Yes, yes, you’re no doubt annoyed by all that Twifficiency spam in your Twitter feed. But for 17-year-old James Cunningham, his overnight success might just be a lesson in how DIY creativity could soon trump the most conventional methods of making a name for oneself.
It all started this morning, with the launch of Twifficiency, which can take any Twitter user name and immediately output your “twitter efficiency” based on “how many people you follow, how many people follow you, how often you tweet and how many tweets you read.”
Within hours, tweets were spiraling out of control, as users shared their Twifficiency scores – as well as allegedly those of others. It’s simple enough to look up your personal rating, just enter your username and your score will automatically be retweeted to your followers. Not only was this Twifficiency score a number that the Twitter faithful were intrigued to see, but the design of Cunningham’s program ensured that it would go public, and viral, after only a few visitors.
Which is how Cunningham went from unknown British teen to notable online personality within a single day.
Given today’s other news, about skyrocketing education debt, Cunningham’s story is one worth retweeting as well. Here’s a boy who used his own ingenuity to create something that intrigued his peers, who was savvy enough to create a product that would promote itself, and now there are tweets circulating from those who are considering giving Cunningham a job, based solely on this public fit of creativity.
Forget paying for college, maybe this is just the sort of DIY brainstorm that will distinguish the next generation of web leaders.