6 ms·

I'm amazed at how naive some of the people are here. Why not just accept what you're seeing with your own two eyes? Why look for an alternate explanation?

poulpy123 4y ago
The cult of Billionaires is something else
- bmitc 4y ago
  Agreed. I have seen some disturbing stuff on Twitter where people say things like “why are you arguing with the smartest man alive?”, “this person invented modern rockets”, “you should just do what your boss says”, and more just complete falsehoods parroted by followers who seemingly have no upside to doing so. It’s weird and bothersome.
Zpalmtree 4y ago
Twitter is still online. Where's the huge fire everyone is talking about?
- __warlord__ 4y ago
  75-ish% of people left/got fired... is that not enough fire?
  - nomel 4y ago
    75% cut was clearly communicated to investors: https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-social-media-1a9005b6653b07b5764ed61053554d1f https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-...
    - onion2k 4y ago
      It's likely he wamted to have some say in which 75%. I doubt he planned to axe entire teams that were critical to running the company all at once. But then again, it's Elon, so who knows.
      - Belphemur 4y ago
        I mean, if he takes the same approach to people as to microservices... Cut it before understanding what it does, I don't think anything good is going to come from this. Remember, cutting off the MFA microservice ?
        onion2k 4y ago
        Remember, cutting off the MFA microservice? I strongly suspect that was a case of switching off something that few people realized was required by for MFA service to operate. That speaks to poor comms, poor docs, and poor understanding of the systems (by the people who were still around.) "Chesterton's Fence" says you shouldn't be turning off stuff you don't understand, but if it looked OK to turn it off, but it wasn't, then that's actually an indictment of the poor engineering practises that Elon claims are rampant around Twitter. Rather than showing Elon to be an idiot it might prove his point. But we're not in Twitter, so we can't know. What I would say is that if everything was well signposted that the service was critical then I doubt Elon would have recklessly ordered it should be turned off regardless. He's not that bad. It smells of bad documentation to me.
        CodeMage 4y ago
        In the hypothetical fantasy scenario in which I'm assuming leadership of a company that I claim is plagued by poor engineering practices -- practices which include bad documentation -- the last thing I would want to do is order people to turn off stuff without making sure that the stuff they're turning off is mission critical. Hell, I would do my best to make sure I don't issue orders that could even be misconstrued as that. But hey, maybe that's why I'm just an engineer without any interest of making the switch to the "leadership" ladder, and not a CEO.
- whermans 4y ago
  Twitter won't automagically stay online. A complex system needs dedicated and experienced engineers to maintain it, apply updates and troubleshoot issues, and that's if you're not actively developing new features. So it will coast for a while before the wheels come off. Maybe performance will degrade, maybe media stops loading or your timeline won't refresh. Maybe none of that happens and a critical system deep down fails and it just stops. But Musk has all but ensured that Twitter in its current form cannot continue to function.
nonethewiser 4y ago
I thought everyone agreed that this was what he was doing though? Deliberately destroying the entire culture of Twitter.
- lazide 4y ago
  Looks like he’s setting $44bln on fire to me.
  - nonethewiser 4y ago
    He already said it's not a money making venture.
    - lazide 4y ago
      There is a difference between watching a giant tire fire from a distance, and throwing $44bln of your own and investors money on said tire fire nominally to make it ‘better’. If he gets himself under control and stops it from downward spiraling (including losing much of their existing advertiser revenue!) then he’s making some progress. But right now, he seems to be throwing gasoline on it.
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  The company that bought ours proved very clearly that you can destroy and dismantle workplace culture without burning down the entire company
roflyear 4y ago
They're rich so they are different than us.
jkestner 4y ago
If x is powerful because they’re smart and work hard, I can become powerful because I’m smart and work hard. If x is powerful because they were born rich and got lucky, I… don’t have much control over whether I become powerful.

poulpy123 4y ago

The cult of Billionaires is something else

bmitc 4y ago
Agreed. I have seen some disturbing stuff on Twitter where people say things like “why are you arguing with the smartest man alive?”, “this person invented modern rockets”, “you should just do what your boss says”, and more just complete falsehoods parroted by followers who seemingly have no upside to doing so. It’s weird and bothersome.

Zpalmtree 4y ago

Twitter is still online. Where's the huge fire everyone is talking about?

__warlord__ 4y ago
75-ish% of people left/got fired... is that not enough fire?
- nomel 4y ago
  75% cut was clearly communicated to investors: https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-social-media-1a9005b6653b07b5764ed61053554d1f https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-...
  - onion2k 4y ago
    It's likely he wamted to have some say in which 75%. I doubt he planned to axe entire teams that were critical to running the company all at once. But then again, it's Elon, so who knows.
    - Belphemur 4y ago
      I mean, if he takes the same approach to people as to microservices... Cut it before understanding what it does, I don't think anything good is going to come from this. Remember, cutting off the MFA microservice ?
      - onion2k 4y ago
        Remember, cutting off the MFA microservice? I strongly suspect that was a case of switching off something that few people realized was required by for MFA service to operate. That speaks to poor comms, poor docs, and poor understanding of the systems (by the people who were still around.) "Chesterton's Fence" says you shouldn't be turning off stuff you don't understand, but if it looked OK to turn it off, but it wasn't, then that's actually an indictment of the poor engineering practises that Elon claims are rampant around Twitter. Rather than showing Elon to be an idiot it might prove his point. But we're not in Twitter, so we can't know. What I would say is that if everything was well signposted that the service was critical then I doubt Elon would have recklessly ordered it should be turned off regardless. He's not that bad. It smells of bad documentation to me.
        CodeMage 4y ago
        In the hypothetical fantasy scenario in which I'm assuming leadership of a company that I claim is plagued by poor engineering practices -- practices which include bad documentation -- the last thing I would want to do is order people to turn off stuff without making sure that the stuff they're turning off is mission critical. Hell, I would do my best to make sure I don't issue orders that could even be misconstrued as that. But hey, maybe that's why I'm just an engineer without any interest of making the switch to the "leadership" ladder, and not a CEO.
whermans 4y ago
Twitter won't automagically stay online. A complex system needs dedicated and experienced engineers to maintain it, apply updates and troubleshoot issues, and that's if you're not actively developing new features. So it will coast for a while before the wheels come off. Maybe performance will degrade, maybe media stops loading or your timeline won't refresh. Maybe none of that happens and a critical system deep down fails and it just stops. But Musk has all but ensured that Twitter in its current form cannot continue to function.

nonethewiser 4y ago

I thought everyone agreed that this was what he was doing though? Deliberately destroying the entire culture of Twitter.

lazide 4y ago
Looks like he’s setting $44bln on fire to me.
- nonethewiser 4y ago
  He already said it's not a money making venture.
  - lazide 4y ago
    There is a difference between watching a giant tire fire from a distance, and throwing $44bln of your own and investors money on said tire fire nominally to make it ‘better’. If he gets himself under control and stops it from downward spiraling (including losing much of their existing advertiser revenue!) then he’s making some progress. But right now, he seems to be throwing gasoline on it.
mrguyorama 4y ago
The company that bought ours proved very clearly that you can destroy and dismantle workplace culture without burning down the entire company

roflyear 4y ago

They're rich so they are different than us.

jkestner 4y ago

If x is powerful because they’re smart and work hard, I can become powerful because I’m smart and work hard. If x is powerful because they were born rich and got lucky, I… don’t have much control over whether I become powerful.