11 ms·

call a spade a spade: this is a last-ditch effort coming about six months too late. In the seven months since Musk bought the company he singlehandedly fired

call a spade a spade: this is a last-ditch effort coming about six months too late. In the seven months since Musk bought the company he singlehandedly fired nearly every employee, accidentally locked the remainder out of the headquarters, turned blue-check validation into a living nightmare for international brands, un-banned some of the most notorious and repugnant users from white nationalists to bigots and racists, mis-branded news outlets as state-sponsored, threatened to open a news agency to impersonation on his platform, cancelled most of the API, and tried to extort the very brands his platform depended on in a cash-for-validation scheme that backfired spectacularly. This is 44bn of musks backing investors finally waking up to the fact that the willy-wonka they trusted to shepherd a communications platform was in fact just a billionaire heir to an emerald mine on track to grift them out of their dosh for his own petty feud with 'the libs.' Frankly its astounding theyre permitting musk to continue to do anything at all, albeit i suspect his new r&d role is about as authentic as his college credentials.

sixQuarks 3y ago
You are severely misinformed. You just repeated all the BS talking points from the MSM. Stop reading clickbait and actually follow the guy closely if you want to know what's going on.
- fckgw 3y ago
  It's literally a list of all the things he actually, factually did. Maybe you're the one who is misinformed?
  - switchbak 3y ago
    The editorializing going on there is miles away from being an objective summary.
- ubermonkey 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    > Look, found an Elon stan Comment stronger without the name calling.
    - ubermonkey 3y ago
      [flagged]
  - snarkyturtle 3y ago
    Most of those aren't even allegations they happened in the open for everyone to see.
  - stiltzkin 3y ago
    Using names like a redditor.
  - mellosouls 3y ago
    LOL. Look, found an Elon stan. LOL. Look, found an NPC. Etc etc Not helpful or constructive.
- swalsh 3y ago
  have to agree, I love new Twitter. No complaints, it's working great for me. The content matching is just fine... and as a blue subscriber I seem to actually get interactions when I post, which makes me want to keep posting.
  - matsemann 3y ago
    I hate how blues are boosted to the top, since most of them are unhinged and derail all discussion. My solution is that on my tweets, I hide most blue comments. Pay me $8 if you want to be unhidden and seen, lol.
colpabar 3y ago
> Just two more weeks and it's gonna collapse this time I swear!
- runesofdoom 3y ago
  It's going to collapse when the lawsuits from the former employees (from the C-suite down to janitors) catch up, and when the fines from the FCC and EU hit. That could be 3 months or 18, but it's going to happen unless there's a complete about face at Twitter.
  - nomel 3y ago
    Which lawsuits, specifically?
    - runesofdoom 3y ago
      All the fired employees Musk didn't treat as he was obligated to. From the former CEO [1], to the rank and file [2], down to the contracted out janitors [3]. 1.https://www.google.com/amp/s/fortune.com/2023/04/11/twitter-former-managers-sue-elon-musk-for-not-paying-legal-fees/amp/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/fortune.com/2023/04/11/twitter-... 2.https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/musks-twitter-layoffs-generate-thousands-of-legal-headaches https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/musks-twitt... 3.https://www.kqed.org/news/11935439/fired-twitter-janitors-demand-jobs-back-as-union-files-unfair-labor-charges-threatens-to-sue https://www.kqed.org/news/11935439/fired-twitter-janitors-de...
- Culonavirus 3y ago
  Let's see: - $$$ from the blue (new thing) - $$$ from subscriptions (new thing) - $$$ from almost all advertisers returning - effective $$$ from cutting the workforce by a small stadium worth of people - ad revenue sharing in development - long form video in development - streaming video/podcasts in development - encrypted dms being tested And that's all there or coming in hot over the next few months. Pretty damn good for a company that apparently just barely operates if you listen to its detractors. Over a couple of years it will morph into #1 news and media site on the planet (it's not really a social network).
FredPret 3y ago
You not agreeing with his choices != Twitter is doomed. I've noticed zero difference as a too-frequent daily user. In fact, Twitter seems more fun now. Plus, community notes are sorely needed. In addition to all that, I'm also seeing an uptick in activity on my business account.
- BryantD 3y ago
  Community notes existed way before Musk, FWIW.
  - FredPret 3y ago
    Never saw one until he took over
    - jsheard 3y ago
      It was in beta for a limited number of users exclusively in the US, but it certainly already existed before he took over. The feature was announced as "Birdwatch" at the beginning of 2021, Elons only contributions were renaming it to "Community Notes", and getting it out of beta if you're feeling generous, but that probably would have happened without him. https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/product/2021/introducing-birdwatch-a-community-based-approach-to-misinformation https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/product/2021/introduci...
    - mrguyorama 3y ago
      You being unaware of history is not the same as that history not existing.
      - FredPret 3y ago
        It is if that history is called "community notes" and the idea of it is to widely disseminate facts on Twitter. If I never saw one as a daily user, they didn't exist, or didn't work.
- FactKnower69 3y ago
stronglikedan 3y ago
And it's a better than ever experience for the average Twitter user such as myself, so a win-win all around!
- erk__ 3y ago
  How has your experience on Twitter gotten better over the last half year? And are you sure that you are "The average Twitter user" since I am not even sure what that really means.
  - distrill 3y ago
    people who like elon musk feel better using musk's twitter, so their experience is probably objectively better since he took over. people who dislike elon musk feel worse using musk's twitter, so their experience is probably objectively worse since he took over. i really don't think it's much more deep than that.
  - spaceman_2020 3y ago
    Personally, my experience remains almost entirely unchanged, so I’ve never really understood what the whole “Twitter is dead” stuff was about. I am salty about the Twitter API though
    - mrguyorama 3y ago
      My use of twitter has been made worse. There's always a popup nag now to "create an account" where I never had one before
      - nickthegreek 3y ago
        and you cant search without having an account or being logged in.
      - spaceman_2020 3y ago
        So Twitter is now like…everyone else? Instagram, Facebook and even Reddit (on mobile) don’t let you see their content without a login prompt either. Yet there are no 100 articles about Reddit dying.
vkou 3y ago
Considering that amplifying alt-right populism was half the point of buying Twitter, you shouldn't list that as a con of his tenure.
saberience 3y ago
The "Elon had it easy because he had a fortune from emerald mining" is total bollocks. He was certainly not "rich" when he came to US and was in university here, and when he badly needed money at the beginning of Tesla and SpaceX there was certainly no secret backup of "Emerald Mine" money. I'm not sure where this rubbish conspiracy came from but if there was Emerald Mine money there wasn't much of it. You may not like to hear it, but Elon's big start came from the success of X and Paypal which then bankrolled the beginnings of SpaceX and Tesla, it wasn't from a rich daddy.
- ep103 3y ago
  > Elon's big start came from the success of X and Paypal Funny you mention this as why he was self-made, where by all accounts he was considered an awful coder in this Paypal position, and was only able to be in the country (illegally) at the time, or secure this job, was because of his family's money and connections.
  - colpabar 3y ago
    can you post a link to one of the "all accounts" you're referring to?
    - hardwaregeek 3y ago
      I wouldn't say awful but it's clear that he and Max Levchin did not see eye to eye, at least judging from Levchin's interview in Founders At Work. Musk pushed for them to move from Unix to Windows and Levchin disagreed with that move.
      - FireBeyond 3y ago
        > Musk pushed for them to move from Unix to Windows and Levchin disagreed with that move. Because Musk's push came from no objective reason beyond he "didn't know it". The Board said "you're the CEO, you don't need to know all the technologies".
      - 3y ago
awill 3y ago
This is very well written and made me laugh. When you're objective about it, it's all accurate, and pretty shocking. What's shocking to me is that Elon could be so successful at Tesla, and fail so spectacularly at Twitter. Of course the skills are different, but the general skillset of being a COE and not making stupid business decisions should be universal. Also, he claimed Twitter was losing millions per day and that's why he had to fire everyone, when in reality, the millions per day in loses were interest on the loan he'd used to buy Twitter. So he created the problem, and then blamed that. Pretty shocking.
- alexose 3y ago
  I wonder if part of his "effectiveness" is that he seems so willing to burn everything down. As long as he preserves this image, he can maintain a level of control that other CEOs can't. Kind of the CEO version of the Madman Theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madman_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madman_theory
- dylan604 3y ago
  Isn't it in the news now or very very recently that Tesla isn't really run by Musk as much as people might think?
  - pclmulqdq 3y ago
    Reportedly the leadership of SpaceX manages him like he's a medieval boy king. They spend a lot of time figuring out how to get him to come to the right conclusions and making him feel like he's in charge. I would bet that Tesla does the same thing. Twitter didn't have this management layer, and we have now seen the result.
    - a1pulley 3y ago
      > Reportedly the leadership of SpaceX manages him like he's a medieval boy king A family friend who works closely with Elon at SpaceX puts it like, "you have to make him believe that your technical conclusions and recommendations are actually his to have any hope of traction." Otherwise, even if you're proven right years later when Elon's strategy fails, he will hold you to task for, "not convincing him hard enough."
tehjoker 3y ago
I agree with all this, except for the part where he accurately described US media as state sponsored. The US state works for US corporations and US corporations own the media. Also, NPR does get some public money.
- Lendal 3y ago
  Less than 1% of NPR funding is from govt. Tesla and SpaceX get far more public money than NPR does. $7500 per vehicle subsidy. Lucrative NASA contracts.
  - tehjoker 3y ago
    You're forgetting the corporate funding and that their editorial line parrots the state department. Also, SpaceX deployed Starlink to provide guidance to (US provided) Ukrainian weapons. Field commanders said without it they wouldn't be in the fight. That sounds aligned with US foreign policy and statecraft to me. They backpedaled after the use of the technology became so aggressive it would be reputationally damaging for starlink. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64579267 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64579267
  - mensetmanusman 3y ago
    SpaceX is a subsidy to the government now saving NASA hundreds of millions on launches.
    - pclmulqdq 3y ago
      Citation needed. Several sources at the air force are saying that launches are more expensive from SpaceX than other providers.
      - hersko 3y ago
        I imagine the only people saying that are those benefiting from the ULA contracts.
ChildOfChaos 3y ago
Yet, twitter has been going along just fine, despite all the negative press, nay sayers and nonsense you have been talking about. Not to say Musk has been a little careless with his communication through all of this, but still, people want to sit in front of there computer and think they know better.
mrtksn 3y ago
Musk has some good ideas among the bad ones, I'm kind of happy with the developments. It was fun to watch removing pieces of the company and infrastructure, it was fun to see him expose himself as Free-speech NIMBY. It was fun to see how much people are willing to pay for status. All the risks about the fascists and media manipulations? Well, all those had been realised already, Twitter was horrible place. It kind of improved actually. If everything goes south, It's on the Musk and company's tab anyway. So, en expensive drama to watch on some rich people's dime.
whywhywhywhy 3y ago
>he singlehandedly fired nearly every employee, accidentally locked the remainder out of the headquarters And yet the site still works and engagement is up. >mis-branded news outlets as state-sponsored, BBC is state sponsored as long as they larp as an arm of the government with their fake “TV Licensing” arm with threats of government punishment for not paying. If they want to stop doing that then they can claim independence but while they use government powers and police to fund themselves through threats, they’re state sponsored.
lerchmo 3y ago
The emerald mine + hand wavy dismissal of his achievements is pretty wishful thinking. You can be totally repulsed by his behavior and trolling. But he has taken a few giant swings and hit them out of the park.
nwatson 3y ago
Elon should not walk into any Saudi embassies or consulates. Anywhere. Any time.
rozal 3y ago
Tldr for above comment: I hate Elon so much
JyB 3y ago
I seriously cannot tell if this comment is supposed to be taken as sarcasm.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
0xDEF 3y ago
The @CommunityNotes feature is genius but it's too slow on disinfo related to the Russia/Ukraine war and it doesn't work against people like AOC and Tucker Carlson who have big extremely loyal fanbases that mark notes as "not needed".
samstave 3y ago
Where exactly did that $44 billion go? With the tax incentives Twitter had from SF, and the massive layoffs... There was a fuck-ton of money that went somplace... to where?
- compiler-guy 3y ago
  The shareholders. Anyone who had stock in Twitter got a big pile of cash.
  - samstave 3y ago
    [flagged]
- pclmulqdq 3y ago
  To all the former owners of Twitter. Twitter never controlled it.
- zdp7 3y ago
  The 44B was to buy ownership of Twitter. It went to the shareholders.
  - samstave 3y ago
    So what audience did this equate to WRT Musk with the top "shareholders"?
- kaynelynn 3y ago
  To the previous shareholders of Twitter to compensate them for the shares.
  - samstave 3y ago
    So what audience did this equate to WRT Musk with the top "shareholders"?
SkyMarshal 3y ago
> This is 44bn of musks backing investors finally waking up to the fact that the willy-wonka they trusted to shepherd a communications platform was in fact just a billionaire heir to an emerald mine In his investors’ defense, Elon had a singular track record prior to Twitter. And his proposal to turn Twitter into X, aka US—based WeChat, was not a terrible one. It was an expensive investment, but there was a plausible positive outcome. His complete and total bungling of it all would have been difficult to predict in advance based only on what was known then. He is seemingly oblivious to the unintended consequences and second order effects of both his actual decisions, and their rash and heavy-handed manner. It’s odd, and not surprising they forced a professional CEO on him.
- ericmay 3y ago
  The thing is he really could have done it. But he went "rich person crazy" and lost it all instead. Really sad to see. Marc Andreessen said something like " Taylor Swift announces her concert on Twitter and then you go buy the tickets on Ticketmaster - why not buy them on Twitter?" 100%
Andrew_nenakhov 3y ago
I, for one, believe that Twitter is better now than it was before. But I'm a free speech proponent, and very not in favour of a previous approach of banning and muffling anyone who fell out of party line. I think the stance on this issue greatly influences how one perceives changes at twitter.
stainablesteel 3y ago
what's crystal clear to me is that your specific echo bubble (we all have one), advertises constant negative press about him. it doesn't make it real, twitter is booming and people love him more than ever i hope you someday find the happiness to stop micro-observing everything about what elon is doing in his day to day life
- citizenkeen 3y ago
  > In the seven months since Musk bought the company he singlehandedly fired nearly every employee, accidentally locked the remainder out of the headquarters, turned blue-check validation into a living nightmare for international brands, un-banned some of the most notorious and repugnant users from white nationalists to bigots and racists, mis-branded news outlets as state-sponsored, threatened to open a news agency to impersonation on his platform, cancelled most of the API, and tried to extort the very brands his platform depended on in a cash-for-validation scheme that backfired spectacularly. Which one of those claims wasn't real?
  - concordDance 3y ago
    "Singlehandedly fired nearly every employee" <- false for normal uses of "nearly every", going from 8000 to 1500 but a ton will be voluntary leavers "turned blue-check validation into a living nightmare for international brands" <- brands now have yellow checks "mis-branded news outlets as state-sponsored" <- all the ones with that label that I'm aware of have state funding
  - stainablesteel 3y ago
    what isn't real is the disaster you're trying to paint, its the framing elon's a great guy who does amazing work, and twitter is booming, making more money than ever even
- matwood 3y ago
  > twitter is booming and people love him more than ever Booming with cat and dog torture videos? https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/cat-dog-torture-videos-litter-twitter-adding-concerns-moderation-rcna84190 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/cat-dog-torture-video...
concordDance 3y ago
That's an amazing gish gallop you have there. Every single entry being misleading, wrong or lacking important context.
jackmott42 3y ago
Only correction I would add here is the emerald mine is a red herring, if it existed at all Elon didn't get any significant money out of it.
syngrog66 3y ago
most of what you said rang true. except the "wealth from emerald mine" attack. that appears to be a myth his big score was PayPal, and it seeded what followed. Tesla and SpaceX very early almost wrecked him financially we can criticize his Twitter shenanigans. but he's clearly a workaholic, highly effective, and helped put humanity in a better place (via SpaceX and Tesla, anyway
wbharding 3y ago
Wow, a much more vitriolic first comment than I would expect from HN. The last six months has not lacked for Musk-hating enthusiasts howling “Twitter is dead.” But when I look at Google Trends, its story is that interest in Twitter is almost identical to where it was 5 years ago. Doesn’t seem so dead to me? Have Musks changes have been net positive or negative? No shortage of internet opinion on that Q. Regardless of one’s personal feelings on it, it seems hard to dispute that Twitter moves faster than before. I consider that no small feat given how much legacy code and bureaucracy the company had at the time of his acquisition. If he can free more of his time by making this hire, I am looking forward to seeing whether that translates to even faster iteration times. pg and all the others I followed are still there, so still plenty of potential to create quality entertainment/learning w less regret than Facebook
908B64B197 3y ago
> cancelled most of the API, and tried to extort the very brands his platform depended on in a cash-for-validation scheme that backfired spectacularly. Rumor has it they lacked the manpower to actually keep the API running and it was a last-ditch attempt at getting rid of bots. Same bots who flocked to the platform after the layoffs started since people in charge of mitigating these were fired. Firing abuse and content moderation teams meant there was a lot more unsavory spam on the platform and advertisers didn't want any of it near their brand. In a few week Twitter lost half of it's top 100 biggest advertisers [0] and it doesn't seem they are coming back. What's crazy to think about is that, despite being "bloated" Twitter managed to have profitable quarters pre-acquisition. [0] https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-lost-half-top-advertisers-elon-musk-takeover-report-2022-11 https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-lost-half-top-advert...

sixQuarks 3y ago

You are severely misinformed. You just repeated all the BS talking points from the MSM. Stop reading clickbait and actually follow the guy closely if you want to know what's going on.

fckgw 3y ago
It's literally a list of all the things he actually, factually did. Maybe you're the one who is misinformed?
- switchbak 3y ago
  The editorializing going on there is miles away from being an objective summary.
ubermonkey 3y ago
[flagged]
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > Look, found an Elon stan Comment stronger without the name calling.
  - ubermonkey 3y ago
    [flagged]
- snarkyturtle 3y ago
  Most of those aren't even allegations they happened in the open for everyone to see.
- stiltzkin 3y ago
  Using names like a redditor.
- mellosouls 3y ago
  LOL. Look, found an Elon stan. LOL. Look, found an NPC. Etc etc Not helpful or constructive.
swalsh 3y ago
have to agree, I love new Twitter. No complaints, it's working great for me. The content matching is just fine... and as a blue subscriber I seem to actually get interactions when I post, which makes me want to keep posting.
- matsemann 3y ago
  I hate how blues are boosted to the top, since most of them are unhinged and derail all discussion. My solution is that on my tweets, I hide most blue comments. Pay me $8 if you want to be unhidden and seen, lol.

colpabar 3y ago

> Just two more weeks and it's gonna collapse this time I swear!

runesofdoom 3y ago
It's going to collapse when the lawsuits from the former employees (from the C-suite down to janitors) catch up, and when the fines from the FCC and EU hit. That could be 3 months or 18, but it's going to happen unless there's a complete about face at Twitter.
- nomel 3y ago
  Which lawsuits, specifically?
  - runesofdoom 3y ago
    All the fired employees Musk didn't treat as he was obligated to. From the former CEO [1], to the rank and file [2], down to the contracted out janitors [3]. 1.https://www.google.com/amp/s/fortune.com/2023/04/11/twitter-former-managers-sue-elon-musk-for-not-paying-legal-fees/amp/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/fortune.com/2023/04/11/twitter-... 2.https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/musks-twitter-layoffs-generate-thousands-of-legal-headaches https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/musks-twitt... 3.https://www.kqed.org/news/11935439/fired-twitter-janitors-demand-jobs-back-as-union-files-unfair-labor-charges-threatens-to-sue https://www.kqed.org/news/11935439/fired-twitter-janitors-de...
Culonavirus 3y ago
Let's see: - $$$ from the blue (new thing) - $$$ from subscriptions (new thing) - $$$ from almost all advertisers returning - effective $$$ from cutting the workforce by a small stadium worth of people - ad revenue sharing in development - long form video in development - streaming video/podcasts in development - encrypted dms being tested And that's all there or coming in hot over the next few months. Pretty damn good for a company that apparently just barely operates if you listen to its detractors. Over a couple of years it will morph into #1 news and media site on the planet (it's not really a social network).

FredPret 3y ago

You not agreeing with his choices != Twitter is doomed. I've noticed zero difference as a too-frequent daily user. In fact, Twitter seems more fun now. Plus, community notes are sorely needed. In addition to all that, I'm also seeing an uptick in activity on my business account.

BryantD 3y ago
Community notes existed way before Musk, FWIW.
- FredPret 3y ago
  Never saw one until he took over
  - jsheard 3y ago
    It was in beta for a limited number of users exclusively in the US, but it certainly already existed before he took over. The feature was announced as "Birdwatch" at the beginning of 2021, Elons only contributions were renaming it to "Community Notes", and getting it out of beta if you're feeling generous, but that probably would have happened without him. https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/product/2021/introducing-birdwatch-a-community-based-approach-to-misinformation https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/product/2021/introduci...
  - mrguyorama 3y ago
    You being unaware of history is not the same as that history not existing.
    - FredPret 3y ago
      It is if that history is called "community notes" and the idea of it is to widely disseminate facts on Twitter. If I never saw one as a daily user, they didn't exist, or didn't work.
FactKnower69 3y ago

stronglikedan 3y ago

And it's a better than ever experience for the average Twitter user such as myself, so a win-win all around!

erk__ 3y ago
How has your experience on Twitter gotten better over the last half year? And are you sure that you are "The average Twitter user" since I am not even sure what that really means.
- distrill 3y ago
  people who like elon musk feel better using musk's twitter, so their experience is probably objectively better since he took over. people who dislike elon musk feel worse using musk's twitter, so their experience is probably objectively worse since he took over. i really don't think it's much more deep than that.
- spaceman_2020 3y ago
  Personally, my experience remains almost entirely unchanged, so I’ve never really understood what the whole “Twitter is dead” stuff was about. I am salty about the Twitter API though
  - mrguyorama 3y ago
    My use of twitter has been made worse. There's always a popup nag now to "create an account" where I never had one before
    - nickthegreek 3y ago
      and you cant search without having an account or being logged in.
    - spaceman_2020 3y ago
      So Twitter is now like…everyone else? Instagram, Facebook and even Reddit (on mobile) don’t let you see their content without a login prompt either. Yet there are no 100 articles about Reddit dying.

vkou 3y ago

Considering that amplifying alt-right populism was half the point of buying Twitter, you shouldn't list that as a con of his tenure.

saberience 3y ago

The "Elon had it easy because he had a fortune from emerald mining" is total bollocks. He was certainly not "rich" when he came to US and was in university here, and when he badly needed money at the beginning of Tesla and SpaceX there was certainly no secret backup of "Emerald Mine" money. I'm not sure where this rubbish conspiracy came from but if there was Emerald Mine money there wasn't much of it. You may not like to hear it, but Elon's big start came from the success of X and Paypal which then bankrolled the beginnings of SpaceX and Tesla, it wasn't from a rich daddy.

ep103 3y ago
> Elon's big start came from the success of X and Paypal Funny you mention this as why he was self-made, where by all accounts he was considered an awful coder in this Paypal position, and was only able to be in the country (illegally) at the time, or secure this job, was because of his family's money and connections.
- colpabar 3y ago
  can you post a link to one of the "all accounts" you're referring to?
  - hardwaregeek 3y ago
    I wouldn't say awful but it's clear that he and Max Levchin did not see eye to eye, at least judging from Levchin's interview in Founders At Work. Musk pushed for them to move from Unix to Windows and Levchin disagreed with that move.
    - FireBeyond 3y ago
      > Musk pushed for them to move from Unix to Windows and Levchin disagreed with that move. Because Musk's push came from no objective reason beyond he "didn't know it". The Board said "you're the CEO, you don't need to know all the technologies".
    - 3y ago

awill 3y ago

This is very well written and made me laugh. When you're objective about it, it's all accurate, and pretty shocking. What's shocking to me is that Elon could be so successful at Tesla, and fail so spectacularly at Twitter. Of course the skills are different, but the general skillset of being a COE and not making stupid business decisions should be universal. Also, he claimed Twitter was losing millions per day and that's why he had to fire everyone, when in reality, the millions per day in loses were interest on the loan he'd used to buy Twitter. So he created the problem, and then blamed that. Pretty shocking.

alexose 3y ago
I wonder if part of his "effectiveness" is that he seems so willing to burn everything down. As long as he preserves this image, he can maintain a level of control that other CEOs can't. Kind of the CEO version of the Madman Theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madman_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madman_theory
dylan604 3y ago
Isn't it in the news now or very very recently that Tesla isn't really run by Musk as much as people might think?
- pclmulqdq 3y ago
  Reportedly the leadership of SpaceX manages him like he's a medieval boy king. They spend a lot of time figuring out how to get him to come to the right conclusions and making him feel like he's in charge. I would bet that Tesla does the same thing. Twitter didn't have this management layer, and we have now seen the result.
  - a1pulley 3y ago
    > Reportedly the leadership of SpaceX manages him like he's a medieval boy king A family friend who works closely with Elon at SpaceX puts it like, "you have to make him believe that your technical conclusions and recommendations are actually his to have any hope of traction." Otherwise, even if you're proven right years later when Elon's strategy fails, he will hold you to task for, "not convincing him hard enough."

tehjoker 3y ago

I agree with all this, except for the part where he accurately described US media as state sponsored. The US state works for US corporations and US corporations own the media. Also, NPR does get some public money.

Lendal 3y ago
Less than 1% of NPR funding is from govt. Tesla and SpaceX get far more public money than NPR does. $7500 per vehicle subsidy. Lucrative NASA contracts.
- tehjoker 3y ago
  You're forgetting the corporate funding and that their editorial line parrots the state department. Also, SpaceX deployed Starlink to provide guidance to (US provided) Ukrainian weapons. Field commanders said without it they wouldn't be in the fight. That sounds aligned with US foreign policy and statecraft to me. They backpedaled after the use of the technology became so aggressive it would be reputationally damaging for starlink. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64579267 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64579267
- mensetmanusman 3y ago
  SpaceX is a subsidy to the government now saving NASA hundreds of millions on launches.
  - pclmulqdq 3y ago
    Citation needed. Several sources at the air force are saying that launches are more expensive from SpaceX than other providers.
    - hersko 3y ago
      I imagine the only people saying that are those benefiting from the ULA contracts.

ChildOfChaos 3y ago

Yet, twitter has been going along just fine, despite all the negative press, nay sayers and nonsense you have been talking about. Not to say Musk has been a little careless with his communication through all of this, but still, people want to sit in front of there computer and think they know better.

mrtksn 3y ago

Musk has some good ideas among the bad ones, I'm kind of happy with the developments. It was fun to watch removing pieces of the company and infrastructure, it was fun to see him expose himself as Free-speech NIMBY. It was fun to see how much people are willing to pay for status. All the risks about the fascists and media manipulations? Well, all those had been realised already, Twitter was horrible place. It kind of improved actually. If everything goes south, It's on the Musk and company's tab anyway. So, en expensive drama to watch on some rich people's dime.

whywhywhywhy 3y ago

>he singlehandedly fired nearly every employee, accidentally locked the remainder out of the headquarters And yet the site still works and engagement is up. >mis-branded news outlets as state-sponsored, BBC is state sponsored as long as they larp as an arm of the government with their fake “TV Licensing” arm with threats of government punishment for not paying. If they want to stop doing that then they can claim independence but while they use government powers and police to fund themselves through threats, they’re state sponsored.

lerchmo 3y ago

The emerald mine + hand wavy dismissal of his achievements is pretty wishful thinking. You can be totally repulsed by his behavior and trolling. But he has taken a few giant swings and hit them out of the park.

nwatson 3y ago

Elon should not walk into any Saudi embassies or consulates. Anywhere. Any time.

rozal 3y ago

Tldr for above comment: I hate Elon so much

JyB 3y ago

I seriously cannot tell if this comment is supposed to be taken as sarcasm.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

0xDEF 3y ago

The @CommunityNotes feature is genius but it's too slow on disinfo related to the Russia/Ukraine war and it doesn't work against people like AOC and Tucker Carlson who have big extremely loyal fanbases that mark notes as "not needed".

samstave 3y ago

Where exactly did that $44 billion go? With the tax incentives Twitter had from SF, and the massive layoffs... There was a fuck-ton of money that went somplace... to where?

compiler-guy 3y ago
The shareholders. Anyone who had stock in Twitter got a big pile of cash.
- samstave 3y ago
  [flagged]
pclmulqdq 3y ago
To all the former owners of Twitter. Twitter never controlled it.
zdp7 3y ago
The 44B was to buy ownership of Twitter. It went to the shareholders.
- samstave 3y ago
  So what audience did this equate to WRT Musk with the top "shareholders"?
kaynelynn 3y ago
To the previous shareholders of Twitter to compensate them for the shares.
- samstave 3y ago
  So what audience did this equate to WRT Musk with the top "shareholders"?

SkyMarshal 3y ago

> This is 44bn of musks backing investors finally waking up to the fact that the willy-wonka they trusted to shepherd a communications platform was in fact just a billionaire heir to an emerald mine In his investors’ defense, Elon had a singular track record prior to Twitter. And his proposal to turn Twitter into X, aka US—based WeChat, was not a terrible one. It was an expensive investment, but there was a plausible positive outcome. His complete and total bungling of it all would have been difficult to predict in advance based only on what was known then. He is seemingly oblivious to the unintended consequences and second order effects of both his actual decisions, and their rash and heavy-handed manner. It’s odd, and not surprising they forced a professional CEO on him.

ericmay 3y ago
The thing is he really could have done it. But he went "rich person crazy" and lost it all instead. Really sad to see. Marc Andreessen said something like " Taylor Swift announces her concert on Twitter and then you go buy the tickets on Ticketmaster - why not buy them on Twitter?" 100%

Andrew_nenakhov 3y ago

I, for one, believe that Twitter is better now than it was before. But I'm a free speech proponent, and very not in favour of a previous approach of banning and muffling anyone who fell out of party line. I think the stance on this issue greatly influences how one perceives changes at twitter.

stainablesteel 3y ago

what's crystal clear to me is that your specific echo bubble (we all have one), advertises constant negative press about him. it doesn't make it real, twitter is booming and people love him more than ever i hope you someday find the happiness to stop micro-observing everything about what elon is doing in his day to day life

citizenkeen 3y ago
> In the seven months since Musk bought the company he singlehandedly fired nearly every employee, accidentally locked the remainder out of the headquarters, turned blue-check validation into a living nightmare for international brands, un-banned some of the most notorious and repugnant users from white nationalists to bigots and racists, mis-branded news outlets as state-sponsored, threatened to open a news agency to impersonation on his platform, cancelled most of the API, and tried to extort the very brands his platform depended on in a cash-for-validation scheme that backfired spectacularly. Which one of those claims wasn't real?
- concordDance 3y ago
  "Singlehandedly fired nearly every employee" <- false for normal uses of "nearly every", going from 8000 to 1500 but a ton will be voluntary leavers "turned blue-check validation into a living nightmare for international brands" <- brands now have yellow checks "mis-branded news outlets as state-sponsored" <- all the ones with that label that I'm aware of have state funding
- stainablesteel 3y ago
  what isn't real is the disaster you're trying to paint, its the framing elon's a great guy who does amazing work, and twitter is booming, making more money than ever even
matwood 3y ago
> twitter is booming and people love him more than ever Booming with cat and dog torture videos? https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/cat-dog-torture-videos-litter-twitter-adding-concerns-moderation-rcna84190 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/cat-dog-torture-video...

concordDance 3y ago

That's an amazing gish gallop you have there. Every single entry being misleading, wrong or lacking important context.

jackmott42 3y ago

Only correction I would add here is the emerald mine is a red herring, if it existed at all Elon didn't get any significant money out of it.

syngrog66 3y ago

most of what you said rang true. except the "wealth from emerald mine" attack. that appears to be a myth his big score was PayPal, and it seeded what followed. Tesla and SpaceX very early almost wrecked him financially we can criticize his Twitter shenanigans. but he's clearly a workaholic, highly effective, and helped put humanity in a better place (via SpaceX and Tesla, anyway

wbharding 3y ago

Wow, a much more vitriolic first comment than I would expect from HN. The last six months has not lacked for Musk-hating enthusiasts howling “Twitter is dead.” But when I look at Google Trends, its story is that interest in Twitter is almost identical to where it was 5 years ago. Doesn’t seem so dead to me? Have Musks changes have been net positive or negative? No shortage of internet opinion on that Q. Regardless of one’s personal feelings on it, it seems hard to dispute that Twitter moves faster than before. I consider that no small feat given how much legacy code and bureaucracy the company had at the time of his acquisition. If he can free more of his time by making this hire, I am looking forward to seeing whether that translates to even faster iteration times. pg and all the others I followed are still there, so still plenty of potential to create quality entertainment/learning w less regret than Facebook

908B64B197 3y ago

> cancelled most of the API, and tried to extort the very brands his platform depended on in a cash-for-validation scheme that backfired spectacularly. Rumor has it they lacked the manpower to actually keep the API running and it was a last-ditch attempt at getting rid of bots. Same bots who flocked to the platform after the layoffs started since people in charge of mitigating these were fired. Firing abuse and content moderation teams meant there was a lot more unsavory spam on the platform and advertisers didn't want any of it near their brand. In a few week Twitter lost half of it's top 100 biggest advertisers [0] and it doesn't seem they are coming back. What's crazy to think about is that, despite being "bloated" Twitter managed to have profitable quarters pre-acquisition. [0] https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-lost-half-top-advertisers-elon-musk-takeover-report-2022-11 https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-lost-half-top-advert...