Ritual Social, The Future of Pinterest, and More!

Happy Sunday!

It’s been a tough few weeks in tech, with layoffs happening across the industry. Layoffs are never easy, and we’re thinking about everyone who’s been impacted. 

If you’re looking for a new opportunity, be sure to check out the Every job board on Pallet for jobs hand-curated by the Every team. And if your company is hiring, remember that you can post jobs for the collective to check out as well. 

Now, on to this week’s posts! 

We’ve got pieces on the two modalities of social apps, the slippery reality of status as a service, and the surprising future of Pinterest. Plus, a story about resilience—and a new episode of Cross-Functional and Friendly. 

Let’s dive in! 

In the Next Era of Social, Build Rituals, Not Habits

The way Anu Atluru sees it, there are two types of social apps. First, there are habitual apps—apps that thrive when you spend as much time on them as possible. Think of Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube. 

Then, there are ritual apps—apps that “aim to create regular, purposeful moments,” that are “at their best as a mindful microdose of meaning and feel-good.” Anu believes that the next era of social media will be defined by apps in this second category. In this post, she lays out why. 

Read.

Status as a Disservice

Nathan Baschez / Divinations

If you’ve been following the latest coming out of the new, Elon-ified Twitter, you’ve probably heard that there’s been a bit of a kerfuffle with blue checks—the system Twitter uses to denote particularly noteworthy accounts. Or used to. As of this week, what used to be a symbol of status can now be yours for the low, low price of $8 per month. 

According to Nathan, what’s happening at Twitter is a prime example of what happens when you place status at the center of your product experience without really understanding how status works. In short, it leads to boring apps that nobody wants to use. But there is a way out. In this post, Nathan points the way. 

Read.

Pinterest Has a Chance

 Evan Armstrong / Napkin Math

Everyone seems to forget about Pinterest—including the people running it. The app should be one of the best businesses on the internet, but it has utterly failed to fulfill its promise. 

Recently, however, there have been signs of life. A new CEO, monthly active user growth, an algorithm tweak that resulted in a 6% improvement in engagement. It seems that the app everyone seemed to count out has some life in it yet. More than that, Evan believes: Pinterest has a chance to be a $100B company—and they appear to finally be on the path to become one. 

Read.

AI and the Individual

Dan Shipper / Superorganizers

When people imagine the future with AI, their imaginations tend to lean dystopian. They envision a world where individuals are swallowed up and giant trillion-dollar mega-corporations reign supreme. 

But Dan thinks the opposite might be true: rather than replacing individuals, recent advances in AI will empower them to make an impact on a scale matching some of the biggest businesses, research labs, and creative organizations of today. Here, he makes the case. 

Read.

What Getting Sued, Scammed, and Arrested Taught Me About Resilience

Jason Shen / Rethinking Resilience

In March 2017, Jason Shen received a phone call that began the most stressful 48 hours of his life: “This is the Financial Crimes Division of the FBI,” a voice said. “Are you aware you owe back taxes?” The twist? The voice on the other end of the phone wasn’t the FBI—a fact Jason wouldn’t realize until thousands of dollars later. 

Yes, Jason had been scammed—but it wasn’t the first or only time he’s run into obstacles that tested his resolve. In this post, Jason unpacks three of the most challenging moments in his life, and what they taught him about the meaning of resilience.  

Read.

This week on Cross-Functional and Friendly: Taking on Team Building

Last time on Cross-Functional and Friendly, the trio talked about making the crucial first hires across sales, product, and marketing. This week, they’re looking at what comes next: building those teams out and determining, not only who you should hire, but how those hires should work together across the three interconnected disciplines. 

A Few More Recommendations

The Sam Bankman-Fried empire crumbled. What happened? | Whitespace

A few days ago, and seemingly out of nowhere, FTX and Binance announced that Binance would be acquiring FTX. Just as quickly, the deal was off—and FTX was declaring bankruptcy. Need a crash-course on what went down between two of the largest crypto exchanges in the game, and what it means? This piece from Molly White provides a good overview. 

TikTok’s Stratospheric Rise: An Oral History | Wall Street Journal

TikTok’s ascent to pop culture phenomenon over the past five years has been nothing short of astronomical—but it’s also been fraught, to say the least. Here, the Wall Street Journal shares what the early years of the social media juggernaut looked like to those on the inside. 

Thinking together | Subconscious

A few years ago, a group of scholars formulated a theory they call the Information Scaling Threshold: basically, the point at which the flow of information within a society becomes so overwhelming that society essentially stalls out. Gordon Brander believes our society has hit just such a threshold. Here, he ponders what we can do about it. 

That's all for this week!