The Menu #41: You (yes, YOU) should write a thread

The Menu

By Amanda Natividad | @amandanat

If you know me well, you've probably heard me harp on this a few times. Yes, Reader, this is about those damn Twitter threads.

I am sick of reading them, and I will definitely punch my computer screen if I see "Twitter university is free" one more time... but it doesn't mean I want people to stop. In fact, while I'll cringe at the bro math of 500 million tweets being sent daily but 99.3447% of you are reading the wrong ones, I'll bristle at the tweets ranting for the threads to stop.

Those complaints aren't influential. Worse, they deter the wrong people. Because those grifters? The ones hocking their loosely plagiarized brand-building courses? Creating those shitty no-code tools? They don't care. They're gonna keep going. Hacking their way through "$5 MRR," one poor sucker at a time.

But that super talented, introverted web developer who's afraid to share their ideas? Or that woman of color who's sick of being talked over in every meeting and is finally working up the courage to hit the "tweet" button?

They're the ones internalizing the notion that threads annoying. And they're never going to publish.

It took me 8 years to even consider writing about marketing on Twitter.

Don't be like me.

Be you. Write the thread and smash that "tweet" button. Haters be damned.

(But uh... don't be cringe about it. Skip the fake statistics, don't write up some "get rich quick" scheme, and for the love of god, if you're going to write a thread on people to follow, include women and underrepresented people because if I find out you didn't, I will spent the rest of my life quietly finding ways to destroy you.)

🍰 Petits Fours

Four bite-sized blurbs linking to interesting content.

🔹 You don't know how to use Excel, you liar: I joked about this yesterday but it's true. Creators like Miss Excel and Excel Dictionary wouldn't be crushing it with their Excel tutorials if we all knew what the heck a pivot table is. The latest: Blake Burge, whose Excel threads go insanely viral. He's launching an email course on mastering the Excel foundations. Check it out for early bird pricing. (Not an affiliate link.)

🔸 The career advice that took me 10 years to learn: I have terrible imposter syndrome. So it has meant the world to me anytime I've met someone who believes in me. It helps me believe in myself a little bit more. (My friend Ingrid was kind enough to republish my recent thread on her blog!)

🔹 Champagne Problem Pity Party with Dr. Emily Anhalt: Emily is a psychologist whose writing I have admired for a long time. And more recently, we've become friends. I was over the moon to join her new podcast, Emotionally Fit, where we discussed survivor's guilt. I highly recommend this podcast (not just my episode, but in general!) because it's 15 minutes of practical advice from an actual psychologist, grounded in a relatable story from a real person (like me!).

🔸 Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum reminisce about Jurassic Park: Hilarious.

🍳 My Favorite Kitchen Essentials

I'm often asked what kitchen tools and cookware I swear by, so instead of a recipe, here's my quick advice.

Typically when I buy something, I check The Wirecutter first. But sometimes they are wrong... and now that they're owned by the NYT, I'm skeptical that they have incentive to actually do the work of objective, thorough, product testing.

Anyway, here you go:

Tiny tongs from Sur La Table: Because these 7" tongs are small, they weigh very little — which means the spring hinge doesn't have much resistance, making these tongs easy to close and open. I use them for sauteing, flipping meat, tossing salad, everything. If you have concerns about your hand being too close to the hot pan, I would encourage you to get over it. 😂 Oil splatter occurs when hot oil and water interact. So if you lightly dry your meat with paper towels before cooking, you're unlikely to get splattered.

Silicone spatula from Sur La Table: My Sur La Table cooking spatula is several years old and they don't make it anymore. This is the newer model. I like this for sauteing meat because this particular spatula is firm enough to break up ground meat. You can use it to scrape your pan without scratching your pan. And you can throw it in the dishwasher.

OXO Good Grips nylon spoon: Perfect for cooking and spooning sauces and soups. I didn't think I cared that much about this until my husband accidentally melted the handle and I had to replace it.

TrueTap double hinged corkscrew: Learn to use one of these these, you'll open a wine bottle in under 1 minute, and you'll never need another corkscrew or atrocious battery-operated wine opener ever again. I find that winged corkscrews easily break, and battery-operated gadgets are finicky.

Kuhn Rikon peelers: Sharp, smooth, easy to use, and cheap. Easily the best peelers I've ever used. Just don't put them in the dishwasher.

Finally, as a general rule, I don't like to buy more than I need. My kitchen is fully equipped, but I would wager I have fewer pots, pans, gadgets and cookware than the average home cook. I would never recommend buying those 16+ piece cookware sets because at least one-third of these pieces will not be useful to you.

Buy the pots and pans you'll actually use. I would guess you'd need:

  • 1 stock pot (for pasta)
  • 1 nonstick pan (for egg cookery, etc)
  • 1 skillet
  • 1-2 sauce pans

Beyond that, you might want a wok (if you ofen cook stir frys), and a cast iron skillet (if you're willing to maintain cast iron). If you're new to cast iron, I highly recommend you start with a Lodge. It's reasonably priced, and there's a solid chance you'll mess up your first cast iron skillet. (I am definitely thinking about the time I started a grease fire in my kitchen and ruined my first Lodge pan.)

And if you can, go for tri-ply stainless steel. It conducts heat well and evenly.

Resist the urge to buy copper core cookware. I know they're pretty, but they require extra maintenance to stay shiny and may even need to be retinned every few years.

🙂 That's all!

Kind of a weird edition, maybe. In case you've forgotten who I am, I'm that lady who writes marketing threads on Twitter, I occasionally tweet nonsense, I work at SparkToro, and I went to culinary school. I once published a cookbook on iBooks, it's been downloaded 12,000 times, and you will not find it.

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