Dave Winer on Rebranding of Twitter

"What if more likely it's a plan being executed in front of our eyes. I think in general you should assume the latter, not that people you want to think are idiots actually are."

Yes, this is the natural first reaction to something odd happening. You look for patterns, and because people formulate patterns into plans of action, you look for a plan, and this leads you to a possible intent.

But after countless chances, we need to realize there's no deeper plan here. No 4D chess move to explain the infantilism on display. Guy likes naming things X and he hates his time at Twitter, and was looking for ways to make it "his", to match his fantasy of X closer, and changing the logo was the easiest, most basic thing he could've done.

The lack of a better plan, heck, of ANY plan is on full display. The haphazard brand, name, logo changes across the apps, app stores, the website, the copy, no brand kit, the offices themselves, the sign that went up for 3 days and then went down, the lack of securing X as a trademark. All of it.

I'm a big fan of the "don't jump to conclusions" mentality. Everyone has hot takes these days. It's infuriating. But to always assume there's a plan, despite evidence hitting you in the head daily is the other extreme. Don't JUMP to conclusions. But at least... slowly walk towards them, don't sit frozen.