Rob Knight

Web Developer, and full-time geek for @UCSC. NOT a world-renowned gut microbiome researcher. Also here: @[email protected]

[Rob Knight @robknight]

Despite having all the riches in the world, the billionaire felt empty inside without any real friends to share his life with. He longed for genuine connections but his wealth attracted only sycophants.

[Rob Knight @robknight]

@suzhowells @davewiner I linked to it in a Slack group with ~20 people in it. Doubt it’s us. 🤷🏻 But I think the piece is a great representation of how shutting off the free API has a ton of negative consequences. I imagine it was shared widely.

[Rob Knight @robknight]

@carolinapoena Thank you SO much for the work you've done on that site. It is an invaluable resource for me and my team at @ucsc. I hope you can take whatever time you need to rest and rejuvenate.

[Rob Knight @robknight]

@danmall Yes✅

[rat king 🐀 @MikeIsaac]

so Elon spent six months in court saying Twitter was riddled with bots, was forced to buy the company, said he was going to create a moderation council for all content decisions, and has thrown all that out of the window for a "vox populi" poll that could be easily gamed

[Noel @noelbaron]

wish Elon had bought Jira instead

[Rob Knight @robknight]

After Michael Brown was murdered in 2014, I began following the organizers of the protests. Then I followed the people they retweeted. It became my habit to seek out the people *directly* involved in those conversations and pay less attention to media narratives about them.

[Peter Clowes @peterclowes]

To be clear I love hard work, I do well with chaos, but I like doing it with people I like, for a mission I care about and ideally with significant upside potential (financial or otherwise) to balance downside risk.

[Rob Knight @robknight]

Someone on here lamented that it’s possible, and profitable for EM to make Twitter into AM radio: allow almost anything and have awful, bottom-feeder advertising. Seems quite likely it will go this way.

[Peter Clowes @peterclowes]

Additionally there were rumors the new vision might be radically different. Not just subscription based but possibly having adult content be a core component of subscription offerings. That is a BIG departure and one I wouldn’t get behind. https://t.co/zCXdG5f5nl

[Rob Knight @robknight]

@ByMikeBaker

[Tammy Gordon @Tammy]

“Given all that madness, the need for critical thinking is obvious. But so is the need for critical ignorance — the skill, tuned over time, of knowing what not to spend your attention currency on.”
https://t.co/XXUhdgpBQ4

[Rob Knight @robknight]

If there is a silver lining to all of the Twitter mess, it is that very smart people are talking about big software engineering problems in the open. These issues affect ALL teams.

[claire vo 🖤 @clairevo]

An engineer one lamented to me: “we’ll never fix things, because a PM won’t ever prioritize tech debt over a feature.

My response? “You’re right.” 🧵

[Manton Reece @manton]

Ten years ago I stopped posting to this account because I was ready to move beyond Twitter. I think we've built something unique over at https://t.co/cJ2MHtGdzo. An open platform based on blogs, community principles, that peers with Mastodon too. Made by people who love the web.

[Tom Coates @tomcoates]

@elonmusk @MKBHD Yes. It will mean that someone who *is* the leader of a country will be considered just as ‘real’ as someone who is called ‘Musk’s nuts’, and dresses in a police uniform despite being a sexual predator. Great leveling, Elon. We’re all really impressed.

[Rob Knight @robknight]

@jasonw22 Totally agree. I do feel rather exposed claiming DeSantis can't win when it's clear the GOP is just a party of trolls. But I figured I might as well stake out that space now. At least I'll have some moral high ground to stand on later. 🤷‍♂️

[Rob Knight @robknight]

The more I see DeSantis, the more I am convinced he would never succeed at the national level. He's all asshole, no charm. He's like a animatronic bag of right wing talking points.

[Rob Knight @robknight]

@jasonw22 I thought the same thing. But Trump can charm and be witty. Trump gave his supporters cover. DeSantis has none of that. No charisma. Just a troll. Anything is possible, but I still think even GOP voters want to like their candidate.