There was probably an interesting Tweet I saw from them, or maybe they were mentioned by someone as worth following, etc. Either way, I don't kno

Twitter (most likely) regrets adding Follow

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Style Pass
2024-11-14 23:00:06

There was probably an interesting Tweet I saw from them, or maybe they were mentioned by someone as worth following, etc. Either way, I don't know why this tweet is on my feed.

On platforms like Twitter, the primary action is to follow. This starts out well, because as you are getting familiar with the platform, you discover interesting people, you follow them – you know who is who and why you follow them. However, fast forward couple of years and thousands of follows, and your feed is a mix of strangers posting about crypto, crossfit, and whatever other passing trend. It's no longer interesting. It doesn't feel like a feed that's based on your current interests.

Lists describe the context of why we are following someone. They can be broad (e.g. engineering, entertainment, politics), they can be narrow (e.g. classmates, coworkers), they can be temporal (e.g. 2024 node conference), etc. As your interests evolve, so do your lists.

With lists, you also have the context of why you 'follow' someone – so if you see that now their feed is mostly Pepe the Frog, and you've added them because of interesting engineering tidbits, then you know you can remove them from the list without losing much.

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