CodyyyGardner Categories Twitter
I've been a Twitter power user since 2008 or so. Long time.
I've watched it change from an impromptu conversation or watch party platform to a place for people to build their professional reputations and network.
2/ In many ways it's matured into a more effective professional platform than LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is (mostly) about collecting the professional contacts you've met.
Twitter is a place to meet new people.
That much hasn't
Facebook is where you learn you don't like a lot of the people you know. Twitter is where you learn to like people you don't know already.
— Amanda Orson (@amandaorson) August 2, 2012
3/ What also hasn't changed is its power for networking.
This is particularly useful if you break out of your echo chamber and talk, build relationships with people doing tangentially related things.
You're bricklaying and with patience it pays off.
Back of the napkin math - over the last year I've referred (or retained) $500k+ worth of business to contacts in my network.
— Amanda Orson (@amandaorson) November 16, 2016
4/ What has changed is a growing population of people being *intentional* about the use of Twitter for their professional lives.
Observations on what's working for them:
5/ They "Build in public" - sharing behind the scenes perspectives on whatever it is you're doing professionally.
What do people not know about what you do?
Stick within your expertise, with focus, where people see you are an authority - that’s where you grow a following.
I bookmark everything that looks interesting and go there when in need of inspiration.
This is a thread-recap of the best-saved tweets from 2020 (for me at least) and what you can steal from each one. 🧵👇

The year chart by @jakobgreenfeld
What to steal: the idea and the design
Create a chart with the key moments of your growth. It's a great reflective exercise for you and it can be a great learning experience for your
Here's roughly how I grew from 0 to 1400 followers in 4 months. pic.twitter.com/NqY54cWXpC
— Jakob Greenfeld (@jakobgreenfeld) December 15, 2020
Let's collaborate by @aaraalto
What to steal: the idea.
Creating a blank piece of content (could be a sentence, a design, a video...) that your audience can later
Let's collaborate
— Aaron Aalto (@aaraalto) December 17, 2020
Step 1: Take this image
Step 2: Be creative with it
Step 3: Reply with your creation pic.twitter.com/xCcCShLvdI
Advice to first-time info product creators by @dvassallo
What to steal: the insight
This tweet was one of the sparks for me writing the Twitter Thief ($1,3k revenue says it's good
My advice to first-time info product creators:
— Daniel Vassallo (@dvassallo) July 26, 2020
1. Start with a very small product.
2. Choose a topic you know well that will almost write itself. Avoid doing research.
3. Timebox production to 2 weeks.
4. Charge $10.
5. Promote it!
All the lessons are in #5. Best of luck!
How to be a better writer by @JamesClear
What to steal: the insight
A world-class writer giving free writing lessons. The tweet is from 2019 but I discovered it this
How to be a better writer:
— James Clear (@JamesClear) July 5, 2019
-write about what fascinates you
-make one point per sentence
-use stories to make your point
-cut extra words like \u201creally\u201d and \u201cvery\u201d
-read the whole thing out loud
-post publicly (you\u2019ll try harder when you know others will read it)
What else?
It's time again for the 2nd annual #top10photonics thread, where I compile my own #top10 best photonics papers list of the year!
See here for last year's thread:
https://t.co/6h82mPAn3w
A thread 👇

Hey #optics and #photonics twitter
— Orad Reshef (@Orad) December 29, 2019
It's the time of year where we are inundated in end-of-year top10 lists... but how many of those lists are made for _US_ and our community?
So I decided to compile my own #top10 best photonics papers list for 2019
A #top10photonics thread \U0001f447
Same disclaimers as last time:
1. These aren't just papers that were published in 2020. They are papers that were added to my library in 2020. Some are a little older — some are a lot older. All are interesting or exciting to me in some way.
2. I reiterate - TO ME. This list is highly subjective, and is mostly about what captured my imagination most, not about what will make the biggest impact, or what is most worth funding. The order is mostly arbitrary too. This is just for fun :)
3. Once again I am NOT including any of my papers, or any from my current or former groups. If you're curious about what I do, drop a proverbial tip in my jar and peruse my publication list
And while I have your attention, register for #POM20ja, happening in 2 weeks. (It's free!) It's a completely reinvented @PhotonicsMeetup, and it promises to be a great time!
Now, on to the main event!

Happy New Year everybody!
[THREAD] ⬇️
1/ Thread on how American Express
American Express is not like Visa and Mastercard. \U0001f4b3
— Ryan Reeves (@investing_city) May 15, 2020
The business model is much more like a bank than anything else. \U0001f3e6
Business Breakdown [THREAD] \U0001f447\U0001f3fd pic.twitter.com/PvlUST0rtl
2/ Thread on how Coca-Cola makes
Did you know that Coca-Cola makes the majority of its profit from selling its secret-formula of flavoring?
— Ryan Reeves (@investing_city) June 5, 2020
Business Breakdown [THREAD] pic.twitter.com/paPLCzHhpw
3/ Thread explaining popular software
Software terms are confusing right?!
— Ryan Reeves (@investing_city) August 21, 2020
I'll try my best to explain these concepts:
- Bookings
- Billings
- Revenue
- ARR
- DBNER
- DBGRR
- DBNRR
- Deferred Revenue
- RPO
[THREAD]
4/ On consistency
If, EVERYDAY, you:
— Ryan Reeves (@investing_city) July 13, 2020
- did 10 burpees
- read 20 pages of a book
- saved $10
That would probably put you in the top quartile for health, knowledge and wealth.
Consistency is extremely undervalued.
I'm going to make a bomb shell statement here around the turn of the year, something so risky that I face prospects of the Twitter account being attacked or even banned.
— Cosmic Penguin (@Cosmic_Penguin) December 31, 2020
It's about my very uneasy Twitter experience over the past 2-6 months, the worst I could ever remember.
You see, I realized in the last few months that, by translating information and news related to one of the fastest growing spaceflight powers of the world...I inadvertently became a spreader of PRC propaganda.
And with me exactly 180 degrees away from them, I feel scared.
It actually started a few years ago - it's not hard to meet Chinese Twitter users interested in spaceflight, either those living overseas or find a way to climb over the wall. Not surprisingly, many of these S/F enthusiasts are interested in their own military too.
This steadily grew with my followers' count until the flagship Chinese spaceflight missions of 2020 (Chang'e 5 especially but also many others) brought in dozens of them liking/re-tweeting my info tweets sometimes, and similar no. of such followers every month.
I do casually check these new followers/users sometimes. To my horror, far too many of them routinely insults, attacks, mocks others who they see as "anti-China" or spread potential mis-information, even blatant attacks, that started off w/ their state media/spokesperson.