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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   3931 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 12, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Why would you expect Twitter popularity to correlate strongly with display of technical skills?

I wouldn't necessarily in general, but at least for the accounts that I see, where they promote themselves as professionals in some domain (not necessarily tech), there does seem to be a pretty strong correlation between skill, creativity, credentials or output and their following counts. Then again, that is hard to say for sure, since it is not a random sample.

Yeah, I think the base rate could be really low. There's a selection pressure for charisma and attractiveness, of course, but also financial incentives. Contributors have a lot less reason to cultivate their Twitter following if they can't monetize it with a book or something.

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