3G: Congratulations on becoming a Billionaire.
Twit: We should all know by now not to believe anything banks tell us.
3G: Who are your heroes?
Twit: The Pet Rock. Brilliant. Soap On A Rope. A number of New York's governors.
3G: We get The Pet Rock thing, because it also did not actually do anything, but didn't people actually use that Soap in the shower?
Twit: Some did, it's true, but, mostly the thing just lay unopened in its box. Pure inspiration.
3G: How did you know there was real value in nearly nothing? I mean most people saying what they are doing in 140 or less aren't doing anything remotely interesting.
Twit: We looked at the media companies. They invest billions to say nothing of real interest. We are maintaining a managed cost basis and do not pay for content.
3G: Could you be more specific?
Twit: We knew that "content" had little economic value. Traditional media value their content, but that's pride and myopia. Media commoditized content.
3G: Isn't journalistic content an ethical and moral issue?
Twit: Yes, but the audience doesn't place any economic value on those ethics, hence Sunday am Blah-blah and a dreary 24 month presidential campaign.
3G: And entertainment passing for "news," as with Glenn Beck or Olbermann?
Twit: Exactly. People no longer know what's fact, opinion or entertainment. They place equal value on their own thoughts, opinions, actions.
3G: Even if they are not having interesting thoughts or doing something interesting?
Twit: The thought is interesting, because they have it. A man named McLuhan got this right: the medium is the message. Tweet = cool.
3G: Are you saying that it's the USE of Twitter that counts, not what is communicated?
Twit: Yes. Twitter extends the self. Users typically convey messages of little value to a reader.
3G: The value for the sender and receiver is in the sending and receiving itself?
Twit: And in the machine/network used. Exactly. One is brilliant just for sending and the other is hip just for receiving. Both optimize you as a person.
3G: To extend your thought, if it's the sending and receiving or the trading of information that really counts, is that one possible explanation of the subprime mess? The overall quality of the mortgage-related trades and insurance did not matter?
Twit: It is possible that the traders valued the trade or messages more than the actual aggregate content quality.
3G: They didn't do the long term math, because trades were all about them? You mean, it was more about extending their egos through a medium of trading?
Twit: We hadn't thought about that, but it sounds right. It was about the medium of trading, not the sum quality of their messages or content.
3G: And the sum totals of their trading messages were billions and billions of losses. They couldn't believe it, because it all felt so good, so right. They were twittering away wealth without knowing they were Twittering!
Twit: That's why we are Billionaires today. Twitter feels right. We don't need to do much or have any revenue yet. We are there for Tweet.
3G: That and you pay nothing for content, only infrastructure costs.
Twit: Content's free and all tweets have equal value. Commoditization. Users value the experience; they value belonging.
3G: We value belonging more than correct/factual information. Thanks for nothing! What are you doing now?
Twit: Finishing.
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