Hello, This week, the new app Threads arrived on the scene. I’m always intrigued by new forms of social media; they help my brain think in new ways. As a writer, I’ve long been preoccupied with structure. My first four books used unconventional structures; for instance, with Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill, I used structure to help me write a short, readable book that nevertheless managed to capture the complexity of Churchill’s biography. (I remember that when I was writing The Happiness Project, my agent said, “You’ve got a blog now. Put your lists, your sidebars, your weird formats there. With the book, write it as a straight narrative.” Good advice!) With the various forms of social media, different requirements lead to different outcomes. This can be helpful, because constraints spark creativity. Whether we’re writing a haiku, a bottle episode of a sit-com, or a LinkedIn post, imagination is often better served by limits than by freedom, and I find it thought-provoking and enjoyable to think about how to communicate ideas in fresh ways. I’m a big believer in the positive possibilities of social media—but every medicine can become poison. We need to figure out how to use and manage these tools in ways that help, not hurt, us. Right now, I’m really having fun on Threads. If you have an Instagram account, you can follow me there. | 
