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Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

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Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#691
post #678

I think people are really over-analyzing this move. I think it's motivated by prestige, not money, nor is free speech the heart of the matter. Twitter is a stagnant company. They have thousands of engineers that in the span of a decade don't seem to produce much at all, nothing visible or memorable anyway. Long-lasting Twitter problems (culture, spam, algorithm issues) never seem addressed. User growth is stagnating…

Why would Elon Musk spend his capacity to get things done on something like Twitter? He's got planets to colonize. Interesting point to question his motives, but for now I take him at his word regarding the free speech thing. I guess it could be something more nefarious as well.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#692
post #678

I think people are really over-analyzing this move. I think it's motivated by prestige, not money, nor is free speech the heart of the matter. Twitter is a stagnant company. They have thousands of engineers that in the span of a decade don't seem to produce much at all, nothing visible or memorable anyway. Long-lasting Twitter problems (culture, spam, algorithm issues) never seem addressed. User growth is stagnating…

> A perfect target for Musk to come in, do a few sweeping changes, and get out. Thereby proving once again that he gets shit done where others can't. Case closed.

Whatever merit or lack thereof Musk on the Twitter board has, I would bet money this particular scenario does not happen. Musk is not a turnaround expert or corporate savior (and for the record he's not claiming to be).

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#693
post #678

I think people are really over-analyzing this move. I think it's motivated by prestige, not money, nor is free speech the heart of the matter. Twitter is a stagnant company. They have thousands of engineers that in the span of a decade don't seem to produce much at all, nothing visible or memorable anyway. Long-lasting Twitter problems (culture, spam, algorithm issues) never seem addressed. User growth is stagnating…

> A perfect target for Musk to come in, do a few sweeping changes, and get out. Thereby proving once again that he gets shit done where others can't. Case closed. Whatever merit or lack thereof Musk on the Twitter board has, I would bet money this particular scenario does not happen. Musk is not a turnaround expert or corporate savior (and for the record he's not claiming to be).

Well he did turn tesla round in a way, as in he wasn't a founder.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#694
post #678

I think people are really over-analyzing this move. I think it's motivated by prestige, not money, nor is free speech the heart of the matter. Twitter is a stagnant company. They have thousands of engineers that in the span of a decade don't seem to produce much at all, nothing visible or memorable anyway. Long-lasting Twitter problems (culture, spam, algorithm issues) never seem addressed. User growth is stagnating…

> A perfect target for Musk to come in, do a few sweeping changes, and get out. Thereby proving once again that he gets shit done where others can't. Case closed. Whatever merit or lack thereof Musk on the Twitter board has, I would bet money this particular scenario does not happen. Musk is not a turnaround expert or corporate savior (and for the record he's not claiming to be).

Yeah, I was thinking exactly that. Assuming that this is the case - that Musk is joining as a savior - is silly. He doesn't fit the profile nor has the track record for that.

He may be a visionary (whatever that means), but a excellent, renowned executive that revitalizes companies, heck, that really has never been the case.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#695

A troll I have blocked on Twitter has joined the board of directors. Great. Will Kayne West be next? What about Glen Greenwald? I have those blocked as well. How about a troll-only board selected from accounts I blocked?

Maybe you’re just too sensitive.

Or maybe I believe playing by known and accepted rules is the only thing holding our country, democracy, and the global economic system together. And this guy seeks and promotes activity (SEC, crypto, ripping off cofounders, his positions on taxes, never ceasing misinformation, and so on) that dilutes this. You can’t have a democracy without common rules and a common currency. If he’d just stick to building stuff, he’d be awesome, but no, he’s gotta break all the rules for his ego for vanity projects.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#696
post #678

I think people are really over-analyzing this move. I think it's motivated by prestige, not money, nor is free speech the heart of the matter. Twitter is a stagnant company. They have thousands of engineers that in the span of a decade don't seem to produce much at all, nothing visible or memorable anyway. Long-lasting Twitter problems (culture, spam, algorithm issues) never seem addressed. User growth is stagnating…

> A perfect target for Musk to come in, do a few sweeping changes, and get out. Thereby proving once again that he gets shit done where others can't. Case closed. Whatever merit or lack thereof Musk on the Twitter board has, I would bet money this particular scenario does not happen. Musk is not a turnaround expert or corporate savior (and for the record he's not claiming to be).

Musk has proven to be a 'get shit done' kind of guy though, so if he did want to push through changes he certainly has the capability to do it.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#697
post #539

Weird that Elon musk would do something like this I assumed he would optimize how he spends his time. He mentioned once that he sometimes sleeps/slept at the factory. I had a similar thought on Putin: as long as the war is ongoing he has less time to do other things. When Biden took over trump I also thought that bidens team might be able to do more change than the trump team because he fired so many and golfed often…

Might be time to revisit some of those assumptions then?

Of course.

I posted it though to share my thoughts. This made me realize that Elon musk takes twitter much more serious than I thought.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#698
post #678

I think people are really over-analyzing this move. I think it's motivated by prestige, not money, nor is free speech the heart of the matter. Twitter is a stagnant company. They have thousands of engineers that in the span of a decade don't seem to produce much at all, nothing visible or memorable anyway. Long-lasting Twitter problems (culture, spam, algorithm issues) never seem addressed. User growth is stagnating…

"stagnant company"

Why must every company sustain boundless growth and 24-hour engagement? Change and growth for their own sake can be cancers.

Twitter does what it does and people like it (as seen by the fact that they all use it), yet armchair generals cry out that twitter's refusal to turn into "not twitter" is somehow a failure of engineering and management, or some form of incompetence.

So, I disagree, I guess.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#699
post #678

I think people are really over-analyzing this move. I think it's motivated by prestige, not money, nor is free speech the heart of the matter. Twitter is a stagnant company. They have thousands of engineers that in the span of a decade don't seem to produce much at all, nothing visible or memorable anyway. Long-lasting Twitter problems (culture, spam, algorithm issues) never seem addressed. User growth is stagnating…

He could do that with any number of stagnant companies. Think bigger picture.

Tesla: Sustainable transport

SpaceX: Becoming a multiplanetary species

Twitter: Free speech in the public square

IMO it's actually the most important mission of the 3 since it's the basis for societal progress.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#700

This is great news! Twitter and the rest of the rotten and censorious platforms could use a proper shake-up. Hope the authoritarians and political repressives and anyone who works on the content moderation team all resign in protest! Good riddance!

It’s easy to call for change without actually having to build any of it. Odds are zero things change about Twitter’s content policy, as it’s about as permissive as you can get while operating in the US. There’s a lot less sinister intent than one might think at first blush; Twitter wants users to stick around, banning them is a really bad way to do that.

What's to build? Twitter already built all the tools to ban, censor, and editorialize content. OP is simply suggesting that Twitter use those tools less.
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