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I think Twitter is becoming a place for high risk reward employment. Maybe it crashes and burns, maybe you quickly ascend the ranks in the turmoil and reach a

I think Twitter is becoming a place for high risk reward employment. Maybe it crashes and burns, maybe you quickly ascend the ranks in the turmoil and reach a point in your career that would have taken substantially longer in a more traditional route. If Twitter does something like what Tesla did, you might even get filthy rich. Or, hey, maybe it doesn't work out and you get nothing but an interesting story, Twitter collapses or Elon fires you or whatever. Many companies say that they are like a startup, but I can see Twitter going back to that style. Far fewer people, far faster shipping, less thinking things through, etc. The bluechecks for anyone in a week and undoing it seems very startup like to me. Is that good? Probably not - but it is interesting, and, like I said, high risk high reward.

tstrimple 4y ago
> high risk reward employment. I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. Has there been literally *any* indication that this "hardcore" attitude will result in more reward?
- ALittleLight 4y ago
  You don't think you would have an opportunity to achieve a higher position at Twitter (and more money either there or by switching into an adjacent company) faster than at a FAANG? And the other indication you have, apart from common sense, is Tesla. If you had got and held on to a lot of Tesla stock you would have been rewarded. No guarantees obviously, but if Twitter could be as successful - same thing could happen there. It's a possibility.
  - astrange 4y ago
    Wouldn't it be more profitable to just make Twitter over again at a new company?
    - ALittleLight 4y ago
      Yes, but more risk. In five to ten years I think there is more of a chance for Twitter to be worth 500 billion dollars than a random startup trying to recreate Twitter.
    - ryanSrich 4y ago
      No. People here on HN drastically underestimate the value of Twitter’s network and name. Musk could start 1,000 social media companies for 1,000 lifetimes and still not hit on Twitter’s timing and execution early on. The age of social media is dead. No one is creating a Twitter competitor in 2022+. Either the site completely dies and people flee to existing platforms, or it lives on. The idea that one can just build a Twitter clone shows little understanding of human nature.
      - falcor84 4y ago
        >The age of social media is dead. No one is creating a Twitter competitor in 2022+ What happened in 2022 that all the doors are suddenly closed? Wouldn't you have said the same in 2016, before TikTok came out of nowhere and became the most popular website (per Cloudflare). I'm pretty sure people spoke similarly in 2006 about how Facebook has no chance against Myspace. The only constant is change.
      - astrange 4y ago
        The social graph is extremely valuable, but the amount of debt it’s in is extremely not-valuable, so I’m not sure how much these two cancel out. You might be able to acquire the company from Elon for cheap in a bit Tumblr-style though.
  - kibwen 4y ago
    Elon literally fired 50% of Twitter's staff in order to save on expenses. He's not going to suddenly turn around and dectuple the salary of the remnants.
britch 4y ago
What reward lol What, is Twitter going to re-IPO? Is that before or after paying off the billions in debt? As an ordinary employee what is the potential reward?
- ALittleLight 4y ago
  Yes? That's what he has said he plans to do, take it public again. And, of course, they have to deal with the debt. Twitter might not be able to, but they might. That's the high risk part - you might burn out, get fired, or the company might collapse. A turn around is clearly possible. Social media companies have been tremendously valuable in recent history and might become so again. Musk has had amazing financial success with other companies. As an employee your potential rewards are what I've already explicitly called out. You can advance further and faster up the corporate hierarchy in the tumult. You can also earn and hold stock rewards that may be extremely valuable. And, of course, you may consider it intrinsically valuable to help shape a tool used by hundreds of millions worldwide, and, as the number of employees shrinks, the per-employee impact increases.
  - johannes1234321 4y ago
    > That's what he has said he plans to do, take it public again. For a mere hobby it is too expensive even for him. 44bn (+continuing operating costs, credit costs, ...) also is a lot to regain via profits. So the logical thing is to either sell it to some other corporation (who!?) or going public. But for that he has to somehow make it an attractive investment, while currently he is doing the opposite.
Espressosaurus 4y ago
Twitter is becoming a place for high risk employment. The reward is deathmarch with Elon holding the whip.

tstrimple 4y ago

> high risk reward employment. I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. Has there been literally *any* indication that this "hardcore" attitude will result in more reward?

ALittleLight 4y ago
You don't think you would have an opportunity to achieve a higher position at Twitter (and more money either there or by switching into an adjacent company) faster than at a FAANG? And the other indication you have, apart from common sense, is Tesla. If you had got and held on to a lot of Tesla stock you would have been rewarded. No guarantees obviously, but if Twitter could be as successful - same thing could happen there. It's a possibility.
- astrange 4y ago
  Wouldn't it be more profitable to just make Twitter over again at a new company?
  - ALittleLight 4y ago
    Yes, but more risk. In five to ten years I think there is more of a chance for Twitter to be worth 500 billion dollars than a random startup trying to recreate Twitter.
  - ryanSrich 4y ago
    No. People here on HN drastically underestimate the value of Twitter’s network and name. Musk could start 1,000 social media companies for 1,000 lifetimes and still not hit on Twitter’s timing and execution early on. The age of social media is dead. No one is creating a Twitter competitor in 2022+. Either the site completely dies and people flee to existing platforms, or it lives on. The idea that one can just build a Twitter clone shows little understanding of human nature.
    - falcor84 4y ago
      >The age of social media is dead. No one is creating a Twitter competitor in 2022+ What happened in 2022 that all the doors are suddenly closed? Wouldn't you have said the same in 2016, before TikTok came out of nowhere and became the most popular website (per Cloudflare). I'm pretty sure people spoke similarly in 2006 about how Facebook has no chance against Myspace. The only constant is change.
    - astrange 4y ago
      The social graph is extremely valuable, but the amount of debt it’s in is extremely not-valuable, so I’m not sure how much these two cancel out. You might be able to acquire the company from Elon for cheap in a bit Tumblr-style though.
- kibwen 4y ago
  Elon literally fired 50% of Twitter's staff in order to save on expenses. He's not going to suddenly turn around and dectuple the salary of the remnants.

britch 4y ago

What reward lol What, is Twitter going to re-IPO? Is that before or after paying off the billions in debt? As an ordinary employee what is the potential reward?

ALittleLight 4y ago
Yes? That's what he has said he plans to do, take it public again. And, of course, they have to deal with the debt. Twitter might not be able to, but they might. That's the high risk part - you might burn out, get fired, or the company might collapse. A turn around is clearly possible. Social media companies have been tremendously valuable in recent history and might become so again. Musk has had amazing financial success with other companies. As an employee your potential rewards are what I've already explicitly called out. You can advance further and faster up the corporate hierarchy in the tumult. You can also earn and hold stock rewards that may be extremely valuable. And, of course, you may consider it intrinsically valuable to help shape a tool used by hundreds of millions worldwide, and, as the number of employees shrinks, the per-employee impact increases.
- johannes1234321 4y ago
  > That's what he has said he plans to do, take it public again. For a mere hobby it is too expensive even for him. 44bn (+continuing operating costs, credit costs, ...) also is a lot to regain via profits. So the logical thing is to either sell it to some other corporation (who!?) or going public. But for that he has to somehow make it an attractive investment, while currently he is doing the opposite.

Espressosaurus 4y ago

Twitter is becoming a place for high risk employment. The reward is deathmarch with Elon holding the whip.