Trump Gets Flagged on Twitter, Jet.com Shuts Down & "Essentialism"
What I Learned at "School" this Week
Happy Friday, Folks!
Can’t believe Monday is June. I was almost certain March 13th was only last week. Here’s what I spent my time learning about in the final week of May…
Jack (“finally”) Flags Trump on Twitter
This is appears to be the beginning of a regulatory war for social networks. And in an extreme case, I think it could lead to a split - Liberals on Twitter and Conservatives on Facebook.
It started way back in October with the two platforms having different stances on political ads. Twitter announced they’d ban political ads. But FB decided they’d allow them.
Fast-forward to this past Tuesday… For the first time ever, Twitter flagged two of Trump’s Tweets as “potentially misleading”. The tweets were about mail-in voting.
So, Trump retaliated by signing an Executive Order.
Here’s a great overview of the EO from “Snacks”, a daily email by Robinhood:
Amidst all of this, the horrific death of George Floyd, occurs. And Trump takes to Twitter to comment on the situation.
Last night @realDonaldTrump’s Tweet was flagged again:
....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!
You can follow the rabbit trail of this tweet to see both sides of the argument on a technology company’s right/responsibility to fact check on their platform.
@POTUS and @WhiteHouse chimed in too (Trump has 3 Twitter handles at his disposal, all with millions of followers). Though, their tweets are being flagged now too. Interestingly, the “preview” here on Substack (what I use to publish this Newsletter) shows the actual tweet, not the warning (see above-screenshot).
The President did not glorify violence. He clearly condemned it. @jack and Twitter's biased, bad-faith "fact-checkers" have made it clear: Twitter is a publisher, not a platform. https://t.co/lTm3Pxxaqg“These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!” https://t.co/GDwAydcAOw
The White House @WhiteHouseLet’s see how this unfolds the rest of the day and over the weekend. But, this is a turning point in modern-day history.
Walmart Shuts Down Jet.com
Walmart acquired Jet.com less than 4 years ago, for $3.3B. This week, they technically shut it down. However, this article from Axios argues:
“Not only was this deal not a failure for Walmart, but it arguably was the retail industry's most successful acquisition ever of a tech company.”
Specialize or Generalize?
It’s one of the age-old “career questions”. And there are sound arguments for both sides.
Pro-Generalist: Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein.
Pro-Specialist: Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell (famously coining the “10,000 hours” concept).
This week, Tim Ferris made a different argument: combine 2-3 areas of expertise and you’ll get further.
Good at Finance? You have to be in the top .001% to stand out. But if you’re good at, say, Finance and Public Speaking, you can then get into the top decile. Check out the full video above. It’s only 6 minutes.
Product Feedback
Sometimes there are features that seem so obvious. That a large tech company should easily be able to build. I often wonder why they don’t build/ship certain simple features. Here’s an amazing explanation:
“Essentialism”
I’ve been slowly picking my way through Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown.
“The way of the Essentialist means living by design, not by default.”
Put another way:
“The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials”. -Lin Yutang
Here is a snippet from the book that really resonated with me:
My world was cracked wide open this morning, when I read this section from @GregoryMcKeown’s “Essentialism”
One ask: I’d love your feedback on this Newsletter.
What do you like/not like?
What do you want more/less of?
Any other general thoughts/feedback?
Just reply to this email and I’ll get it!
Thanks in advance. And, enjoy the weekend!
With Empathy,
Brendan J Short