🧵Ok, so I've been an investor for a little less than a year. But I've been in the pattern recognition game for my entire life and I've got a prediction. The B2B SaaS bubble, the darling of the VC world, is going to pop badly, and maybe soon. I was talking to a startup's customer the other day, and he said something that should send a chill up every SaaS investor's spine: "The question isn't whether this works or can improve our efficiency. It's whether we need ANOTHER $50,000 business software thing to sign up for."

A powerful thread.👇We're here because all these platforms let their engagement algorithms run amok to the point where they got SO ugly and game-able in terms of harassment and disinformation and bot-brigading that there was effectively no choice left other than bans.

https://twitter.com/itsafronomics/status/1514570017270079489

If they had believed in the HARM done to people who were experiencing harassment and disinformation all the way back to GamerGate and long before, they'd have had less of a problem to start with.

Hmm ok. It's clear to me that we need a large and probably editable database of decarbonization suggestions and resources. What do we think is the best way to do this? Massively descend here? reddit.com/r/decarbonize/ For a quick start guide, some ideas about what I mean when I say that are, electrify everything! If you can get solar, get it (plus a battery). If not, electrifying is still good because renewable energy is the cheapest electrons on the market. So ...

Thread, and George Lakoff: "If you’re a conservative and you go to college, what are you going to study? Most likely you’re going to take some business courses, which means you’re going to be taking a marketing course. And marketing professors study my field, cognitive science."

https://twitter.com/TheRealHoarse/status/1508887994794745859

"They study that people think in terms of frames, metaphors, narratives, emotions, images and so on. And so it’s natural to be able to market your ideas if you’re a conservative. But you don’t take those courses if you’re a progressive and you’re interested in politics."

The problem with Twitter is that it's basically a time machine. Or maybe it's a wormhole. It's the place where everything is known, and knowable, all at the same time. And then we (I, I mean me here) want the rest of the world to operate at this timescale. 1/ And it gets so frustrating and painful and downright infuriating the watch the IRL world catch up. To watch investigations play out like they're supposed to, and to watch information be slowly, so agonizingly slowly, disseminated out to everyone, and not just the Very Online. 2/

So, not to go all Tom Clancy here. But increasingly it looks like a primary goal of this Russian hack is further disinformation, to erode of trust in each other and institutions. And FEAR. So with this in mind, I feel like maybe we need to be VERY careful how we report on it. 1/ Like, if there's a leak about an EVEN SCARIER DEVELOPMENT, should that leak itself be treated as possible disinformation? I know this is kind of layers on layers here. But the more people fear that the nukes or the Fed have been hacked, the more distrust and fear there'll be. 2/

Disinformation as PR and cancel culture terror campaigns against individuals as the new toolbox of business and politics ... this is some deeply cynical shit. cnet.com/features/uber-… This is esoteric and a minor spoiler. But this reminds me of the third book in the Three Body Problem trilogy, where an alien species is revealed to be using dimensional weapons -- they use the laws of physics as weapons, damaging the fabric of the universe every time ...

Please take a moment to listen to #MarketplaceTech from last week, if you haven't already. @KAreports, @jesusavocado, @stephanie_h and Michael Lipkin did an amazing week on making tech more accessible that is thoughtful, empathetic, and I learned so much. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mar… Some highlights ... listen to @HabenGirma describe how liberating autonomous driving tech could be for someone deafblind like her, and then imagine how she felt when a developer told her they "might" "get around to" accessibility in 10 years or so. marketplace.org/shows/marketpl…

Prediction: as families across this nation realize how much NONE of this is going to work -- being in school, trying to learn remotely in broke districts with no training or resources, trying to work + home school -- the rage over our failed response will grow exponentially.

https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1293389264907010051

Here in Oakland we start early -- this week. Some other districts do, too. The rage is here, and everywhere school is starting. As first days of school roll across this country we are going to internalize how truly big B bad this really is.

Ok, so. It is totally within the realm of antitrust to talk about anticompetitive acquisitions, using reams of data collected with little transparency to crush further competition, and to explore how and whether this harms consumers, in addition to potential competition. 1/ Issues of speech and disinformation *are* related to the size and scope and power of these platforms, but are not specifically related to existing antitrust law. That these things are conflated is largely the result of a *specific effort* by some GOP members. 2/ #BigTechHearing

Also in the big #MakeMeSmart this week, you know what I've gotten obsessed with? The bar exam. So turns out, multiple states are insisting on holding bar exams *in person* this month, putting students at risk or ensuring only young healthy probably white people show up. 1/ And that's draconian and dangerous and exclusionary in a pandemic, but it turns out the bar exam *always has been* draconian and exclusionary. 2/ theappeal.org/2020-bar-exam-…

As it happens, it was a good time to talk Modern Monetary Policy on #MakeMeSmart, given the Fed's comments today. marketplace.org/shows/make-me-… 1/ The upshot, as I think I understand it: countries can't go broke as long as they can create their own money. So MMT suggests, in a nutshell, create and invest *as much as you need* in activity that produces an economic benefit. Covid relief, infrastructure, climate ... 2/

I've been thinking about how different industries are responding to #Covid19 w/r/t social isolation. It's notable that many of the biggest companies telling their employees to work from home are tech companies. And although I poo-poo'd it at first 1/ I actually think it IS because tech companies, especially those in social media, fundamentally understand exponential growth and virality like, deep down in their bones, in a way that other companies don't. ALSO, obviously, they have infrastructure and know-how for remote work 2/

Today on #MarketplaceTech: Schools are closing, and fast, to prevent #Covid19. But e-learning tech is still pretty far behind. And plenty more on what's happening in tech and coronavirus right now. open.spotify.com/show/6hQYpQb9A… The answer, by the way, is DEFINITIVELY no. Some schools have it figured out, but I've already heard a story today about a college prof cancelling all classes while the school is closed because of not wanting to learn the remote learning tools.

Tech friends: "A Democratic source tells CNN that the issue seems to lie with a major coding error in the app that was discovered once data started flowing into the IDP, and party officials began to see discrepancies in the three data streams as the results started coming." 1/2 I keep seeing everyone say the same thing about "discrepancies in the data streams" and "a major coding error" and like ... what do these words mean? Can anyone actually decode this? It's like tech misunderstanding on top of tech misunderstanding being repeated as explanation.

Well, whaddya know. nytimes.com/2019/08/19/bus… I want to expand a tiny bit on why I find this interesting. It's because inequality, which we've been digging into on #MakeMeSmart recently, is, in the long term, bad for business. People have to be able to buy your products if growth, ie capitalism, is going to continue. 1/

I keep getting this question and I wasn't around to answer it this week on @Marketplace. So here's a thread. 1/

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The argument for getting rid of Net Neutrality is the same as giving tax breaks to companies. Business will flourish, consumers will get better services, employees will get higher wages, and ISPs will invest like crazy w/o regulation red tape to slow them down.