[dools]

This is somewhat tangential to the post but isn't the 140 character limit on Twitter messages directly related to the fact they started it as an SMS service and couldn't figure out how to stitch together multipart inbound messages?

I personally think having the character limit that low is horrible but even if you love it, it wasn't some brilliant design decision imposed by Jack Dorsey it was just a limitation of the technology they were working with initially.

[001sky]

Yes, this is correct about the SMS. Its also a love it/hate it element, but at the end of the day that's what makes it. Its the unique rule, the constraint, the sine-qua-non that defines what it is. Like haiku: without rules, a non-idea.

At functional level, forcing people to "think small, think short" actually works. Where people have short attention spans. As a mode for a 21st century communication.

Over time, people adapt and "think" thoughts in the language that they express. Be it poetry, or visually, etc. Or, if you speak a second language, you learn to think in the constraints of what works to communicate.