The Point (Of My Twitter Feed)

For a long time I’ve considered doing a “What’s the point?” post. After all, as Steve Martin said, one probably should have a point.

Just like most people on Twitter, I like getting new followers. However, I think the way to really expand one’s follower base is to pick an approach and learn to do that very well.

You know what I think I do really well? The thing that I am the best at?

Simply being myself. I am good at being me.

The problem with that is that while I like increasing my followers, it really is not what my feed is about. Hopefully this does not come across as too narcissistic, but I am on Twitter to enjoy myself, and as such I tweet about whatever floats my boat.

Does that lead to my timeline being somewhat disjointed? Yes.

Does that mean that my timeline is not for everyone? Absolutely.

Does this limit my potential number of followers? Most likely.

Does that mean that you will end up unfollowing me as quickly as you followed (assuming that you did follow me)? That’s for you to decide.

I say things that are on my mind, and have conversations with people who are interested in those things. And I read what others say, and join in on conversations with them. That's what I enjoy on Twitter. Follower counts are nice, but I'm just here to enjoy myself, not get a new high score.

In general, here is what you are likely to find me tweeting about frequently on any given day:

• Political horseraces and polling. At one time, I had a moderately successful blog within this genre. My undergraduate degree was in Mathematics and Computer Science, and I enjoy number crunching. Some of my followers knew me from my site, and some of them are fairly well known within that avenue of punditry (and there is a non-zero percentage of them who will actually admit to that!) Had I made different choices, perhaps that’s what I would be doing now. No regrets, though, as I love the direction I went instead.
• Movies. This happens to be the direction I went. I work within that industry, not as part of the “talent”, but on the analytics side of things. I enjoy talking about movies, I enjoy reading about them, I enjoy trying to figure out how to sell them to people, and occasionally I enjoy actually watching them.
• Within this, since I really like my job, do not expect me to be 100% objective and definitely do not expect to hear me busting on my company's movies.
• Also within this, keep in mind that this is my own personal feed and your typical disclaimers about not speaking for 20^th Century Fox apply.
• Politics. The funny thing is—I hate politics. I am a big time cynic when it comes to the whole affair. Unfortunately for a person with that perspective, I cannot escape the realization that they are incredibly important. Every aspect of our lives is influenced by political dynamics. As such, various topics within politics (beyond polling and poll analysis) generally draw my interest, and if something draws my interest, I probably will end up offering an opinion.
• On this, if you really really really hate conservatives, then odds are you will really really really hate me. Sorry about that.
• I cannot figure out if I am a conservative-leaning libertarian or a libertarian-leaning conservative. I am also not sure it matters which is more accurate.
• General wisecracking. It is in my blood to be a wise-guy. I am more than aware of the fact that my “miss” ratio may be higher than the really funny people in the world and on Twitter. Sorry about that. I think I have my moments, though. Your mileage may vary.

On any given day, or even for many days on end, I may be doing a lot of any one or two of these and not a lot of the other.

Anyhow, hello. I guess the point is that I mainly do this for my own enjoyment and to just have some fun. Please keep in mind that I don’t take this all too seriously. If you enjoy my feed, then great! If not, then also great? Either way, at least now you know what to expect.

One last thing. The Yadi Molina thing? It came from this.

All the best,

Gerry