How Much Money Are You Going To Make From Twitter Today?

Here we go, we are off to the races! Twitter has rushed headlong into its IPO. It’s like Thanksgiving in November!

Everyone wants to know how much money there is to be made today, tomorrow, next week. An IPO is good for everyone, right? Felix Salmon, finance Livejournaller, has some thoughts for you:

Here’s my advice, then: take the amount of money you were thinking of investing in Twitter, and divide it by the rate at which you value your own time. So, if you were going to invest $5,000 and you value your time at $50 per hour, then you’d end up with a figure of 100 hours. Then, instead of spending the $5,000 on Twitter stock, spend 100 hours on Twitter: the cost is the same. The value you get from being on Twitter — from interacting with people you admire, from learning new things, from being able to express yourself so easily and concisely — will be much greater than the value you’d ever get from buying $5,000 of Twitter stock. And you’ll still have $5,000 left over to do whatever you want with, whether it’s putting it into some other investment or spending it on something awesome — a holiday, perhaps, or a gift to a friend, or even some fine wine.

That’s right. Just keep Tweeting people. You’re building your incredibly valuable brand! (Well, at least you’re having a good time. The great thing about Twitter, we can all agree, is the fun. Enjoy yourself!)

None of this matters anyway. In five years, T H E C A S C A D E will come and wash away all these stand-alone services. One giant Internet scroll, one endless vertical chyron, all personalized for you, with tailored sponsorships. It’s going to be great! Just remember: it doesn’t look away or it gets the hose again.