3 Notes on Tech

3 quick takes on tech 3 times a week

Trying out something new with 3 Notes, let me know what you think in the comments

Note 1: Rumors of Instagram’s death have been greatly exaggerated 

• Casey Newton’s interview with Instagram head Adam Mosseri was an interesting and insightful read, especially this part:

Adam: What's happened over the last decade is that how people share with friends has changed. It has shifted to stories, and it has shifted to DMs and to group chats. More photos and videos are shared in DMs in a day, then are shared into stories. And more photos and videos are shared into stories in a day than are shared to feed.

• The common response to this answer is that users post where they get more engagement, hence less feed engagement means more stories engagement. But why is sharing to DMs outpacing sharing to stories? 

• My 3 assumptions: 

  • Instagram supports a number of use cases from private sharing in DMs to public posting in the feed, and the user outcomes for each use case are different (and maybe in conflict). 

  • Private sharing is growing for a variety of reasons. Some of which are a response to the public nature of the feed.

  • Video is a particularly good format for content shared in DMs because of how information dense and entertaining video happens to be compared to photos.

• Key Takeaways: 

  • Instagram is essentially two product experiences in 1: private messaging (communications) and public social media (entertainment). This is the crux of the current tension for its product team and its users. 

  • Instagram is still the leader for millennials for those two experiences

Note 2: Crypto has an identity crisis 

• Crypto in the Western and specifically North American context has a bit of an identity crisis.

• There’s 3 core use cases that have been. collapsed together, causing stunting the growth and adoption of the space as a whole (let opening the door for bad actors),

  • User-permissioned or permissionless community

  • Cross-platform identity (avatars as a service) 

  • Financialization of digital goods and services

• Each of these use cases has merit in my opinion, but often end up collapsed together.

• This collapse inevitably drives mindshare and investment dollars to the use case with the most near-term profit potential (use case #3).

• In particular, it would be interesting to see token revert back to their original form of anonymized digital identifier in the crypto context vs the current state of speculative asset. 

• I’d love to see these use cases tackled individually. I’m sure there are examples today. Free to drop them in the comments!

Note 3: A nuanced take on remote work 

• Important points that the pandemic and remote work exposed:

  • Many knowledge workers (group 1) only lived in high cost metros because it was required by their employer. This group would leave for less expensive and more space at the first chance they got.

  • Many knowledge workers (group 2) would still choose to live in those metros even if optional.

  • The existence of one group doesn’t negate the other. 

• Group 2 is status quo. Group 1 is novel and can have far-reaching implications politically and socially.

• This reminds of the concept of the “Internet being a tool vs a sanctuary. Group 1 saw high cost metros as a tool out of necessity (“it’s where the jobs are”). Group 2 saw high cost metros as a sanctuary. Neither view is incorrect.

• “Making friends outside of work” is gonna be a real issue for a lot of people in a remote working future.