A few thoughts on Threads…

I think Threads has proven that the failure of your competitors is just as important as the power of big names. I think it’s also shining a bright light into the horror that is social media as a for profit business.

We’ve seen so many social media platform that peak before going through very ugly collapses. Facebook, Snapchat, MySpace, Twitter, Reddit… the list goes on. I’m not even going to start on international ones, forums or dating apps.

The reality is that once you focus so heavily on your users, you forget to make money (Discord…) or you forget about your users in your greed to make money and you lose your users (Facebook…).

Social media’s main success factor is how many people you can bring and keep on the platform. That’s where the ad revenue is, that’s where the incentive for users to sign up is, and that’s how it grows.

That’s if you focus on the money aspect, but I think sites like Discord, and Reddit have proven that the ability to create meaningful connections is also extremely powerful. We still haven’t really figured out how to consistently create meaningful connections on the internet.

In 2020, I decided to join a meetup in Japan with some people I had chatted with briefly on Twitter. This happened after an event that we had individually decided to go to had been cancelled due to the pandemic. I treasure that moment and it is still one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Unfortunately, there is no medium that exists today where we can reliably replace the power of just simply being nearby.

We live in an age where it’s so easy to pick up the phone and video call someone halfway around the world, where we can watch our favourite celebrities share their thoughts on an instagram live, or where you can collectively watch a video regardless of the distance.

We have so many people trying to capture the “easy” market of social media, the one where you get shallow engagement and people listening to what other people have to say, creating a toxic cycle of people moving from one platform to the next, ads and money following. As much as I like using Instagram as a photo diary, Instagram is full of people making money and advertisements — the celebrities I enjoy following being prime examples of that.

I really hope the next social media trend we jump to after Threads won’t be chasing after profits. Threads will be no different from any of the other predecessors as it grows and reaches that breaking point of having no substance. It almost certainly won’t be the last.

Today, I got a message from a stranger, and we had a polite conversation as it was all a mistake. It did make me think, what if we could find ways to identify like-minded people, what if we could use social media data to find you meaningful connections, relationships or things that simply aren’t possible due to our limitations called lifespan. If we’re going to use data to target ads, you might as well also try to make meaningful connections. There was a company I interviewed for in Japan trying that idea, but they were too far off from finding a way to do so successfully. That app was called 「Yay!」 if you’re interested, but it was extremely underwhelming…

There are dangers and things to vet, including avoiding making it creepy. However, I think there are positives in a world where we deal with increased loneliness, suicide rates, and reduced innovation in areas that desperately need them. Perhaps there’s a treasure buried in humanity, but until we breakaway from the focus of profitability in social media, I don’t think we’ll ever get there.

That’s what he said as I asked how to be less afraid of public speaking. What he did say is that you get used to it.

Often I think in life we ask ourselves of trying to cure things, to fix things; to find solutions.

In reality though, sometimes we just get used to it and that’s the best we can ask for. The pain, the sadness, and at times the happiness.

But some things in life we can’t fix, and we can’t cure. But we still have to live today, tomorrow and onward. We can’t give up today and we can always try again. And as we live that life we get used to it.

The pain doesn’t go away, the loneliness doesn’t go away, and nor does the fear. Money won’t change that, status won’t change that, and expensive tastes don’t either. But acceptance can help soothe the pain, and kindness can help you forget.

At least it does for me, and that’s been my answer. And perhaps one day I’ll find a real fix for the root of the problem, but maybe, it just doesn’t get better.

To make a good product for customer, and to make money.

The roads ahead for product management may be some of the most morally complex in what is becoming an increasingly capitalist world.

This year has already been distraught with the controversy of AI art, the ticketmaster Taylor Swift fiasco, and whatever we want to describe Twitter as.

They say the job of a product manager is to be a CEO of a development team and that means maximizing the value of the product we build with the money we put into it.

This has lead to increasing the importance of financial success of products over making good products, especially so in the digital world where it’s largely winner-take-all. This has been exceptionally clear if you look at the biggest technology companies. This is increasingly more dangerous in brand loyal markets in Western countries.

Even major free applications like Discord or free video games by Riot Games and recent hit game maker Hoyoverse are not free from the criticism and growing negativity around chasing profits.

Corporate has the words “the goal is to make money” engraved in for the sake of their shareholders. It’s visible in Twitter’s paid verification checkmarks; Ticketmaster’s fees on both initial sales and resales; and in the power to let regular people generate the art they want.

The growing criticism is making the importance of being a good product for consumers more apparent and this may be a spark that affects technology companies in unexpected ways.

As we watch Netflix’s negative skid and the layoffs surrounding technological giants in a slowing economy, we may be at a precipice where success is dictated by building better products for customers instead of chasing profits. Or we might not be.

Perhaps it’s in the hands of customers, or in the hands of product people worldwide. Only time will tell.