A quickstart guide to tpot

What is tpot? Why should I do it? How do I do it?

What is this guide?

Every so often, I meet someone who I feel would fit in very well in tpot. Perhaps we have long, fascinating conversations about the kind of things that get talked about a lot in tpot. Philosophy, motivation, psychology, meditation, psychedelics, gender, therapy, and so on. But it's quite an involved conversation to explain to them what tpot even is, let alone what the best way is to get involved. So here’s a primer/quickstart guide to explain what tpot is and how to get involved.

tpot?

What is tpot?

Tpot stands for "This part of twitter". One of tpot's favourite hobbies is debating at length exactly what tpot is. There is no right answer because the boundaries of tpot are very fuzzy, there are sub-communities within tpot, and "this part of twitter" could describe any part of twitter to those who are in it.

But in broad strokes, tpot is a group of people on Twitter who value curiosity, openness, earnestness, intelligence, kindness, and vulnerability. Tpot gets a lot of its cerebral and analytical vibes from the rationalist community, but there are also influences from decidedly non-rationalist spaces. You will see many different forms of spirituality and self-help discussed on tpot: buddhism, meditation, psychedelics, different types of therapy and emotional work, but also more esoteric or “woo” forms of spirituality like tarot, astrology, and straight up magic.

All of these influences manage to co-exist within tpot because basically, people are nice here. There is a strong culture of assuming good intentions, arguing in good faith, and de-escalating tension or conflict. Every so often I find myself in a non-tpot part of twitter and get a shock at how vitriolic and full of conflict things get. I don’t honestly know how tpot keeps bad actors out when there is nothing stopping them from coming in. But for the most part, it does.

The magic of tpot comes from a mix of things:

• A high level of rawness and vulnerability: people post very honestly about relationship struggles, insecurities, drug use, mental health, and other sensitive topics.

• High quality content: there are a lot of really fucking smart people around, and they’ve honed the art of writing well on twitter. I’ve learned so much and absorbed so many ideas from things I’ve read from tpot.

• Friendly chemistry in the comments: Much of tpot’s value comes from the conversations that happen in the replies to a post, not just the post itself.

• Actual friendship: some people have been hanging out on twitter for over a decade, and have become very close friends. I’ve met people from tpot in real life and there are several festivals and gatherings in the US and Europe for anyone who wants to meet IRL.

To alt or not to alt?

OK so let’s assume you’re interested in tpot. What else do you need to know? Let’s talk about alt accounts. An alt account is an anonymous twitter account that is not tied to the poster’s real name or identity. Often they exist alongside the poster’s “main” account which they post on under their real name, but sometimes alt accounts don’t even have a main at all.

The culture of alt accounts is central to tpot. Many well-known and long-established accounts still post anonymously. Why? Many reasons. One of the primary ones is that they can be more open and honest when their tweets aren't linked to their name and face. Maybe they don't want their employer to see them posting about their acid trips. Maybe they don't want their boyfriend to see them posting about their relationship troubles.

Posting with an alt is very liberating. You realise you can say *anything* and no one can stop you, and no one can judge you either because no one knows it's you. This makes it a powerful way to give a voice to parts of your personality you might normally suppress. Experiment with adopting new personas. Be unhinged, be overenthusiastic, be pathologically cynical. No one can stop you. More on the magic of alts here: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2020/01/23/being-your-selves-identity-rd-on-alt-twitter.

Quickstart steps to get up and running with an alt account

1. Create your account & write your bio: pick a handle, any handle

2. Post for a week: the next step is to post as much as humanly possible. Revel in your anonymity. Post your shower thoughts, your sexual fantasies, your relationship regrets, your workplace grudges, your darkest secrets. No one will even read it, let alone know it's you. Go crazy.

3. Follow some people: time to make some friends! @RichDecibels has put together this handy list of people who you can follow: https://twitter.com/i/lists/1518564626102902785/members. You don't have to follow all of them, but it’s a good starting point

4. Practice good reply game: now you've followed some people, your newsfeed will be populated with their posts. Start responding to anything that catches your e

   y. Read @visakanv’s guide to “good reply game” (https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1039420186586038273) and start having interesting conversations

5. Rinse and repeat: post regularly, follow people whose posts you notice, reply to things that interest you, and have fun!