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This guy really irks me. For one, since he took over it really seems Twitter is heading towards a direction to suit activist investor demands. I used to be able

This guy really irks me. For one, since he took over it really seems Twitter is heading towards a direction to suit activist investor demands. I used to be able to browse Twitter posts of people I tend to respect (mainly scientific and academic people) without having to login and it is getting increasingly difficult without doing so lately as they keep showing me the login screen. This guy has a toxic history of narcissistic behavior as reported in several local Indian social Media and he would only seem to suck up to corporate demand and make Twitter more suffocating.

olliej 5y ago
What are the activist investor issues? (I haven’t been paying attention to “activist investor” behaviour for a while as so many seemed to just be pushing for “make me rich in the short term regardless of cost”)
- uoaei 5y ago
  That definition seems at odds with the core concepts involved in the term "activist investor".
  - HillRat 5y ago
    Traditionally, the "activist" in "activist investor" simply means "an investor who is actively pushing for specific policies," generally to increase the return on their investment. "Financial activists" like Carl Icahn or Starboard frequently take > 5% stakes in order to pressure companies to sell themselves to competitors, break themselves apart in order to shed lower-performing divisions, funnel cash to shareholders through dividends or stock buybacks, or reverse policies they see as injurious to the bottom line CEOs naturally hate this, and activist investors have a reputation -- arguably often well-deserved -- for improving the profitability of their portfolios at the cost of the companies they target. Sometimes this can force companies to walk away from suboptimal strategies -- did AOL really think Patch was going to be a market maker? -- but in many cases their activism simply results in the company's acquisition, aggressive offshoring or deindustrialization, or just straight-up bankruptcy. Icahn, for example, took a heavy position in Blockbuster and was instrumental in forcing them to reinstate late fees and drop plans to enter the streaming market, which left them exceedingly vulnerable when Netflix introduced streaming (the dueling HBR articles on this are well worth reading). Over the past few decades "social activist investors" have become more common, especially amongst large public sector and union pension plans who have both financial throw-weight and a need to answer to causes somewhat beyond their immediate bottom lines, but in general they are much smaller, and less effective, groups than the usual hedge fund suspects. For example, an organization of decarbonization activists have been trying for years to force ExxonMobil to diversify its energy base beyond hydrocarbons (as other petrochemical firms have done), but they've had notably zero effect on XOM's strategy, despite having an argument based on economics as much as ecology.
    - olliej 5y ago
      And hey, here's a good activist investor story! https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/24/investing/peloton-activist-investor/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/24/investing/peloton-activis... :D
- vorpalhex 5y ago
  An activist investor is someone who buys into a company with the intent of reforming or changing it. Maybe you really hate twitter, so you buy into it for $200 million and then use your power on the board to vote down anything good for twitter and vote for anything that is harmful. Activist investors often don't act in line with financial interest, instead focusing on "activism" even if it costs money.
  - sjtindell 5y ago
    Do you have any examples of activist investors who actually wanted to do harm to a company? I’m incredulous. What a waste of time and money. I usually hear about ones who think they can turn it around.
    - riskable 5y ago
      Here you go: https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-versus-a-conservative-think-tank-2014-2 https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-versus-a-conservati...
      - kodah 5y ago
        That's not really an activist investor, more like a quarrel over priorities in a boardroom. Carl Icahn, and Bill Ackman are examples of activist investors. The key to being an activist investor is that you have to control enough of the company to be able to make decisions that would greatly change it. A single board seat doesn't really get you much. Secondarily, activist investors are usually seizing control of failing organizations, not successful ones.
oneepic 5y ago
I think Twitter started having those "login screen" issues even before he took over. Like at least a month or 2 beforehand.
- stefan_ 5y ago
  Before the site was just fake-broken. Now it basically doesn't work at all; entirely unusable. I use Nitter now but that has some issues, unfortunately.
- riffic 5y ago
  Around August: https://www.google.com/search?q=login+wall+site:https://www.reddit.com/r/Twitter https://www.google.com/search?q=login+wall+site:https://www.... https://www.google.com/search?q=Twitter+login+wall+site:https://news.ycombinator.com https://www.google.com/search?q=Twitter+login+wall+site:http...
xibalba 5y ago
This entire comment needs citation, but especially: > "heading towards a direction to suit activist investor demands" and > "This guy has a toxic history of narcissistic behavior"
pram 5y ago
All the popups blocking content and telling you to log in is reaching Pinterest levels of hostility. Truly dire.
- pcmoney 5y ago
  Compared to pretty much all of its peers (facebook, snapchat, instagram, tiktok, nyt, the economist) twitter allows the most content without login.
nostromo 5y ago
I'm glad that he and I seemingly share the same goals. That is: the downfall of Twitter. Firing everyone in sight and deploying dark patterns for short-term revenue seem like good first steps.
- jgalt212 5y ago
  I agree with both of you. Twitter is so good, and so bad in so may ways.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
paxys 5y ago
He took over as CEO a month and a half ago. I really doubt he has been able to change the company culture or user experience to the extent that people can form opinions on his tenure.
- rrix2 5y ago
  he's been the CTO since 2017
curious_cat_163 5y ago
> This guy has a toxic history of narcissistic behavior as reported in several local Indian social Media... Don't follow. What does that have to do with anything about the original post?
kodah 5y ago
Might be an aside, but I find the word "narcissistic" overused and meaningless when conveyed by people these days.

olliej 5y ago

What are the activist investor issues? (I haven’t been paying attention to “activist investor” behaviour for a while as so many seemed to just be pushing for “make me rich in the short term regardless of cost”)

uoaei 5y ago
That definition seems at odds with the core concepts involved in the term "activist investor".
- HillRat 5y ago
  Traditionally, the "activist" in "activist investor" simply means "an investor who is actively pushing for specific policies," generally to increase the return on their investment. "Financial activists" like Carl Icahn or Starboard frequently take > 5% stakes in order to pressure companies to sell themselves to competitors, break themselves apart in order to shed lower-performing divisions, funnel cash to shareholders through dividends or stock buybacks, or reverse policies they see as injurious to the bottom line CEOs naturally hate this, and activist investors have a reputation -- arguably often well-deserved -- for improving the profitability of their portfolios at the cost of the companies they target. Sometimes this can force companies to walk away from suboptimal strategies -- did AOL really think Patch was going to be a market maker? -- but in many cases their activism simply results in the company's acquisition, aggressive offshoring or deindustrialization, or just straight-up bankruptcy. Icahn, for example, took a heavy position in Blockbuster and was instrumental in forcing them to reinstate late fees and drop plans to enter the streaming market, which left them exceedingly vulnerable when Netflix introduced streaming (the dueling HBR articles on this are well worth reading). Over the past few decades "social activist investors" have become more common, especially amongst large public sector and union pension plans who have both financial throw-weight and a need to answer to causes somewhat beyond their immediate bottom lines, but in general they are much smaller, and less effective, groups than the usual hedge fund suspects. For example, an organization of decarbonization activists have been trying for years to force ExxonMobil to diversify its energy base beyond hydrocarbons (as other petrochemical firms have done), but they've had notably zero effect on XOM's strategy, despite having an argument based on economics as much as ecology.
  - olliej 5y ago
    And hey, here's a good activist investor story! https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/24/investing/peloton-activist-investor/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/24/investing/peloton-activis... :D
vorpalhex 5y ago
An activist investor is someone who buys into a company with the intent of reforming or changing it. Maybe you really hate twitter, so you buy into it for $200 million and then use your power on the board to vote down anything good for twitter and vote for anything that is harmful. Activist investors often don't act in line with financial interest, instead focusing on "activism" even if it costs money.
- sjtindell 5y ago
  Do you have any examples of activist investors who actually wanted to do harm to a company? I’m incredulous. What a waste of time and money. I usually hear about ones who think they can turn it around.
  - riskable 5y ago
    Here you go: https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-versus-a-conservative-think-tank-2014-2 https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-versus-a-conservati...
    - kodah 5y ago
      That's not really an activist investor, more like a quarrel over priorities in a boardroom. Carl Icahn, and Bill Ackman are examples of activist investors. The key to being an activist investor is that you have to control enough of the company to be able to make decisions that would greatly change it. A single board seat doesn't really get you much. Secondarily, activist investors are usually seizing control of failing organizations, not successful ones.

oneepic 5y ago

I think Twitter started having those "login screen" issues even before he took over. Like at least a month or 2 beforehand.

stefan_ 5y ago
Before the site was just fake-broken. Now it basically doesn't work at all; entirely unusable. I use Nitter now but that has some issues, unfortunately.
riffic 5y ago
Around August: https://www.google.com/search?q=login+wall+site:https://www.reddit.com/r/Twitter https://www.google.com/search?q=login+wall+site:https://www.... https://www.google.com/search?q=Twitter+login+wall+site:https://news.ycombinator.com https://www.google.com/search?q=Twitter+login+wall+site:http...

xibalba 5y ago

This entire comment needs citation, but especially: > "heading towards a direction to suit activist investor demands" and > "This guy has a toxic history of narcissistic behavior"

pram 5y ago

All the popups blocking content and telling you to log in is reaching Pinterest levels of hostility. Truly dire.

pcmoney 5y ago
Compared to pretty much all of its peers (facebook, snapchat, instagram, tiktok, nyt, the economist) twitter allows the most content without login.

nostromo 5y ago

I'm glad that he and I seemingly share the same goals. That is: the downfall of Twitter. Firing everyone in sight and deploying dark patterns for short-term revenue seem like good first steps.

jgalt212 5y ago
I agree with both of you. Twitter is so good, and so bad in so may ways.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

paxys 5y ago

He took over as CEO a month and a half ago. I really doubt he has been able to change the company culture or user experience to the extent that people can form opinions on his tenure.

rrix2 5y ago
he's been the CTO since 2017

curious_cat_163 5y ago

> This guy has a toxic history of narcissistic behavior as reported in several local Indian social Media... Don't follow. What does that have to do with anything about the original post?

kodah 5y ago

Might be an aside, but I find the word "narcissistic" overused and meaningless when conveyed by people these days.