I have a love/hate relationship with both Twitter as my primary (for last while) writing outlet and threads specifically.
I love writing and love talking with smart people. Twitter enables both things. The activation energy for me to write a Twitter thread is much closer to "water cooler conversation with the world" rather than "write an essay that I hope to be read for 10+ years and will with more than 50% probability spawn an HN comments thread whose tenor will largely determine how happy I am that day."
The whole experience of writing on Twitter, both the perceived-even-if-I-know-it-isn't-real ephemerality of it and the lightness of tapping out on my phone or PC when between tasks, does something for me that essay writing cannot.
That's why I write threads almost every day. Strategically speaking, I hate it; a million words on Twitter would be far better as a million words of essays, or even any substantial fraction of that.
I love writing and love talking with smart people. Twitter enables both things. The activation energy for me to write a Twitter thread is much closer to "water cooler conversation with the world" rather than "write an essay that I hope to be read for 10+ years and will with more than 50% probability spawn an HN comments thread whose tenor will largely determine how happy I am that day."
The whole experience of writing on Twitter, both the perceived-even-if-I-know-it-isn't-real ephemerality of it and the lightness of tapping out on my phone or PC when between tasks, does something for me that essay writing cannot.
That's why I write threads almost every day. Strategically speaking, I hate it; a million words on Twitter would be far better as a million words of essays, or even any substantial fraction of that.