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(This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/5\/16\/23075683\/jeff-bezos-twitter-elon-musk-posting-troll<\/a> Friends, I\u2019ve had alerts on for Jeff Bezos\u2019 tweets for a while now, and after some consideration, I\u2019m afraid I have to conclude that this man cannot post.<\/p>\n I am, in fact, finding it difficult to believe how bad he is at posting. It\u2019s astonishing. If Elon Musk\u2019s tweets are pure lizard-brain id, Bezos\u2019 tweets are all superego \u2014 my guy probably workshops<\/em> them, which is why they\u2019re DOA, emotionally. Even something like this, which is (I think) supposed to be loose, absolutely fails by modern Twitter standards:<\/p>\n 25 years ago yesterday, AMZN went public. As the Grateful Dead would say, \u201cWhat a long, strange trip it\u2019s been.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s been far from smooth. Lots of risk-taking, lots of invention, lots of mistakes, so much we still have to do better. I wouldn\u2019t trade the ride for anything.<\/p>\n \u2014 Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) May 16, 2022<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n First of all, this is a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac<\/a>. Second of all, it\u2019s PR speak and may even have been lawyered. It\u2019s insincere (\u201cfar from smooth\u201d?). And, worst of all, it\u2019s not funny.<\/p>\n You might wonder, why is Bezos doing this? And there\u2019s like, a very obvious answer, which is that Elon Musk is at the center of a lot of conversations, and Jeff Bezos isn\u2019t, and the way that Musk has placed himself at the center of those conversations is by tweeting. Bezos has definitely observed this. But he hasn\u2019t really understood how<\/em> Musk does it.<\/p>\n Musk is a Poster for sure. Annoying, obnoxious, late to memes \u2014 but definitely a Poster. He uses Twitter as intended: as a direct line to his id. Has he planned to follow up on any of the stuff he tweets? Frequently, no. And that is what makes him so entertaining.<\/em> Here\u2019s him responding to the CEO of Twitter, a company he is at least theoretically trying to acquire<\/a>:<\/p>\n Musk engages in name-calling, sometimes so intensely that he winds up with defamation lawsuits<\/a> on his hands. He\u2019s mostly stopped posting about his Ambien use, but I haven\u2019t forgotten the tweets<\/a>. <\/p>\n A little red wine, vintage record, some Ambien … and magic!<\/p>\n \u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 7, 2017<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Shit, one time Musk announced he was taking Tesla private on Twitter<\/em><\/a>, generally to the surprise of Tesla, Tesla\u2019s investors, and the SEC. <\/p>\n And here, by comparison, is Bezos:<\/p>\n Agree 100%. Would add: Civility is hard. Name calling and ad hominem attacks are easy and when you use them it makes it harder to work together. https:\/\/t.co\/6lqQJHm5vk<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) May 12, 2022<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n I cannot believe I am about to explain Twitter, but for those of you who are not on the social media platform fondly referred to as \u201cthe hellsite\u201d by its most committed users: the dumbest users and the smartest users post the exact same way. Sentence fragments, inconsistent punctuation, half-baked ideas, and a strong propensity for trolling are all among the power users\u2019 most consistent traits. <\/p>\n Trolling is crucial, actually. See, one of Twitter\u2019s major engagement mechanisms is the quote-tweet dunk, where you post someone else\u2019s tweet to make fun of it. This means that Twitter heavily incentivizes bad behavior. Sure, a good own will drive engagement, but so will an obviously stupid take that provides other users with an opening to dunk, thus spreading your original tweet further. There is no incentive to be reasonable. I\u2019m going to say it again, because this is a fundamental law of Twitter: there is no incentive to be reasonable.<\/em><\/p>\n This is not an age thing, either. One of the truest Posters I have ever encountered on Twitter is Joyce Carol Oates, age 83, and I\u2019m not going to embed her feet pic post<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s gross \u2014 but it\u2019s a masterpiece of the form and part of the reason we are all on Twitter in the first place. This post about hiking in sandals drove discourse for a week! And this is to say nothing of the time she tweeted about Jurassic Park<\/a> or wondered if we did, indeed, have to hand it to ISIS<\/a>. Absolute legend, this woman<\/a>.<\/p>\n The reason Bezos\u2019 tweets seem so mealy-mouthed, even bizarre, is that he\u2019s trying desperately <\/em>to be taken seriously on a platform that doesn\u2019t reward being taken seriously. Twitter is for trolling your way to a presidency or to being the CEO of Twitter. It\u2019s for pretending you think dinosaurs are an endangered species, watching some llamas get loose, or otherwise dealing with the most instinctive and primal discourse on the internet.<\/p>\n Now that we\u2019ve established how to Post, let\u2019s examine some Bezos tweets. Take this: <\/p>\n The newly created Disinformation Board should review this tweet, or maybe they need to form a new Non Sequitur Board instead. Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss. Mushing them together is just misdirection. https:\/\/t.co\/ye4XiNNc2v<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) May 14, 2022<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n This is a Facebook-ass Tweet. What is even happening here? This isn\u2019t fun enough to be a dunk. It\u2019s certainly not trolling. What could possibly be the point? Twitter has existed since the year of our lord 2006, and over the course of the last 15 years of its existence, every user has discovered the hard way that it is actually impossible to have a substantive conversation on the platform. <\/p>\n This is an attempt at thinkfluencing, being an ideas guy. Except no one respects ideas guys on Twitter. Even the VCs have figured out shitposting better than this. Remember how proud of their little shape rotator meme<\/a> they all were? <\/p>\n The attempt at thinkfluencing does actually get worse. Like, check this out: <\/p>\n In fact, the administration tried hard to inject even more stimulus into an already over-heated, inflationary economy and only Manchin saved them from themselves. Inflation is a regressive tax that most hurts the least affluent. Misdirection doesn\u2019t help the country. https:\/\/t.co\/a8cygcunEG<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) May 15, 2022<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n I am not sure how you manage to build one of the companies that\u2019s the backbone of the internet without developing some kind of internet-related situational awareness. And before Bezos started tweeting, I thought he did<\/em> understand the internet. Like, take this absolute banger<\/em> of a blog post: \u201cNo thank you, Mr. Pecker<\/a>.\u201d It\u2019s dry and witty; it understands what blogs are for, plus it\u2019s full of dick jokes. It is the strongest possible response to someone attempting to blackmail you with nudes.<\/p>\n And now, I\u2019m convinced it was ghost-written by a PR pro. (Email me<\/a> if it\u2019s you!) Because there\u2019s no way that the person who understood the internet well enough to produce this is also attempting to post serious policy takes on Twitter. <\/p>\n Bezos\u2019 obsession with the Biden administration is like, a nice way of showing the problem. See, it used to be that responding to a Trump tweet was a great way to juice engagement, inserting yourself into a conversation. The Biden administration\u2019s basic strategy is to impersonate a bunch of graduates of the Milford School. Trying to use the Biden administration as a flywheel to get engagement ends in stuff like this:<\/p>\n Look, a squirrel! This is the White House\u2019s statement about my recent tweets. They understandably want to muddy the topic. They know inflation hurts the neediest the most. But unions aren\u2019t causing inflation and neither are wealthy people. Remember the Administration tried\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/GaMb3Kiu72<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) May 16, 2022<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n \u201cLook, a squirrel!\u201d My God. Adam Aron didn\u2019t go pantsless<\/a> during a YouTube interview for \u201ca squirrel!\u201d to be the expression of \u201cit\u2019s a distraction.\u201d Virality, memes, and nonsense are now important for business purposes. Why else did AMC survive the pandemic<\/a>? If you are a business leader, entertaining people is serious.<\/em><\/p>\n But Bezos either doesn\u2019t know this or doesn\u2019t care. Here\u2019s him getting spicy:<\/p>\n Slide decks hide can shallow thinking. Narratively structured memos are harder to write because they require better thinking. It\u2019s worth it. https:\/\/t.co\/vIUX5I8QPl<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) May 13, 2022<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n I don\u2019t know, maybe this is a hit on the McKinsey corner of Twitter, but this is not going to get you Musk-level attention. Bezos is, for some reason, writing for consultants, professionals, and managers. Limited audience. Which is probably why Bezos\u2019 tweets aren\u2019t getting the kind of traction that Musk\u2019s do \u2014 kind of like how Blue Origin isn\u2019t as successful as SpaceX. <\/p>\n Jeff, my guy, maybe try tweeting from the toilet next time<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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