Here’s Why The World Needs A Better Twitter

This might surprise you, but I’m okay with Elon Musk injecting some life into Twitter, as long as he makes smart decisions. Now that he has completed the acquisition, carried a kitchen sink into the lobbyand fired a bunch of executivesthe path is clear to do what is desperately needed: make Twitter better.

Say what you want about the politics, the free speech angleand all of the drama — when it comes to any Big Tech brand, the secret sauce is always money. It fuels innovation, spurs creative engineering techniques, casts a wide net to lure in new users, and keeps the lights on longer.

Apple is a powerhouse because of their revenue, plain and simple. The company has the resources to make innovative products time and time again. Lesser brands wallow in the shallow creek of a weak balance statement.

What Musk brings to the Twitter table has a lot of zeroes after it. Some might say too many zeroes, but that’s for another day. What will save Twitter is a massive investment in the infrastructure, zapping all of the bots and making the social media empire safe for everyone.

And I do mean everybody. Twitter has become a vast wasteland of dead accounts, long abandoned by people who found fertile ground elsewhere. Just look at BeReal. It’s Pokémon Go mixed with Instagram. I love how it has totally erupted in popularity, reminding me of those early days when we all thought Clubhouse might be a novel idea. (Well, that’s what I thought, anyway.) It hasn’t become a powerhouse, but I think Twitter can rebound. I know this because I’ve seen it before.

One of my favorite examples of this happens to be another Elon Musk enterprise.

Again, say what you will about electric cars, range anxiety, and what it will take to completely overhaul the energy infrastructure in the US to support battery-powered vehicles, Tesla is a story about throwing money at a problem. Incredibly sophisticated factories. Charging stations that pump up your battery much faster. Exceptional range without having to make a plastic go-kart.

I’ve watched from the sidelines with Tesla, dating back to when Ford sold more versions of one F-150 truck in a month than Tesla sold all year long in every make and model. That’s not really true anymore. I see their cars everywhere, some of them driving remarkably slow on a hot day with the windows down to make sure they make it home.

What if we start hearing about new Twitter users again? That’s a controversial statement these days, because of the problems with free speech that are real and possibly unsolvable. My main point about fueling innovation is that the onus is on Elon Musk to make this happen.

It starts with a commitment to the existing users. I’m one of them, and I post regularly these days. I’m not comfortable with how the company has closed accounts, or how the company has allowed some accounts to remain open. I don’t like how the app is not safe to use because of the trolls dominating the conversation so often.

I believe the app still has potential. And whenever something has potential in Big Tech, watch out. A better Twitter can change the world. It can connect us and make communication smoother. It can unite people on opposite ends of the planet, not alienate them. The best ideas win when they have financial support, and Musk has proven he can innovate in a crowded space by using his colossal financial resources.

So here’s my honest plea to the new owner:

Make it better. Keep the lights on in the engineering lab. Find out what the users really want and need, and fulfill that objective. Get to work. We’re waiting.