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Twitter CEO fires two top executives, freezes hiring

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Re: Twitter CEO fires two top executives, freezes hiring

#471

Post by bredren »

lesstenseflow wrote: post #427
bredren wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That there is high compensation attached to this job is unrelated to the principal of firing an employee on family leave. Companies are having to hold the line on what we value in this country, as legislation from environmental to health is not keeping up. Twitter is specifically of note because the CEO recently had a child and rightfully took paid leave himself. Whatever your personal opinions are on Elon Musk, he i…

From elsewhere in this thread: - Part of the deal with being an executive is no job security. It's part of the trade you make for gigantic compensation. - What would be preferred, firing him the first day he's back?

> - Part of the deal with being an executive is no job security.

This is the case in any at will hire.

> It's part of the trade you make for gigantic compensation.

This trade is made by people regardless of the compensation amount.

> - What would be preferred, firing him the first day he's back?

Yes, optics matter and it would send a better message and set a better example.

Re: Twitter CEO fires two top executives, freezes hiring

#472

Post by nomel »

kyledrake wrote: post #189

I've been using Twitter since it's main novelty was that it was a successful Ruby on Rails app, and honestly I've been trying to figure out where the exit is for my personal use of Twitter lately. If the acquisition goes through, Twitter won't make enough money to service it's debt, and the things they will do to fix that are pretty much guaranteed to lower the quality of the platform, which frankly has never worked…

> which frankly has never worked very well for me anyways. > The fact that they're doing a leadership purge right now is not helping my opinion on this.

These two things don't seem compatible to me. The leadership created/perpetuated the twitter that didn't work well for you, so getting new leadership seems like a potential positive.

Re: Twitter CEO fires two top executives, freezes hiring

#473

Post by [deleted] »

johnboiles wrote: post #217

This is mind boggling to me. Kayvon is one of the best product leaders / visionaries I know. It was confusing to me in Dec that he wasn't Jack's successor. Kayvon was a huge driving force behind all the interesting product efforts of the last few years: Spaces, Fleets, topics, etc. Twitter went from not iterating on product (remember when Twitter's only change in several years was to change the star to a heart?) to s…

[deleted]

Re: Twitter CEO fires two top executives, freezes hiring

#474

Post by oarsinsync »

pessimizer wrote: post #459
kyledrake wrote: post #189

I've been using Twitter since it's main novelty was that it was a successful Ruby on Rails app, and honestly I've been trying to figure out where the exit is for my personal use of Twitter lately. If the acquisition goes through, Twitter won't make enough money to service it's debt, and the things they will do to fix that are pretty much guaranteed to lower the quality of the platform, which frankly has never worked…

> I also think the proposal to have Twitter allow all content that is "legal under US law" is a dangerous idea for the platform being a healthy community that most people actually want to participate in. I'd counter that platforms like Reddit, Youtube, or Facebook grew into institutions with extremely light content moderation, and it's only after they were successful and were targeted by politicians and media panics…

> and it's only after they were successful … their growth slowed.

Could this simply be because it’s easy to sustain a high rate of growth when you’re small, and harder to sustain that same rate of growth when you’re large?

See Apple, as another example of a firm who’s growth rate has slowed, as a natural result of their scale.

Re: Twitter CEO fires two top executives, freezes hiring

#475

Post by simulate-me »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #199
paxys wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is going to get a severance package larger that most of us will make in our lifetimes. There's no reason to weep for him.

"Fired while on paternity leave" hurts a hell of a lot less when you're a mega millionaire who will be able to walk into a leadership position anywhere he likes, but it still sucks.

Does it really suck? His leave is getting paid and he's getting severance, which is essentially more paid leave. He can spend more time with his child. He might actually find it preferable. Having recently went on paternity leave myself, I would love to have more paid time with my child.

Re: Twitter CEO fires two top executives, freezes hiring

#476

Post by ben174 »

jdavis703 wrote: post #402
corrral wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously. HN: "Firing a millionaire on paternity leave—and by "firing" I mean continuing to pay for the rest of their leave, plus probably a bunch of severance—is horrible!" 99% of the rest of the US: "WTF is paternity leave? Is that when your boss generously lets you use some of your annual leave for part of the week in which your kid is born?"

Many states in the US have family leave (including paternity leave). California is more than 10% of the US population and the rules for paternity leave are extremely broad: - Welcomed a new child into the family in the past 12 months through birth. - Paid into State Disability Insurance (noted as "CASDI" on most paystubs) in the past 5 to 18 months. - Not taken the maximum eight weeks of PFL in the past 12 months Ins…

This is good information, but the original point is still valid. Kayvon is not struggling in the least bit.

Re: Twitter CEO fires two top executives, freezes hiring

#477

Post by Karawebnetwork »

pessimizer wrote: post #459
kyledrake wrote: post #189

I've been using Twitter since it's main novelty was that it was a successful Ruby on Rails app, and honestly I've been trying to figure out where the exit is for my personal use of Twitter lately. If the acquisition goes through, Twitter won't make enough money to service it's debt, and the things they will do to fix that are pretty much guaranteed to lower the quality of the platform, which frankly has never worked…

> I also think the proposal to have Twitter allow all content that is "legal under US law" is a dangerous idea for the platform being a healthy community that most people actually want to participate in. I'd counter that platforms like Reddit, Youtube, or Facebook grew into institutions with extremely light content moderation, and it's only after they were successful and were targeted by politicians and media panics…

Reddit always has had community moderators which ensured that the subreddits were respecting the rules of their communities. For example, on LGBTQ issues subreddits telling people that they are groomers is not tolerated. If it was, people would quickly go away. While on some other subreddit, it might be tolerated but the targeted people are not present and will not see those messages.

It is similar on Facebook where people will gather in groups that have their own moderation.

This is different on a public platform like Twitter where everyone can see everything. If users can hate-speech each others within the confines of the law, it will not take long until a lot of people leave.

I use hate-speech as an example because the "groomer" as a slur issue is at a peak right now and is fresh in my head. But the same concept applies to a lot of topics.

Re: Twitter CEO fires two top executives, freezes hiring

#478

Post by pessimizer »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #187
paxys wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is going to get a severance package larger that most of us will make in our lifetimes. There's no reason to weep for him.

What does a "head of consumer product" do? Has Twitter's platform/offering changed all that much in 7 years?

Yes. It was once somewhat pleasant to use and less algo reliant, and now it is very unpleasant to use and reading a tweet's thread has become difficult.

Re: Twitter CEO fires two top executives, freezes hiring

#479

Post by oarsinsync »

pessimizer wrote: post #462
d23 wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That only works because HN is, mostly, politics-free. It's only politics-free because it's heavily moderated. There's nothing magical about the people here that make them apolitical. Political posts are often removed outright, and comments that are political have to be pretty fact-based (or at have the appearance thereof) to not be removed.

I'd add 1) that HN also didn't start politics-free, that was something that was consciously imposed on it well into its life, and 2) that HN post politics-moderation is far less influential than HN was pre politics-moderation.

> HN post politics-moderation is far less influential than HN was pre politics-moderation

Influential in what way?

Re: Twitter CEO fires two top executives, freezes hiring

#480

Post by fleddr »

Just a spring cleaning that is about a decade late.

Twitter under-performs in every aspect imaginable: financially, product quality, product innovation. Nothing ever gets released and whilst this pace has improved in recent years, those "innovations" don't really deliver. They're barely used, copycats from other apps, and so on. Meanwhile, age-old problems are never addressed, like bots and the extremely hostile mob mentality on the platform.

They're ineffective and lack accountability. They need a reset and mentality change.

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