never become un-get-a-beer-able

there are people on this app so far out of touch with the reality of the average human being it blows my mind. and i mean it. not in a “i disagree with your take” kind of way. in a “have you ever spoken to a normal person in your entire life” kind of way.

x is the highest concentrated iq on one app. that's probably true. but what most people forget - or choose to ignore - is that this makes it a bubble. a massive, self-reinforcing, echo chamber bubble. and the people inside it have convinced themselves that this is what the world looks like. it's not. not even close.

remind yourself that this app is mostly a giant circle jerk between us dorks at the end of the day. that's not an insult. i'm including myself. we're all here posting our takes and quote tweeting each other and pretending like any of this matters to the 99% of the planet that has never heard of half the people we idolize on here. if this app never existed most of you would have nothing. no network. no friends. no audience. just a guy with opinions and no one to tell them to.

and that's fine. the app is a net positive. i've said that before and i'll say it again. but the delusion that comes with it is dangerous.

here's where it gets personal for me.

the lack of respect some of you have for the average person - blue collar workers - disgusts the shit out of me. i grew up in middle america. i have friends from the football team who work construction, enjoy cigs, and spend their weekends at dive bars. they don't know what an LLM is. they've never heard of Y Combinator. they couldn't tell you what a series A is if you held a gun to their head.

but they're the reason you have running water. they're the reason the power grid works. they're the reason your toilet gets unfucked when it breaks at 2am. they built the roads you drive on, the buildings you work in, and the infrastructure that powers every single server your precious AI models run on.

and some of you talk about these people like they're beneath you. like because they didn't study machine learning at stanford they're somehow less valuable. that's not just wrong. it's disgusting.

i've seen tweets from people on this app who wouldn't survive a single shift on a job site. couldn't change a tire. couldn't wire an outlet. couldn't do a single thing that keeps society functioning on a physical level. but they'll post a 47-tweet thread about optimizing their morning routine and act like they've contributed something meaningful to humanity.

the irony is thick.

the PICK ME I'M SMART energy on this app is unbearable. everyone's working on something “world-changing” that you're “too dumb to understand.” everyone's an advisor or a thought leader or a builder. but half of these people have never built anything that a real person actually uses. they've built things that impress other people on this app. that's it. that's the whole game.

and instagram isn't innocent either. it's its own cesspool of narcissism - just a more dumbed down version. tits and lifestyle content instead of IQ posturing. different flavor, same disease.

but x hits different because the narcissism here disguises itself as intelligence. and that makes it harder to call out. because the second you do, someone hits you with “well actually” and a chart.

i built my network in the real world. no app. working for free at a young age, going to my local google startup weekends from 14 to 18, starting a couple things and failing miserably. i'm not dependent on this platform for investors, friends, or jobs. people know me because i showed up in person and delivered. not because i had a viral tweet.

and i say that not to brag. i say it because it gives me the perspective to see this app for what it is. a tool. a really good one. but still just a tool. not a personality. not a community. not a replacement for real human connection.

so here's my advice to the ivory tower residents of x dot com.

close the app. go to a dive bar. talk to someone who doesn't know what a transformer model is. smoke a cigarette with a guy who's been laying concrete since he was 18. skinny dip in a hot spring somewhere with no cell service. remember what the world actually looks like outside of your timeline.

because the average human being isn't debating attention mechanisms on twitter. they're trying to pay rent, raise their kids, and make it through the week. and they deserve a hell of a lot more respect than most of you are giving them.

get out of your ivory tower. the air is better down here.

original tweet →