Deciding what to and when to go all in on an idea is super challenging and there’s a lot of bad advice out there

Here’s how it went for me and SwagUp

Here we go 👇

1/ the first important thing is that SwagUp wasn’t the first product/business idea I had worked on

By the time @swaguphq was started I had launched at least 15+ different ideas of varying levels of success growing up

2/ The chances your 1st, 2nd, or even 5th idea/product is going to take off are pretty low

And that’s largely because building startups are less about the product and ideas, and more about markets, timing, and execution

3/ So I think the first key lesson is that the number of swings you take early on is as important as the product you choose to work on

This is where you see many “over night successes” that were really the culmination of years of at bats, even for me at 25, I started at 6 :)

4/ Now back to the founding of SwagUp...

Leading up to it, I had known a bit about the industry, needing swag while launching and app in school, eventually selling flags and custom shirts to fraternities on campus in college

“Unity” cannot mean that Democrats agree not to hold anyone responsible for what happened last week and over the last four years and Republicans agree to keep doing exactly what they’ve been doing.

I mean it can and Republicans would certainly prefer that it did, but that path just brings us right back here.

Pretty cynical effort by Trumpists to turn criticism of Trump and other Republican leaders whose lies incited the crowd into an attack on all 75 million who voted for him.

Good plan for avoiding accountability; bad plan for avoiding more violence from their supporters.

In my head I've been breaking down the people involved with Wednesday's events into sevenish groups. Each group had a different level of engagement, perhaps understood what was happening differently, and requires a different level of social and legal sanction.

1. Protesters

They were lied to, they came, they protested, they never got near the Capitol, they left.

Protected First Amendment activity, they shouldn't feel proud that they participated but not much to be done here.

The Night of the Short Fingers saw many of the US's largest tech companies blocking Trump and trumpist platforms like Parler, provoking a storm of punditry about What It All Means for the tech companies to have taken this content moderation step.

1/

The best expert I know on the subject is @jilliancyork, my @eff colleague. She's published "an ongoing list" of "everything pundits are getting wrong about this current moment in content moderation."

You should read it.

Here's some highlights:

“Deplatforming Trump sets a precedent."

York: "The only 'precedent' set here is that this is indeed the first time a sitting US president has been deplatformed by a tech company."

3/

But political leaders around the world have already received this treatment: Lebanon, Burma, etc. Even the reach of the deplatforming is nothing new: last summer's US Iran ban saw blocks of everything, up to and including Etsy listings for "Persian dolls."

4/

These are two remarkable virologists: Pyotr (on the left) and Konstantin Chumakov. They are brothers, Pyotr us one year older. Their parents were famous Soviet virologists Mikhail Chumakov and Marina Voroshilova.

Today Konstantin Chumakov is an associate director of vaccine research at the FDA and a US citizen. Pyotr Chumakov used to be the director of an laboratory in Cleveland but returned to Russia after accepting a “mega grant” and becoming the head of

the Laboratory of Cell Proliferation at the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow. Both brothers were educated at the Moscow State University.

Konstantin Chumakov started his scientific work in molecular biology and eventually moved to medical applications. Pyotr studied medicine and although he become famous because of an important discovery in biology, he has always treated patients.

According to Konstantin Chumakov the two of them are in constant contact by Skype and are very close.

A lot of the conversation revolves around Nazis & yes, let’s hate Nazis. But that’s easy. More people need to focus on loving, supporting, & standing up for Jewish people. Antisemitic people aren’t only out-in-the-open white supremacists. Antisemitism is everywhere. 1/10

Punching Nazis, again, great-they’re trash that deserve a good throat punch -but it does nothing to solve the problem of antisemitism. Start by looking at yourself and understand the ways in which you, yes you, perpetuate antisemitic stereotypes. 2/10

Stand up for us when you hear other people perpetuating those stereotypes. Do more than just say “oh, sad” every time a synagogue or Jewish cemetery is vandalized (which is often). 3/10

Educate yourself. Regurgitating that 6m Jews were murdered during the Holocaust isn’t enough. How did it get to that point? They didn’t just start killing Jews. Years of propaganda & scapegoating- by the time Jews were dragged from their homes, their neighbors didn’t care. 4/10

Do you know anything else about the history of the Jewish people? That the Black Plague was blamed on Jews? A conspiracy that Jews were poisoning the wells? They burnt Jews alive. Jews always required to live in their own areas (Jewish Ghettos) throughout European history. 5/10

Many people have drawn parallels between white mobs of today and the historical violence of lynch mobs at home and imperialism abroad. But what I keep thinking about is colonization. What we saw on January 6th is the uncivilized, unchecked, entitled violence of colonizers.

This is how colonizers behave. They storm, they invade, they steal, they defecate, they destroy and they do so under the banner of freedom, liberty and self-proclaimed superiority.

The unapologetic embrace of brute force in the name of liberty is exactly what our founding fathers advocated. It's what we celebrate with every national holiday. It's what the Capitol actually represents. It's the ugly truth that even Democratic "leaders" are determined to deny.

The sad reality is that even if Democrats had the ovaries to hold violent insurrectionists accountable for the ongoing coup, their efforts would be in vain so long as they continue to ignore or -- worse, celebrate -- the colonial rot at the heart of our nation's project.

White supremacist colonialism explains why none of the words we are using to describe the "mob" are effective. Even the word "insurrectionists" fails. Within this system, white men are not just ALLOWED to be violent insurrectionists, they have historically been celebrated for it.

1/

Thread on @signalapp:

28th Nov 2011: A deal is made.

Security researcher @Moxie Marlinspike and Roboticist Stuart Anderson's brainchild, Whisper Systems, will be sold off to Twitter for a nice sum of money. It comes as a surprise because all of Whisper System's services

Lemme know of your thoughts on this entire story of the Signal App! Also help dispel the rumors surrounding it!

Cc: @UnSubtleDesi @swati_gs @rahulroushan @bhootnath @PrinceArihan @BefittingFacts @disclosetv @TheWolfpackIN @VertigoWarrior @WarHorizon @ExSecular @RDXThinksThat

1/ Fear and Bitcoin.

Whenever Bitcoin has a bull run, naysayers try to cope with missing the boat by rationalizing why it will fail through “Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt” or what we Bitcoiners have nicknamed “FUD.”

I've been wanting to write this thread for a while. It has been inspired by hearing a common thought: why can't people just "listen"? If people just followed the rules, we wouldn't be in this mess. I think this is oversimplification of the problem with COVID: 1/

It is true, there are people who haven't been following guidelines (by definition that happened a LOT at Christmas/NYE in my region), but even before, we know transmission in private gatherings happens. 2/

These private gatherings are pictured to be big raucous parties, but in reality, even before lockdown, this is just people having dinner, watching TV, doing things we did before on a daily basis. These little ripples when added across the country make a big wave.. 3/

...and little can be done about this apart from positive messaging. You can't very well have police patrolling neighbourhoods across the country. 4/

Next thing is we keep hearing over and over and over, stay home. There are diminishing returns with this advice, but also, most people who can stay home ARE. So what's the issue? There are a HUGE # of people who can't stay home because they work in essential jobs 5/

Dear Republican Party,

No, we will not be moving on. We reject your attempts to change the subject because we see them for what they are:

You're desperately trying to escape accountability for the role you played in #TrumpsInsurrection on Wednesday. // THREAD

As Thomas Paine said, “A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”

And until you take responsibility, we do not trust you to do the job you were elected to do.

Lest anyone think I am only talking to Republicans in Congress, I am not. I am also pointing my fingers at every Republican in state legislatures as well.

For 4+ years, you either actively pushed lies spewed by Trump and his allies, or stayed silent in the face of those lies, which perhaps you now realize allowed them to take root and spread.

Taking only the most recent lie as an example -- Trump pushing the lie that he won the Nov. election in a landslide -- you all helped him push that lie, and that took root in tens of millions of Americans, and radicalized many of them as you bore witness to on Wednesday.

Illusion: Thread
1/ Have you ever asked yourself
"Who advises WHO to make decisions on our behalf?"

Have any of you ever asked
"Who decided wearing masks & lock down is beneficial for our health?"

Have any of you ever wondered
"Who is ORDERING WHO to inoculate you?"

I know...

The U.S.-China Rivalry

The US and China are the 2 greatest rivals in the 21st century. It’s American democracy vs Chinese socialism at the level of Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal in the 2008 Wimbledon Men’s Final. Who’s the better player? American democracy or Chinese socialism?

2/Probably no people have scrutinized American democracy more than China has, the world’s oldest civilization. “American exceptionalism” is under Beijing’s microscope. American democracy has catapulted the US into becoming the world’s greatest superpower in less than 200 years.

3/China, whose momentum will overtake the US in GDP by mid-century, has the same drive as Nadal (who proclaimed Federer was “the greatest player in the history [of tennis]") going against Federer at Wimbledon Final in 2008. Ever cautious, patient and wise, China respects its

4/opponent (as did Nadal) for its achievements. In order to better the US Beijing knows it must be more competitive, up its game and improve its skills. The US-China rivalry is one wherein “iron sharpens iron”. Yet whereas Beijing views American democracy thru an objective,

5/ideologically unbiased lens, the same can’t be said of US Congress, many of whom fear/think China wants to “take over the world” (to wit SoS Mike Pompeo) to “spread communism”. Having 5,000 years of culture, including Confucianism, China has the clearer and more objective view

I support Mexican travel vouchers as a stimulus package, usable in the country of Mexico by receipt.

$1,000 travel vouchers to every family now

Must spend the money in Mexico with receipt

Cabo San Lucas, Cancun anybody?

Got to preserve our go to North American spots!

Or you can call these sanctions on the GOP, for dangerous Latino rhetoric the last 5 years.

This could also be the cultural learning experience that the GOP truly is calling for regarding their calls of unity ;)

GOP, put your money where your mouth is and give us $1,000 stimulus packages to Mexico!! If you truly want, unity.

Vouchers accepted in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican republic, Jamaica, and Hawaii.

Florida travel ban, NOW