The New Yorker spends months with Twitter's Jack Dorsey

Entrepreneurs Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey were childhood friends in St. Louis. Today, they’re leading the next generation in technology with their creations, Twitter and Square Inc.

This month, McKelvey was in Springfield addressing the audience at a business-to-business expo, and Dorsey was featured in a personality profile, “Two-Hit Wonder,” by The New Yorker.

Here are glimpses into Dorsey’s work life from D.T. Max’s piece:

• Dorsey commutes to work on a San Francisco bus line – in part, to observe people’s habits – where he says he saw the rise of Instagram, Snapchat and Vine (now owned by Twitter).

• His Twitter handle, @Jack, was the 12th account in the system, only because the first 11 were tests; there are now a half-billion users.

• He is 36 years old and co-founded Twitter in 2006.

• Twitter’s first official message: “just setting up my twttr,” from Dorsey, who now has 2.4 million Twitter followers.

• Twitter was influenced by Dorsey’s interest in his family’s police scanner: “They were reporting constantly, and they’re reporting three things usually,” he told The New Yorker. “No. 1, where they are. No. 2, where they’re going. And, No. 3, what they’re doing. So, for an ambulance in St. Louis: ‘I’m at Fifth and Broadway, I’m going to St. John’s Mercy, patient in cardiac arrest.’ ”

• He had a speech impediment at a young age, and later in school – he attended Bishop DuBourg Catholic – he joined the debate team and speech club.

• He dropped out of Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla to go live in New York and develop software; he later withdrew from NYU a semester short of graduating.

• He spends most of his time working on Square, having worn out the welcome at Twitter, where in 2008 he left the CEO post after complaints he was a distracting manager.

• He hopes the Square mobile payment-processing device will one day kill the cash register.

• He never touched a piece of paper during the few months Dorsey spent with the writer.

• Forbes positions Dorsey as America’s sixth-youngest billionaire.

• He recently bought a $10 million home with a view of the Golden Gate.

• He’s been criticized for tweeting too many selfies. One critic asks, “Is staring blankly into a camera every day the best way to get people to use your app?”

• In summary (60 characters to be exact), he says, “Twitter is about moving words. Square is about moving money.”

Read more from the New Yorker.