Twitter is the mound over Vikramaditya’s throne in reverse.
You have probably heard Simhasana Dvatrimsika stories. Raja Bhoja attempts to sit on the righteous emperor Vikramaditya’s throne, but he is thwarted in his attempts by the 32 apsaras guarding the throne, each of whom tells him a story. The frame story begins with the discovery of the throne, buried under a mound. When one is standing on top of the mound, the mind is filled with noble thoughts which dissipate as soon as one gets off. This curious property of the mound intrigues Bhoja and causes him to dig deeper and find the throne.
Twitter is like that, but in reverse. As soon as you get on the platform, you begin thinking in hot takes. Your focus changes to dunking on people. Your arguments come with an expiry date. They are valid for the moment you type them, neither before nor after. You do not stop to think if they are consistent with your overall position, that is if you have an overall position in the first place.
These problem existed before Elon Musk took over Twitter. Musk’s Twitter is just an illustration of what happens when a Twitter user runs Twitter.
So what should you do? You should obviously spend less time on Twitter and subscribe to my newsletter.
I had launched this newsletter over 3 years back as “Monday Pirki”. I had planned to publish it every Monday. I intended to provide short takes on 3-4 topics every week. That didn't work out.
I am now rebranding this as The Examined Life Cold Takes. As the name suggests, in its new avatar, the takes will be cold. I will weigh in after everyone has had their say and moved on. Also, each edition of the newsletter will cover only one topic. I will aim for the newsletter to be insightful, but what it lacks in insight, it will make up for in length. The posts will be long and tedious to read, and you will be tempted to give up and check Twitter, making them a good test of your resolve to stay away.
There will be no set frequency, but it will be no more than one per week. I will cover whatever strikes my fancy, which means that you can expect variety in choice of topics.
If this seems like a tempting value proposition, please subscribe to my newsletter if you aren't a subscriber already. It is free and will always be.