Life Lessons Learned From Twitter
My blogging energy went in a lot of different directions this year, but one of the biggest changes I experienced was that I spent a good chunk of time on Twitter. (I'm @VBalasubramani, if you are interested, but I should warn you that I don't tweet a ton about legal topics - I would say 20-30% of my posts there are relevant to my area of practice. As for the other 70-80%, if you are curious as to whether my tweets fall into the stereotypical "what I ate for breakfast" category, you'll just have to follow me to find out!)
There's a ton of digital ink spilled on what to do on Twitter, how to monetize or build business through it, and there is a big contingent of experts who for a small fee can school you in the ins and outs from Twitter. So I won't bore you (or waste your time with my own tips). One of the more interesting aspects of Twitter for me was self-reflection, and reaffirming some larger lessons. These mostly fall into the obvious (play nice, be honest, do unto others) category, but I thought a few were worth summarizing.
1. Everything you say says something about you. Twitter is all about saying what's on your mind, and in this sense, it's a giant container of "unsolicited information." An old friend and I used to joke about "unsolicited information," and in some ways Twitter reminds me of this. We were both starting out as lawyers, and worked at a firm. As in any other environment where you have people that are all starting out as a group, we spent a ton of time interacting with people who had all recently started. One thing we realized is that at least half of the stuff our fellow associates said were for their own benefit. For example, you are on your way to get a coffee, and you stop by and ask someone how they are doing and they say "I'm just busy. . . staffed on like 8 zillion matters, and feeling totally crushed." The goal of that comment is not to impart information to you, but to reaffirm to the speaker what is going on in his or her own mind: "I'm busy, important, and billing lots of hours." There's a lot of this on Twitter. Not that there's anything wrong with this, but it's helpful to remind yourself once in a while.
2. You don't need to weigh in on everything. This feels like advice a social media expert may dole out, but it really takes a lot of effort to not comment on what other people say. And you don't need to do so. In fact, you should restrict your comments to the exceptional circumstance. People will post on all sorts of topics, ranging from who should pay for the media coverage of the balloon boy debacle, to the merits of Apple's upcoming devices (comments about impending product offerings are rampant on Twitter). If you are at all opinionated, the impulse is often strong to comment on everything. There's a lot to comment on. As in real life, it's worth resisting this impulse, or at least checking it.
3. Everyone you follow will say stuff you think is unimportant. Your twitter stream is built by you following people who you generally share some affinity with. However, even these people will say stuff that will leave you scratching your head. I find myself constantly surprised by this, but on some level it's just basic reaffirmation of the fact that we're all different. What you think is important isn't necessarily what someone else thinks is important. And there's a certain social zen that comes along with seeing stuff you think is totally irrelevant in your Twitter stream. (On NFL game day it can get particularly taxing for some, but that's neither here nor there.)
4. Good people are where you find them. Another reaffirmation of a basic truth, but it's sometimes easy to lose sight of this in real life (particularly for lawyers). People from all walks of life have stuff to add to the mix. Some of the people with the most interesting stuff to say are well outside my area of professional interest.
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By the way, what got me thinking about this is a wonderful Slate entry from Malcolm Gladwell about the "theory of disqualifying statements," which someone described as Gladwell's "10 year old argument against Tweeting":
[Ouch! A friend emails to say "if you need Twitter to learn or re-learn these basic life lessons, you've got issues." He's got a point ...]
There's a ton of digital ink spilled on what to do on Twitter, how to monetize or build business through it, and there is a big contingent of experts who for a small fee can school you in the ins and outs from Twitter. So I won't bore you (or waste your time with my own tips). One of the more interesting aspects of Twitter for me was self-reflection, and reaffirming some larger lessons. These mostly fall into the obvious (play nice, be honest, do unto others) category, but I thought a few were worth summarizing.
1. Everything you say says something about you. Twitter is all about saying what's on your mind, and in this sense, it's a giant container of "unsolicited information." An old friend and I used to joke about "unsolicited information," and in some ways Twitter reminds me of this. We were both starting out as lawyers, and worked at a firm. As in any other environment where you have people that are all starting out as a group, we spent a ton of time interacting with people who had all recently started. One thing we realized is that at least half of the stuff our fellow associates said were for their own benefit. For example, you are on your way to get a coffee, and you stop by and ask someone how they are doing and they say "I'm just busy. . . staffed on like 8 zillion matters, and feeling totally crushed." The goal of that comment is not to impart information to you, but to reaffirm to the speaker what is going on in his or her own mind: "I'm busy, important, and billing lots of hours." There's a lot of this on Twitter. Not that there's anything wrong with this, but it's helpful to remind yourself once in a while.
2. You don't need to weigh in on everything. This feels like advice a social media expert may dole out, but it really takes a lot of effort to not comment on what other people say. And you don't need to do so. In fact, you should restrict your comments to the exceptional circumstance. People will post on all sorts of topics, ranging from who should pay for the media coverage of the balloon boy debacle, to the merits of Apple's upcoming devices (comments about impending product offerings are rampant on Twitter). If you are at all opinionated, the impulse is often strong to comment on everything. There's a lot to comment on. As in real life, it's worth resisting this impulse, or at least checking it.
3. Everyone you follow will say stuff you think is unimportant. Your twitter stream is built by you following people who you generally share some affinity with. However, even these people will say stuff that will leave you scratching your head. I find myself constantly surprised by this, but on some level it's just basic reaffirmation of the fact that we're all different. What you think is important isn't necessarily what someone else thinks is important. And there's a certain social zen that comes along with seeing stuff you think is totally irrelevant in your Twitter stream. (On NFL game day it can get particularly taxing for some, but that's neither here nor there.)
4. Good people are where you find them. Another reaffirmation of a basic truth, but it's sometimes easy to lose sight of this in real life (particularly for lawyers). People from all walks of life have stuff to add to the mix. Some of the people with the most interesting stuff to say are well outside my area of professional interest.
***
By the way, what got me thinking about this is a wonderful Slate entry from Malcolm Gladwell about the "theory of disqualifying statements," which someone described as Gladwell's "10 year old argument against Tweeting":
Something to keep in mind.Diaries, by their very seductively uninhibiting nature, are breeding grounds for disqualifying statements. Any one of these sentences could irrevocably alienate any one of you (not to mention the very real possibility that merely owning up to the Theory of Disqualifying Statements is in itself a Disqualifying Statement). Hence my trepidation, and why I don't feel I can do any more than the most cursory of explanations of my day . . . .
[Ouch! A friend emails to say "if you need Twitter to learn or re-learn these basic life lessons, you've got issues." He's got a point ...]
Venkat, ignore your friend. Good for you for putting this out there. We should always look to anywhere we can reaffirm these things. And you have the courage and honesty to write about it - good for you.
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Great Post! I especially resonate with #3 - Twitter, and social media in general is more about listening, then getting your opinion out there. Not that getting your voice heard is not an extremely important element. Listening can open doors, base relationship and change products. Listening to a conversation and not jumping into it is invaluable.
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