Live data from Hacker News

I resigned from Twitter

twitter.com

521–530 of 1001 posts

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed that lots of C-suite and owner/CEO startup people have like three to five active business roles on their Linkedins. A fun case of "rules for thee, but not for me" when it comes to anti-moonlighting clauses and such. I can't "give it my all" if I take some weekend gigs, but you can hold two C-suite positions, be on two boards, plus have an "advisory" role with some startup? It's a lot like drug testing fo…

Much of the value that a CEO adds is in figuring out which rules can be broken without adverse consequences. They're accountable for results; if they raise shareholder value doing terrible things but never get caught, that's a win for shareholders, and they get to keep their position. If they do get caught, they get to be the fall guy, they resign, the board gets to say "We are shocked that such things occurred, we h…

My perspective on this might be outdated, but a corporate legal team can do more than just fire you for moonlighting. Depending on your jurisdiction/contract, there could be Intellectual Property ramifications.

Obviously, a C-suite can have certain sway in these situations and a company might not go after a lowly grunt's pet project, but there is a wide gap between these two situations where there are worse ramifications than losing a job.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't use Twitter for politics. It's a cesspool where the biggest assholes win.

It certainly has this reputation. But nearly 100% of the political content on my feed is respectful and thoughtful—much moreso than most political content I see here. And my follows are definitely not an echo chamber, I’d estimate that at least 1/3 of my political follows are far more conservative than I am.

I've noticed this as well. I think it has to do with people self-sorting to different parts of Twitter based on what kind of political discussion they want. The people who just want to be loudly scornful of $OUTGROUP go to the places where that happens all the time, avoiding the parts of Twitter they'd find boringly calm; and people who'd rather talk about things calmly stick to the places where that's the norm, avoiding the parts of Twitter they'd find to be content-free sound and fury. (And if you ever look at the replies to a tweet that crossed the streams, you get a glimpse of a strange other world.)

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#523
post #220

There are some fantastic fringe right-wing communities I’m going to miss tremendously after the new CEO inevitably starts purging the ”unconventional” content

You feel that Twitter is an irreplaceable source of fringe, right-wing community? Aren't there a ton of sites that serve that purpose?

Where else can I build a feed of all the different subgroups that exist within the RW spectrum?

Please dont say something like Parler

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#524
post #7

I have no particular beef with Dorsey but I think this would make sense. He's been CEO of both Square and Twitter for years now and no matter what time you wake up in the morning or however many specials diets you undertake you're not going to be able to give the focus a solo CEO is. I think the bigger issue is who gets to replace him: will it be someone with smart ideas or someone to serve as a puppet of activist in…

Honestly I’m ok with a hedge fund backed Twitter. Look what it has become with Dorsey at the helm. It was a cute platform to induce change in backward countries 10 years ago, but now it’s a cesspool of every ideologue imaginable. The more sensational and toxic someone is the more successful they become on Twitter, generally speaking. If the goal was to make money primarily I don’t see how brands would put up with that. I write off Twitter as a failed experiment, but nevertheless a great lesson in the nature of human beings and mob behavior.

Edit: typo + speaking as an ex-Twitter engineer circa 2011

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#525

It will be interesting to see how Twitter changes as a result. Twitter with selective following and setting your timeline to 'time order' creates a pretty good environment for me. It feels like the equivalent of living in only a few chosen 'subreddits' rather than getting the full frontal reddit experience.

Personally, I prefer using lists but I do not participate much, just consume ...

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#526
post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careful, you're dangerously close to realizing that Executives at companies provide vanishingly little day to day value to companies. I'd bet in most companies the CEO is basically just a buffer between the board and the rest of the company, and essentially a fall guy position so the board can avoid accountability.

" Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I don’t think that was a shallow dismissal…?

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#527
post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

Interesting take. I do think that social media is driving the selection of increasingly unfit political candidates worldwide, which is a big problem. In an environment where the objective is to share things that get the most “WTF” comments from those with whom you disagree and the most applause from those with whom you do agree, only the most extreme and/or inept candidates wind up getting attention and the resulting votes.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you critique Musk in a similar way? Honest question, because it's eerie how you could swap Dorsey for Musk and the statements would still apply but seem much less true.

Yeah, musk is the perfect counter example. In the brief time he left Tesla in someone else’s hands the other CEO almost killed it. I'm also skeptical of Jack's claim about founder led companies. When you're the exec handing things over you'd have to make some comment like that to show your trust is entirely behind the new person. I don't really buy it though. Also I thought Evan Williams and Biz Stone were the Twitte…

There's a whole book, "Hatching Twitter" about the sordid founding of Twitter and how Dorsey and Noah Glass were the main originators of the concept at oOdeo, then Ev eventually fired them and removed them from the history. Only to have Dorsey come back later and remove him.

Seems like a bunch of people had a hand in creating it in various ways.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#529
post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I don’t think that was a shallow dismissal…?

It's a grand putdown without any supporting information.

Comments get more shallow as they get more grand and generic. "Vanishingly little value" is a dismissal. Note also the dismissive use of the j-word ("just") and the implicit admission that there's no particular support for the claim ("I'd bet"). Also the snark ("Careful, you're dangerously close to realizing"), which invokes an entire genre of internet putdown.

There's no information here other than booing a class of people. Most people enjoy that when the class is high-status, but we're trying to optimize for curiosity on this site, and that genre is something else entirely.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#530

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed that lots of C-suite and owner/CEO startup people have like three to five active business roles on their Linkedins. A fun case of "rules for thee, but not for me" when it comes to anti-moonlighting clauses and such. I can't "give it my all" if I take some weekend gigs, but you can hold two C-suite positions, be on two boards, plus have an "advisory" role with some startup? It's a lot like drug testing fo…

Much of the value that a CEO adds is in figuring out which rules can be broken without adverse consequences. They're accountable for results; if they raise shareholder value doing terrible things but never get caught, that's a win for shareholders, and they get to keep their position. If they do get caught, they get to be the fall guy, they resign, the board gets to say "We are shocked that such things occurred, we h…

This seems like a very naive perspective to me. CEOs are generally not "exposed to all the risks of the real world". If they get fired it's often with a golden parachute and the ability to live comfortably without ever worrying about money or employment. Many times, people become CEO precisely because they aren't ever exposed to real risk, and if something goes wrong they can fall back on savings or family or a debt-free prestigious degree.
Post reply on HN