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> Things that seem to be clear at this point: > - Musk has at least some level of interest in solving the fundamental problem of how to build and manage a publi

> Things that seem to be clear at this point: > - Musk has at least some level of interest in solving the fundamental problem of how to build and manage a public square, even if the purchase of twitter itself was initially presented as a joke It’s interesting how different people can see the same thing and reach opposite conclusions. It’s crystal clear to me that Musk has no interest in solving these problems.

plaidfuji 4y ago
The evidence is very noisy, for sure. My only basis for this is the private text exchange with Jack Dorsey where they discussed how Twitter should have been built. To me that’s the only true window into his intentions - all other public comms are tainted by other potential motivations. To me, Musk is kind of the quintessential engineering bro, who’s fundamentally motivated by wanting to be the one who solves the trickiest problems. Sometimes his actual decision-making is influenced by vanity and voyeurism, but the underlying theme seems to be rooted in problem-solving.
- bmitc 4y ago
  It's not noisy at all. It's perfectly clear. > My only basis for this is the private text exchange with Jack Dorsey where they discussed how Twitter should have been built. To me that’s the only true window into his intentions - all other public comms are tainted by other potential motivations. You have to understand that text message thread in context. It's two narcissistic billionaires who think they're above everyone else talking to each other. It's a sort of billionaire pissing contest where they both also pat each other on the back. It's two people thinking they're the smartest in the room. It just so happens they were the only ones in the room. For Dorsey, if he knew how Twitter should have been built since the beginning, then why didn't he do so? He claims to have known this from the start, but he was in full control for years. Musk was just chiming in to showcase that he gets it, whatever it is.
- gamblor956 4y ago
  And yet, Musk has never solved "the trickiest problems." He simply does "first order thinking" that conveniently ignores the real issues with whatever he claims he's solving. (See, e.g., Hyperloop, Boring Co, Cybertruck, FSD, Tesla's robotic factory, the cave submarine, etc.) At every step of the way, Musk is just cosplaying as an engineer and interfering with the actual work being done.
  - mrguyorama 4y ago
    It's like the time he was on a podcast and promised that the next tesla would have "cold gas thrusters", literally a tank of pressurized gas that it was going to use as thrust to make it accelerate faster. Plenty of engineers worth their salt recognized right away that this is on it's face stupid, and has no point. Even if you didn't feel it in your gut, a back of the envelope calculation shows how stupid it is. And yet, stupid people fawned over it, saying crap like he's putting rockets in the tesla and other hyped up nonsense. Some tried to backpeddle "oh it was a joke". It wasn't a joke, elon has been spouting bullshit, often technobabble for decades and whenever somebody calls him on it he handwaves it away and sicks his fans on them. Of course he genuinely thought that was a genius idea. It's always been laughable and disgusting to call him an engineer. It's an insult to people who actually went through school, who didn't fake their degree, who didn't shirk classes to do whatever instead. An insult to the people who sometimes have to sign their name to a structure on pain of lawsuit. He should have NO credibility in any educated field. Of course, devs often like for exactly that reason, since they love to cosplay engineers too, as if our bubble gum and duct tape plumbing industry could be considered engineering.
    - wruza 4y ago
      Your take on devs isn’t quite fair, as if being a real engineer magically makes one a much better duct tape plumber who can ship their bathroom on time, in software. There’s also hordes of regular engineers who generate and produce nonsense, you can tell it by just looking into appliances or computer parts.
bmitc 4y ago
I agree with you, and it's eye-opening that anyone would think that the original sentiment was clear. What has happened is that Musk has been turning Twitter into his little play pen, exactly what all the critics said would happen, but he is experiencing a lot more pushback than he expected. So in typical fashion, he's wanting to bow out to save face because he can't solve the problem and doesn't really want to, which is why he tried bailing out of the purchase in the first place. Has the grandparent comment already forgot about that? He was just grandstanding and then got caught with his foot in his mouth, and then he just wanted to be fawned over once he was forced to complete the purchase. He doesn't care about solving the problems. If he did, he would have better understood things before firing >50% of the workforce and several other steps he skipped because he constrained himself by massively overpaying for Twitter.
braingenious 4y ago
I think a lot of people treat Elon Musk like their own personal self-insert character in a piece of fan fiction. The fanclub of temporarily-embarrassed-billionaires cannot square the reality of him just being some rich idiot trust fund kid playing dressup as Serious Business Man with his dad’s apartheid emerald money with their idea that they too can become unimaginably wealthy if they just find the right amphetamine-to-shroom-microdose ratio.

plaidfuji 4y ago

The evidence is very noisy, for sure. My only basis for this is the private text exchange with Jack Dorsey where they discussed how Twitter should have been built. To me that’s the only true window into his intentions - all other public comms are tainted by other potential motivations. To me, Musk is kind of the quintessential engineering bro, who’s fundamentally motivated by wanting to be the one who solves the trickiest problems. Sometimes his actual decision-making is influenced by vanity and voyeurism, but the underlying theme seems to be rooted in problem-solving.

bmitc 4y ago
It's not noisy at all. It's perfectly clear. > My only basis for this is the private text exchange with Jack Dorsey where they discussed how Twitter should have been built. To me that’s the only true window into his intentions - all other public comms are tainted by other potential motivations. You have to understand that text message thread in context. It's two narcissistic billionaires who think they're above everyone else talking to each other. It's a sort of billionaire pissing contest where they both also pat each other on the back. It's two people thinking they're the smartest in the room. It just so happens they were the only ones in the room. For Dorsey, if he knew how Twitter should have been built since the beginning, then why didn't he do so? He claims to have known this from the start, but he was in full control for years. Musk was just chiming in to showcase that he gets it, whatever it is.
gamblor956 4y ago
And yet, Musk has never solved "the trickiest problems." He simply does "first order thinking" that conveniently ignores the real issues with whatever he claims he's solving. (See, e.g., Hyperloop, Boring Co, Cybertruck, FSD, Tesla's robotic factory, the cave submarine, etc.) At every step of the way, Musk is just cosplaying as an engineer and interfering with the actual work being done.
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  It's like the time he was on a podcast and promised that the next tesla would have "cold gas thrusters", literally a tank of pressurized gas that it was going to use as thrust to make it accelerate faster. Plenty of engineers worth their salt recognized right away that this is on it's face stupid, and has no point. Even if you didn't feel it in your gut, a back of the envelope calculation shows how stupid it is. And yet, stupid people fawned over it, saying crap like he's putting rockets in the tesla and other hyped up nonsense. Some tried to backpeddle "oh it was a joke". It wasn't a joke, elon has been spouting bullshit, often technobabble for decades and whenever somebody calls him on it he handwaves it away and sicks his fans on them. Of course he genuinely thought that was a genius idea. It's always been laughable and disgusting to call him an engineer. It's an insult to people who actually went through school, who didn't fake their degree, who didn't shirk classes to do whatever instead. An insult to the people who sometimes have to sign their name to a structure on pain of lawsuit. He should have NO credibility in any educated field. Of course, devs often like for exactly that reason, since they love to cosplay engineers too, as if our bubble gum and duct tape plumbing industry could be considered engineering.
  - wruza 4y ago
    Your take on devs isn’t quite fair, as if being a real engineer magically makes one a much better duct tape plumber who can ship their bathroom on time, in software. There’s also hordes of regular engineers who generate and produce nonsense, you can tell it by just looking into appliances or computer parts.

bmitc 4y ago

I agree with you, and it's eye-opening that anyone would think that the original sentiment was clear. What has happened is that Musk has been turning Twitter into his little play pen, exactly what all the critics said would happen, but he is experiencing a lot more pushback than he expected. So in typical fashion, he's wanting to bow out to save face because he can't solve the problem and doesn't really want to, which is why he tried bailing out of the purchase in the first place. Has the grandparent comment already forgot about that? He was just grandstanding and then got caught with his foot in his mouth, and then he just wanted to be fawned over once he was forced to complete the purchase. He doesn't care about solving the problems. If he did, he would have better understood things before firing >50% of the workforce and several other steps he skipped because he constrained himself by massively overpaying for Twitter.

braingenious 4y ago

I think a lot of people treat Elon Musk like their own personal self-insert character in a piece of fan fiction. The fanclub of temporarily-embarrassed-billionaires cannot square the reality of him just being some rich idiot trust fund kid playing dressup as Serious Business Man with his dad’s apartheid emerald money with their idea that they too can become unimaginably wealthy if they just find the right amphetamine-to-shroom-microdose ratio.