I am new here and I am really not sure how this works. Cake is unlike the other social networking I frequent. That set me thinking. How do people react to change? When I first joined twitter in 2009, did it feel like this? Weird in a sense you don't belong to the community and think it strange? Honestly, I don't remember. I like to think of myself as an early technology adapter and it feels wonderful to be here. To be part of this space that offers something new. A conversation-oriented platform that ironically only sees emojis as opposed to boring text like mine. Perhaps I am divorced from the cool millennial generation that thinks typing is boring, or better yet, has already embarked on the next revolution in language. I can't wait to jump in. My OCD is unique. There's a constant urge in me to evolve, to move ahead, to plunge into deep, unchartered waters, to explore. I secretly hope to make Cake part of my everyday existence for the sole reason that I dont get it. A little mystery is fascinating,

Hi ranjani,

Welcome to Cake! Thanks so much for posting and sharing your feelings.

I've always been fascinated with origin stories of companies like Twitter (great book: Hatching Twitter), Reddit, Instagram, Pinterest, Airbnb, etc. One thing that strikes me about all of them is that people weren't sure what they were when they launched. The main thing that stood out was that they were different, not like things that came before. In the case of Twitter, the founders couldn't agree on what it was for years.

We have always believed it would be about great conversations around your interests, but what kinds of conversations? Longish ones? Conversations that are hard to have with your friends and family on Facebook? Ones where you want to hear more than 240 characters from owners of Tesla Model 3s?

So for us it's been fascinating to see which conversations catch on and which don't. So far, not much about politics. Lots about adventure, Apple, technology, movies, parenting, health...

I secretly hope to make Cake part of my everyday existence for the sole reason that I dont get it. A little mystery is fascinating.

Hi and welcome to Cake, ranjani! I hope the conversations you'll find here will make you want to come back everyday. The kind of conversations that make you think, learn, empathize and connect with people who are interested in the same things you do.

As one of the people building Cake I came to appreciate the daily serendipity of discovering conversations on all kinds of matters. I look forward every morning to see the new and interesting things people are talking about.

Welcome to Cake, RR....I have no pedigree around here but after maybe being here for about two months my personal experience sometimes seems like an oasis....in all the other social networking platforms, it seems conceptually everyone is yelling with their CAPS turned on trying to stand out.

Around here, everyone is quite civil and as people participate in a discussion is seems to be self-regulated and based on respect, a general interest in life around us and opening experiential doors I was not aware of. Thus, I visit here daily as I find it enjoyable and enriching.

I hope your experience is similar or better. 🎨

PS...if you like photography and adventure, that seems to help. LOL

Hi Chris,
Wow. I didnt expect to receive 3 great responses in less than 24 hours. That's amazing. Something that Twitter, facebook or other sites have not been doing. I feel I use twitter and facebook more as a one way communication tool, where I mostly share links and retweet stuff. I am an extremely private person, not much into small talk, and would love to discuss more ideas, innovations and individuals who have changed the world for the better. In simple words, I would love to get involved in conversations that matter, that aim at providing solutions to the world's problems.

Having said that, thank you so much for the book recommendation. I love reading and hope to read the book soon. I am, currently reading a book called Social physics, which focuses on unleashing the power of social networks (not by manipulation), and would highly recommend the book to anyone interested.

I dont remember how I stumbles across Cake but I am really glad I did.

Hi Vilen,
Thank you so much! It must be amazing working on a platform that's wonderfully minimalistic and conversations-oriented, where real ideas flow.

I really like it that you use the word empathy in your message. The world needs it now more than ever.

That said, I googled your name to find the pronunciation and meaning but couldnt find anything. Ranjani is pronounced run-juh-ni and I am from India.

Hi Robert,
It feels good to be part of a civilised community that doesn't demand attention and shout. I am done with it. Maybe I am self-righteous, but well, I dont care. I took a social media detox, without informing anyone of course (:-D), because of all the noise, and by chance stumbled across this platform. I love it already. Love the minimalistic interface and the conversations-oriented design. I was on medium for a while. But even there, people just want to talk. Not listen. I like it that Cake encourages "listening"! Quora was like that for sometime. Then it got offtrack. I hate what it has become now.

I am an armchair globetrotter who likes to read about traveling, not actually travel. :-P

Hi Ranjani!

Welcome to Cake. It sounds like you're already starting to figure things here out, but when I read your first post, I thought about the thing that I've heard several people find surprising or strange about Cake: it isn't 'social' in the way it seems everything is now. "How do I follow people? How do I friend people?" It's interesting that in a few years, the social network structure has spread to so much of what we do online -- reviewing books and movies, sharing pictures, playing games -- that it's built into people's expectations of websites, particularly 'leisure' ones. You talked about revolutions in language, and it's almost like that: social networks have become the grammar of the internet, the way we structure meaning and understand what we do here.

In some ways, Cake is simpler than that: what could be simpler than talking about the things that matter to us!? But many of us have become so entrenched in the language of sociality that it shapes our thinking. Constrains our thinking, even? I'm glad you found Cake, to break into those unchartered waters and make up a new way of talking online with us!

That's a fascinating way to understand it, Felicity. I never even considered thinking of it in that framework.

Felicity, I’m feeling the same way. I love discussion. Getting to know how you think helps improve my life, I can apply your way of thinking and possibly this planet can be a little better. A friend told me a few days ago that sometimes I get caught up in the details and dig to deep. I did not like this observation of me. But I thought about it and he was right. Sometimes I just don’t need to know every detail especially the ones that might cause conflict or stress. So I called him the next day and thanked him.

I see Cake as a friend. I see it as safe. I see intelligent people. People that are sharing knowledge without stress and conflict. I see it as a compressed sponge ready to take on information and a way to search it out.

Welcome!

Hi Felicity, that is an amazingly insightful perspective. If the education system today analyses the sociological aspect of pedagogy and made things easier rather than complicate them, how many unique, accomplished individuals would we have! How valuable a lesson would this be in reconciling the physical and social sciences and to know the inherent nature and limitations of mind!
"The language of society", "grammar of the internet" are beautiful phrases that capture the essence of networking!

Wow. You must be really open at the mental level to call your friend the next day and thank him for his observation about you. Take a bow, Sir! Not many can do this.

Thank you so much for kind compliment. My day will be better because of it.

I have a story about that. Steve Jobs was famously sensitive and emotional so if you pushed back on him you feared being ghosted (we called it being on his shit list).

When my boss, Mike Slade, resigned as VP of Marketing at NeXT, he listed three reasons why he quit in his resignation letter. Steve took it personally and wouldn't speak to him for two years. But he eventually swallowed his pride, called Mike to say he was right, and asked Mike to help him turn around Apple. Mike came up with the idea for the iPod.

Thank you so much for sharing this, Chris. The man truly was a legend. I would recommend a book called Intellectuals by paul johnson which offers a glimpse into the lives of some of the most famous intellectuals who rewrote history. They were not perfect, far from it. You would be disgusted when you read about their personal lives, but they were geniuses nonetheless.