51�Թ�

But one of the students asked if I had any advice about how to get beyond a narrow role while avoiding disdain — and being labeled a tall poppy.

He had every reason to toot his own horn, and the fact that the administrators at the school all knew him by his achievements and reputation hinted at resentment and the tall poppy phenomenon — which can mean a lot of things, but is generally defined as “a societal attitude that occurs when people are resented, disliked or criticized due to their successes.”

But instead, in my reading, he was a tall poppy who found humility while holding onto conviction.

“It gives me tall poppy syndrome a bit,” Madix says.

But some of the issues confronting Twitter are worse than Facebook and YouTube, because the platform traffics in immediacy and because people on Twitter can face broad attacks from a public mob, said Leigh Honeywell, chief executive of Tall Poppy, a company that works with corporations to mitigate online abuse of their employees.