Just because you write great software doesn't mean you're not an insufferable hack when it comes to politics and broader society.

Richard Stallman anyone?

> He has principles and he's willing to put himself out there for them.

He thinks that Twitter is despicable but will still continue to use it to promote his blog. That's not having principles and sticking to them. That's selling out for cheap, and coming up with a lame justification for it.

He's been writing his weblog since before Twitter existed:

* https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/199x/

* https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/

He doesn't need (to use) Twitter to promote anything. If he was willing to sell out, cheaply or not, he would have kept his AWS job.

Of course he doesn't need to use Twitter to promote his blog. But it is what he is doing, as per the article:

> I’ll still use Twitter to post pointers to ongoing pieces because that benefits me, not Elon.

And that's exactly what makes it selling out for cheap. He doesn't need the traffic; it's not like it's providing his livelihood or anything. But just going by his actions, he still cares more about those hits than about his supposed principles.