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Your reply is indistinguishable from a religious person exclaiming that "God is omniscient and moves in mysterious ways!" Stop worshipping billionaires.

mirekrusin 4y ago
You could say that if he was new to the party. But he did change the world with his companies already, didn't he?
- ldng 4y ago
  Really? Has he ?
  - bobsmooth 4y ago
    Before Tesla, EVs were a joke. Before SpaceX, satellite internet was a joke.
    - qwytw 4y ago
      And that makes him infallible? If anyone else but Musk bought Twitter and started doing what he did they'd be the laughing stock of the financial world. His reputation is the only thing keeping him afloat (in this specific case, he might still do great with SpaceX and Tesla but so what? People like Jobs, Buffet, Gates etc. also made significant blunders at some points in their career)
      - mirekrusin 4y ago
        It makes him more credible than random dudes on internet.
        qwytw 4y ago
        Or you know... you could try looking at facts and data an try to form your own opinion.
        mirekrusin 4y ago
        I think Musk did better homework on it than you.
        qwytw 4y ago
        Or maybe Musk has different goals. Anyway there is no need for you to be (I hope)purposefully obtuse...
- mcv 4y ago
  Yes, and that's why he's getting worshipped, and that's what's making him go off the rails here.
- qwytw 4y ago
  Any optimization he might do is unlikely to offset the cost of servicing the debt he offloaded to Twitter's balance sheet after the acquisition. So at 5% interest the yearly cost is 650 million, even at some obscene and unrealistic payroll per employee (including not only developers), like let's say 400k he'd have to fire over 1600 people just to balance this out. There is no way to spin this positively. Also due to no more RSUs cash comp for remaining employee would need to increase. Add to that the the loss in advertisement revenue do to obvious reasons. Taking these facts into account could you please explain how is Musk NOT a liability to Twitter? He basically spent 31 billion (plus 13 billion he offload to Twitter) just to buy the trademark and the user base (and some proportion of advertisers...). From a financial standpoint that's an objectively terrible deal. Musk might have other goals and that's great but in no way this is comparable to Tesla or SpaceX. >But he did change the world with his companies already, didn't he? History is full of examples of extraordinary successful people who get blinded by their own success and start thinking that they are infallible. This ussually results which in pretty unhinged behavior when they get older. Musk does not seem like the most grounded person ever so he's likely at a much higher risk of this than almost every tech billionaire I can think of.
  - mirekrusin 4y ago
    also: History is full of examples of extraordinary successful people [period]. Maybe somebody with Musk track record can be seen as more credible than some random "qwytw" on the internet? I mean incentives are on his side, aren't they? For one his famous. It's his toy, so he won't let it disappear into irrelevance without fighting for it. There are not many people currently alive with comparable track record, being recognized world wide, with deep pockets like him. What if in few years time from now people will be stepping on each other writing posts and books on how they really knew all of that from the beginning, that obviously he was right etc. - doesn't sound unreal or alien to me, quite opposite actually. To be honest, I don't even think anything extraordinary needs to happen for all of it to work out just fine. For all people saying technically it's not just rendering short messages - well it is just that at the end. Look at stackoverflow - most people don't realize it's just single monolith application running on 6 servers - all of it. There are still thousands of people employed there, which feels like too many if anything.
octodog 4y ago
This is a ridiculous take and you are not really adding anything to the discussion. Musk has successfully run companies in the past and is running two extremely successful companies right now.
- Hnrobert42 4y ago
  I disagree. GP was pointing out that GGP was deifying Musk in sort of a cult of personality. I didn’t notice that until GP’s post.
- hcazz 4y ago
  To play devil's advocate for a bit, are you certain he's solely responsible for the successes of SpaceX/Tesla, or that those companies succeeded in spite of his leadership? In case it isn't clear, I agree with the parent comment. In the same tone as the comment above the parent, you could also write "Thing is - Elon Musk knows a thing or two about sexual harassment lawsuits. It's inevitable that he will have another at Twitter." Stop idolizing billionaires. >Musk has successfully run companies in the past and is running two extremely successful companies right now. Is he actually running those companies, or is he posting selfies of whiteboards at 1:30am showing architecture diagrams of Twitter? In these markets, after he was nearly forced by courts into completing a purchase deal for Twitter after making an overpriced offer, I'm genuinely curious to see how he pays the ~$1b in interest per year on the debt to purchase Twitter.
  - GoOnThenDoTell 4y ago
    He can just sell more tesla stock, its a fake financial problem he’s being loud about
  - kortilla 4y ago
    > Stop idolizing billionaires. Stop saying this in discussions about one particular person. It’s as useful as saying “stop idolizing millionaires” when someone says they like Hillary Clinton as a Presidential Candidate.
    - 4y ago
kortilla 4y ago
> Stop worshipping billionaires. This is a vapid over-generalization designed to dismiss any statements by attaching them to the wealth, not the person. Don’t do this. Nobody is talking about the Waltons, Buffet, Larry Ellison, etc. This is a discussion about Musk specifically and his history of operating companies.
- henrikschroder 4y ago
  The US has been formed religiously by various congregations that descend from Calvinism, which teaches that hard work earns you the grace of God. In modern times, this has morphed into Prosperity Gospel which teaches that if you are loved by God, you will become materially successful, as well as the flipside; if you are materially successful, you must therefore be loved by God. The billionaire worship is simply the secular version of this faith. X made billions of dollars by owning a business that does Y, therefore X must be an expert on Y, and businesses in general, and is a genius, and is a morally superior person. Otherwise X wouldn't be a billionaire, because - horror of all horrors - the world is just, isn't it? It couldn't be the case that X just got lucky, can it? Surely, X has earned their billions, right?
  - kortilla 4y ago
    You’re still fixating on the wealth part, which people on this site (at least the arguments I see upvoted) do not. People are “worshipping” Musk because of his repeated success in making successful large innovative businesses. The wealth he has is a product of that, but the deference is to the success of the companies.

mirekrusin 4y ago

You could say that if he was new to the party. But he did change the world with his companies already, didn't he?

ldng 4y ago
Really? Has he ?
- bobsmooth 4y ago
  Before Tesla, EVs were a joke. Before SpaceX, satellite internet was a joke.
  - qwytw 4y ago
    And that makes him infallible? If anyone else but Musk bought Twitter and started doing what he did they'd be the laughing stock of the financial world. His reputation is the only thing keeping him afloat (in this specific case, he might still do great with SpaceX and Tesla but so what? People like Jobs, Buffet, Gates etc. also made significant blunders at some points in their career)
    - mirekrusin 4y ago
      It makes him more credible than random dudes on internet.
      - qwytw 4y ago
        Or you know... you could try looking at facts and data an try to form your own opinion.
        mirekrusin 4y ago
        I think Musk did better homework on it than you.
        qwytw 4y ago
        Or maybe Musk has different goals. Anyway there is no need for you to be (I hope)purposefully obtuse...
mcv 4y ago
Yes, and that's why he's getting worshipped, and that's what's making him go off the rails here.
qwytw 4y ago
Any optimization he might do is unlikely to offset the cost of servicing the debt he offloaded to Twitter's balance sheet after the acquisition. So at 5% interest the yearly cost is 650 million, even at some obscene and unrealistic payroll per employee (including not only developers), like let's say 400k he'd have to fire over 1600 people just to balance this out. There is no way to spin this positively. Also due to no more RSUs cash comp for remaining employee would need to increase. Add to that the the loss in advertisement revenue do to obvious reasons. Taking these facts into account could you please explain how is Musk NOT a liability to Twitter? He basically spent 31 billion (plus 13 billion he offload to Twitter) just to buy the trademark and the user base (and some proportion of advertisers...). From a financial standpoint that's an objectively terrible deal. Musk might have other goals and that's great but in no way this is comparable to Tesla or SpaceX. >But he did change the world with his companies already, didn't he? History is full of examples of extraordinary successful people who get blinded by their own success and start thinking that they are infallible. This ussually results which in pretty unhinged behavior when they get older. Musk does not seem like the most grounded person ever so he's likely at a much higher risk of this than almost every tech billionaire I can think of.
- mirekrusin 4y ago
  also: History is full of examples of extraordinary successful people [period]. Maybe somebody with Musk track record can be seen as more credible than some random "qwytw" on the internet? I mean incentives are on his side, aren't they? For one his famous. It's his toy, so he won't let it disappear into irrelevance without fighting for it. There are not many people currently alive with comparable track record, being recognized world wide, with deep pockets like him. What if in few years time from now people will be stepping on each other writing posts and books on how they really knew all of that from the beginning, that obviously he was right etc. - doesn't sound unreal or alien to me, quite opposite actually. To be honest, I don't even think anything extraordinary needs to happen for all of it to work out just fine. For all people saying technically it's not just rendering short messages - well it is just that at the end. Look at stackoverflow - most people don't realize it's just single monolith application running on 6 servers - all of it. There are still thousands of people employed there, which feels like too many if anything.

octodog 4y ago

This is a ridiculous take and you are not really adding anything to the discussion. Musk has successfully run companies in the past and is running two extremely successful companies right now.

Hnrobert42 4y ago
I disagree. GP was pointing out that GGP was deifying Musk in sort of a cult of personality. I didn’t notice that until GP’s post.
hcazz 4y ago
To play devil's advocate for a bit, are you certain he's solely responsible for the successes of SpaceX/Tesla, or that those companies succeeded in spite of his leadership? In case it isn't clear, I agree with the parent comment. In the same tone as the comment above the parent, you could also write "Thing is - Elon Musk knows a thing or two about sexual harassment lawsuits. It's inevitable that he will have another at Twitter." Stop idolizing billionaires. >Musk has successfully run companies in the past and is running two extremely successful companies right now. Is he actually running those companies, or is he posting selfies of whiteboards at 1:30am showing architecture diagrams of Twitter? In these markets, after he was nearly forced by courts into completing a purchase deal for Twitter after making an overpriced offer, I'm genuinely curious to see how he pays the ~$1b in interest per year on the debt to purchase Twitter.
- GoOnThenDoTell 4y ago
  He can just sell more tesla stock, its a fake financial problem he’s being loud about
- kortilla 4y ago
  > Stop idolizing billionaires. Stop saying this in discussions about one particular person. It’s as useful as saying “stop idolizing millionaires” when someone says they like Hillary Clinton as a Presidential Candidate.
  - 4y ago

kortilla 4y ago

> Stop worshipping billionaires. This is a vapid over-generalization designed to dismiss any statements by attaching them to the wealth, not the person. Don’t do this. Nobody is talking about the Waltons, Buffet, Larry Ellison, etc. This is a discussion about Musk specifically and his history of operating companies.

henrikschroder 4y ago
The US has been formed religiously by various congregations that descend from Calvinism, which teaches that hard work earns you the grace of God. In modern times, this has morphed into Prosperity Gospel which teaches that if you are loved by God, you will become materially successful, as well as the flipside; if you are materially successful, you must therefore be loved by God. The billionaire worship is simply the secular version of this faith. X made billions of dollars by owning a business that does Y, therefore X must be an expert on Y, and businesses in general, and is a genius, and is a morally superior person. Otherwise X wouldn't be a billionaire, because - horror of all horrors - the world is just, isn't it? It couldn't be the case that X just got lucky, can it? Surely, X has earned their billions, right?
- kortilla 4y ago
  You’re still fixating on the wealth part, which people on this site (at least the arguments I see upvoted) do not. People are “worshipping” Musk because of his repeated success in making successful large innovative businesses. The wealth he has is a product of that, but the deference is to the success of the companies.