Today starts the final week, and 93 published newsletters are out and online.  For unknown reasons, I began to think about Information Architecture and how some of that is what we are trying to do with our newsletter and many others are also trying to do.  As media continues to transition, there is room for all to try, and those who strive to improve their craft and persevere through all the challenges will rise to the top. 

"Strive to improve the craft and persevere through all challenges."

This might be the tagline for 2023!  Today we talk about the year in charts; we love data.  More Twitter news (sigh), a new drink of the week section, how a TV set works, and words that made us laugh.

Rani Molla from Vox Media did what we liked best; they found lots of data, sifted through it, and pulled out several fascinating bits for us to review.  Molla starts his piece by talking about the pandemic and quitting (quiet or otherwise) that continues.  We also read in Axios today that Fed Chair Jerome Powell mentioned COVID deaths as one of the reasons the workforce remains tight.  According to the Axios article, 400,000 to 500,000 people who died from COVID were part of the workforce.  That is an overwhelming statistic coming out of a pandemic. 

Current occupancy shows less than 50% of offices have returned from 2019.  That landscape may be forever changed.  Flu season is big; remove the restrictions, take off the masks, with an immune system that hasn’t had to fight colds and flu as much as it has in the past, and boom, you’ve got the flu! 

After a mass migration of work and school going remote during a pandemic and everyone looking to buy a house or a bigger house and you will have a tight housing market.  As interest rates continue to move up, the housing market is becoming the least affordable in a long time.  Current averages show that a house will cost a person almost half their income.

The story of Twitter won’t be written for years, but many of us are trying to figure many things out.  One of Molla’s charts is the Tesla stock decline following the Twitter purchase mini-series.  Interest rate hikes, advertising slowdowns, and tech bloats have hit all the major tech companies, so the timing of Musk’s takeover will be legendary.  Some analysts put the value of Twitter below the $13B the banks currently hold.  Musk paid $44B for it.  Another report said Musk sold another $3.5B in Tesla stock this week.  Does Mars need Twitter?

A different angle to the Twitter stories is hard to find; we might make it up as we go.  Some say Twitter was never a healthy place to "play” or communicate.  Even those who say that also say it was the one application they use more than any other.  Does Twitter have a community?  Is it a place people go to see both ugliness and beauty? 

If some of the most followed people on Twitter are the ones who say the most absurd things, is the following from both people cheering the crazy and the people who can’t believe the crazy but want to be notified when it happens – the numbers could look wacky.

Some ask these questions when trying to figure out if another Twitter exists.  The WSJ has an article about LinkedIn trying to provide a home for recently displaced Tweeters, but LinkedIn is not Twitter.  Mastodon is Twitter, but it’s a Twitter interface on an open server-type architecture – moderation is done by the server owners who have been overwhelmed with new user requests.  Several new “Twitter-Like” applications are coming on as fast as they can be built-released, but that’s a risky bet.

We are going to continue to explore who the People of Twitter are.  Absent media people and famous people are the everyday people on Twitter.  The Twitter Saga and our stories about it will continue.

A cool series on The Conversation website called Curious Kids answered a question from an 11-year-old who asked, “How does a TV work?”.  We were just as curious as our young friend; check out the article for a full rundown with links to YouTube videos with further info.

Here are a few facts we picked up from the article:

Add this to our Mr. Fusion pieces from earlier in the week, and we could be a science newsletter.

In a feature we could be adding to With A Shout – The Guardian has a section called Cocktail of the week.  This week it’s a Hide and Fizz, Made by Hide and Fox, which we assume is in the UK.  We also don’t have any idea what Lychee Liqueur is.  We will find out if any American bars have it this month – Cheers!

Today in spin class, the instructor told us during our post-ride stretch that spinning was the opposite of sitting.  We like that.

We also heard a song today with the following line/lyric:

I want to find a haircut that fits me | Nazis haven’t co-opted that

It made us laugh; the song is called The Boy Considers His Haircut, by Spanish Love Songs.

A friend of the work and person we’ve reported on before, Mike Warner, has an excellent piece on all those year-end music summaries you have been getting.  In addition to information for the casual music fan, Warner also has excellent advice for indie musicians looking to drill down into the recaps for info. 

Words | Music | Art | Unknown

Bad hair day.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us!

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.