Metrics Overload and Twitter Drama
Craig and Andy discuss a Twitter interaction that they had. Craig tweeted about wanting a tool that shows trials month-to-date and how it compares to the previous month. Andy wonders what he would do with that information. Andy thinks that it’s too much noise and that this might not be the best comparison to make, but Craig says he’d like to know for his own mental health. He has a goal for trials and wants to see how things are trending, whether it’s the most useful metric or not. Craig gives a shoutout to something that might be what he’s looking for, a tool called SEO Testing at seotesting.com.
They move on to talking about Twitter and its recent acquisition by Elon Musk. Craig says he thinks that this is just a big time for social media. He says that social media has its place, but he’s hoping this disruption will lead people to own their own places, RSS feeds, etc. Andy agrees that it’s better to own your own ecosystem but to build an audience so people can find you, you will need to use another one, and that probably won’t change. Andy goes on to talk about Meta and how big an ecosystem virtual reality could be if it really takes off.
Craig wonders how layoffs and stock changes will affect the economy in San Francisco because changes like these have the potential to affect an entire city and ripple beyond that. They discuss their own experiences with San Francisco. Andy says there’s a lot to be said for being surrounded by others with similar goals and vision, but that it can also create an echo chamber that may eventually collapse on itself. They discuss why we should be thinking more about companies owning such powerful platforms – he says something may need to be done, but we don’t yet know what.