Yo! ✌️ I’m Brett! Social Studies is about trying to understand what it means to be human in the context of modern technology. It includes recaps of what happened on Tech Twitter plus deep analysis using frameworks from Psychology, Economics, and the Social Sciences.
Yoooo! The irony of a November roundup email half-way through December is not lost on me - sorry fam. Big changes coming in the next few weeks I’m super excited about.
Here are the top stories from November:
🇺🇸 We celebrated Joe & Kamala - Despite mostly leaning libertarian, Tech Twitter was relieved that Joe Biden won the US presidential election.
🤔 Coinbase preempted the New York Times - Coinbase released a piece ahead of a NYT article blasting the company for how it treats black employees.
🐦 Twitter released Fleets! - Twitter’s Snapchat stories clone arrived… and people didn’t hate it?
🦃 We were thankful AF - I launched $THANKSgiving, a product that gives you crypto when you say what you’re thankful for and it hit #3 on Product Hunt.
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Joe Biden won the US presidential election. Despite Tech Twitter having its fair share of secret Trump supporters (at least in terms of fiscal and space policy), most people were overjoyed with the results.
§Alex Adelman 🍭@alexadelman
There is A LOT to unpack here...
6:53 PM · Nov 7, 2020
3 Reposts · 68 Likes
Design Twitter celebrated exactly how you’d expect them to.
Robyn Kanner@robynkanner
❤️ VICTORY GRADIENT ❤️
9:54 PM · Nov 7, 2020
51 Reposts · 790 Likes
Yet another battle in the endless war between tech and media went down. Mason breaks down exactly what happened:
Mason 🏃♂️✂️@webdevMason
Coinbase became aware of an upcoming hit piece in the New York Times & decided to preempt it w/ a blog post. Incredibly, this has been interpreted by some journalists as a sort of theft of the scoop, as though private companies are beholden to take their knocks to enrich the NYT.
8:18 PM · Nov 26, 2020
424 Reposts · 4.15K Likes
The piece was real, and real bad, putting Coinbase in a tough position trying to be an a-political “mission-driven” organization.
jason@calacanis.com@Jason
The nyt story that @coinbase front ran is out — paints a picture of trying & failing (hard) to create diverse culture... & now spiraling to figure out how to move forward under massive scrutiny. ‘Tokenized’: Inside Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase
nytimes.com
‘Tokenized’: Inside Black Workers’ Struggles at the King of Crypto Start-Ups
6:01 PM · Nov 27, 2020
1 Repost · 29 Likes
Twitter released it’s Instagram Stories clone, Fleets. There were obviously a lot of cynical remarks about Twitter’s slow, uncreative execution and some boomer tweets about how it’s confusing.
Paras Chopra@paraschopra
I got access to Twitter’s take on stories called Fleets which disappear within 24 hours. (See top of the app) Can’t say I’m loving it. Whenever I have something to say, I tweet it. Then what do I use these Fleets for?
2:58 PM · Jun 10, 2020
22 Likes
But overall, people seemed to enjoy fleets and appreciate where it seems to be taking Twitter.
Casey Newton@CaseyNewton
I wrote about fleets, audio “spaces,” and Twitter’s effort to create healthier conversations through design. Featuring this block-quote from @kayvz platformer.news/p/twitter-adds…
1:05 AM · Nov 18, 2020
18 Reposts · 151 Likes
I was feeling a little cheeky this Thanksgiving so I launched $THANKSgiving, a product that gives you cryptocurrency for saying what you’re thankful for.
And hey, we got to number 3 on Product Hunt! Turns out there are a lot of thankful people out there in the world.
Brett Goldstein 🚀🏠@thatguyBG
🚨🦃Thanksgiving product drop🦃🚨 It's been a tough year for everyone. Giving thanks has been scientifically shown to improve your mental health. So... for Thanksgiving, I created a product that pays you cryptocurrency to give thanks. 🙏 @thethankful_ producthunt.com/posts/thanks-2
producthunt.com
$THANKS - A community and token for the nicest people on the internet | Product Hunt
4:52 PM · Nov 26, 2020
5 Reposts · 30 Likes
Here are some great reads!
Li Jin@ljin18
Mindblowing stats about OnlyFans 🤯🤯🤯 - $2Bn paid out to creators to-date (founded in 2016!) - implying $500m cumulative net revenue to OnlyFans in <5 years (20% take) - Over 100 creators have exceeded $1M earnings - No outside investors & profitable theinformation.com/articles/onlyf…
theinformation.com
OnlyFans Chief Talks Sports Ambitions and Role of Adult Content in Site
6:55 PM · Nov 23, 2020
188 Reposts · 1.02K Likes
Nikhil Basu Trivedi@nbt
The string of IPO filings last week from consumer technology companies — @Affirm @Airbnb @DoorDash @Roblox @WishShopping — got me thinking about a question I’ve fielded frequently in the past 5 years: “Isn’t consumer dead?” 5 reasons the answer is "no":
nbt.substack.com
Consumer Technology Is Alive and Well
3:28 PM · Nov 25, 2020
26 Reposts · 195 Likes
Sari Azout@sariazout
We are living through the emergence of a new business category which I believe will become an important part of our digital lives: community-curated knowledge networks (a thread on why)
7:59 PM · Nov 10, 2020
171 Reposts · 988 Likes
Blake Robbins@blakeir
The Multi-SKU Creator — @hunterwalk // The best creators have diversified revenue streams. Over the next decade, we will see tools emerge to give more power to the individual. It’s one of the many reasons I’m such a big believer in @stir. hunterwalk.medium.com/why-a-paid-new…
11:49 PM · Nov 22, 2020
6 Reposts · 127 Likes
Thanks yall! Have a great holiday. Here’s some $THANKS for reading 🙏
Rex Chapman🏇🏼@RexChapman
Holiday drones. Dope...
10:44 PM · Nov 28, 2020
2.02K Reposts · 11.1K Likes
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