter. Not by twitter, but by my (financial sector) employers. Hence, it was liberating to start my own business @ExanteData, and make the rules. Be free...

It used to be hard to have a public audience for your views (beyond a narrow professional niche, often clients). You had to get your op-ed accepted to a paper. It is hard. very hard. On twitter is is very easy. Perhaps too easy. But the option is at least there. It is liberating.

There are a lot of very smart people on twitter, and the format really allows you to absorb a lot of information very quickly, as opposed to reading academic papers (if you avoid getting jus stuck on the site). And if you follow the right people, they can be the 'quality filter'.

It is hard to get started. How do you move from 0 followers to a critical mass, from where you can grow organically. I got a lot of help from some folks with a lot of followers. 4 people come to mind: @AlbertoBagnai @tomkeene @TheStalwart and @Brad_Setser . Thanks for the help

It has also been a great help to use the 'robotic feeds' we now have on @exantedata. I use them to absorb more information myself, and I push them to @jnordvig when i think there is something especially interesting. It is a way to come up with fresh perspectives, from raw data.

There are bad things too, and things not to do. Engage in twitter discussions with those who do not want to learn, or have anger management issues. Only way to handle is not to engage. And avoiding the Sweden COVID debate is also helpful in that regard :-)

In any case, thanks for following, and for the feedback. I have learnt a lot from it all. And I will try to do new stuff in coming months. If you have suggestions, do let me know.

Thanks again... END