Question 1

What are the key takeaways from Keith Coleman & Jay Baxter's episode on Lenny's Podcast?

Accepted Answer

1. Build products that prove themselves at every stage - Community Notes survived four CEO changes because the data always showed it worked, not because of internal politics. 2. Small, focused teams with one clear driver and one senior decision-maker can outperform large organizations - Community Notes was built by roughly five people and changed how the world handles misinformation. 3. Designing for bridging agreement across partisan divides produces better outcomes than majority-rules or editorial approaches - the counterintuitive insight that drove the entire algorithm. 4. Radical transparency (open-source code, public data, no override buttons) builds trust that no amount of corporate messaging can match - it's costly to implement but essential for credibility. 5. Pseudonymity can produce more honest participation than real-name accountability - people cross partisan boundaries more freely when their identity isn't at stake.

Question 2

What does Keith Coleman & Jay Baxter say about product-design and crowdsourcing?

Accepted Answer

"Community Notes is a way for the people, like the public, to add context to posts that might be misleading. Someone on X can see a post. If they think it's misleading, they can propose a note. If the note is found helpful by people who normally disagree with each other, indicating that it's probably accurate, neutrally-worded, and informative, then it will show to everyone on X." - Keith Coleman "We actually look for agreement from people who have disagreed in the past. And what we see is when people actually have that sort of surprising agreement, that's what makes the notes so neutral and accurate and well-written. It's just that people who are very polarized, overall, often can't find agreement when things aren't accurate." - Jay Baxter "Every post is eligible for notes and that was another really important principle. We shouldn't exempt Elon. We shouldn't exempt government figures. Everyone, even advertisers, can get notes. So any posts on the platform can get a note. The idea is really that it's an even playing field." - Keith Coleman

Question 3

What are Keith Coleman & Jay Baxter's views on product-design, crowdsourcing, misinformation?

Accepted Answer

Keith Coleman: "Community Notes is a way for the people, like the public, to add context to posts that might be misleading. Someone on X can see a post. If they think it's misleading, they can propose a note. If the note is found helpful by people who normally disagree with each other, indicating that it's probably accurate, neutrally-worded, and informative, then it will show to everyone on X." Jay Baxter: "We actually look for agreement from people who have disagreed in the past. And what we see is when people actually have that sort of surprising agreement, that's what makes the notes so neutral and accurate and well-written. It's just that people who are very polarized, overall, often can't find agreement when things aren't accurate."

Keith Coleman & Jay Baxter

An inside look at X’s Community Notes | Keith Coleman & Jay Baxter

TRANSCRIPT

Keith Coleman & Jay Baxter

An inside look at X’s Community Notes | Keith Coleman & Jay Baxter

Keith Coleman & Jay Baxter

An inside look at X’s Community Notes | Keith Coleman & Jay Baxter

TRANSCRIPT

Keith Coleman & Jay Baxter

An inside look at X’s Community Notes | Keith Coleman & Jay Baxter