Live-Tweeting Genomics Conference

Balaji shares the moment he first understood the true value of social networks through a scientific conference.

"I only understood the power of social networks when there was a friend of mine who was live tweeting a genomics conference. I realized that saved me a flight. Nobody would have written up the material as well as this scientist would have - they would have messed up the terminology or made it confusing. They certainly wouldn't have gone into as much depth.

I was able to just slurp in and download 5 hours of presentations without a plane flight, at my laptop in 10 minutes, and get the important bits. That's when I really understood the value. I did not understand the value of tweeting your breakfast - that seemed to me the stupidest, most exhibitionist waste of time thing in the world.

I underestimated social networks when they were basically voyeurism and exhibitionism and time wasting. What really peaked my interest was realizing that this genomics application was only feasible when the platform achieved such massive scale that even this very niche application was possible. It's like having Google at gigantic scale, and then being able to search for something as specific as Belgian cooking recipes."