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Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#41

Post by lapcat »

anigbrowl wrote: post #35
toofy wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are there really that many of them? the numbers we’re seeing from truth social and it’s similars seem to indicate otherwise. my guess is, we’ll see far more users abandon twitter than we see of maga users swarming.

I don't believe so, but they are a very vocal demographic and in many respects have superior communication skills. Right leaning ideologues in recent years often come at discourse as a competitive sport or a kind of cognitive warfare, whereas liberals and leftists are more concerned with gaining external approval (of an audience or some third part) and pursue some sort of objective correctness or consistency, often t…

> I'm not sure as many liberals would leave as threaten to, because where would they go - Mastodon? Discord? People use twitter because it's a large flat platform rather than one with a lot of silos.

The natural alternative is actually disengagement from social media. Twitter and Facebook are only about 15 years old, which is a tiny blip in history. People managed just fine without them. Social media is one way to spend time, but there are plenty of other ways to spend time.

Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#42

Post by ytpete »

StanislavPetrov wrote: post #8
minimaxir wrote: post #2

How does a 75% workforce cut even work logistically for a company not on its deathbed?

Sometimes a 75% workforce cut is exactly what a company on its deathbed needs. In the case of Twitter they wouldn't even need to fire anyone. Just make employees sign a statement reaffirming their commitment to free speech and the 1st Amendment (ala forced DEI statements at other companies) and 75% of Twitter employees would likely depart on their own.

The First Amendment only constrains the government - not any private company. So it's meaningless with regard to Twitter's moderation policies.

Nor is it useful as a voluntary limit on content moderation. Any social media site that allows absolutely anything First Amendment protected would quickly be overrun by porn and blood and gore.

Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#43

Post by rayiner »

knewter wrote: post #31
Balgair wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A plan to reduce staff by 75% and double revenue in three years doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Elon's plans may not be all that well thought out, as history has evidenced.

Ah yes, the doddering fool tripped into wealth

Multiple times in different industries.

Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#44

Post by helsinkiandrew »

barbariangrunge wrote: post #9

I can’t imagine many engineering teams that would hold up very well if 75% of the team vanished —- you would lose so much knowledge of your own codebase for starters, and morale would be a disaster. 90% of those who remained would start thinking of switching jobs out of pure pessimism. Then again, I bet it won’t happen. The actual cuts will be far smaller once it’s actually time to do it… Unless his finances are too…

700 have already resigned since Musk spoke to everyone in the company in September. I'm guessing there will be need to be a very good share option scheme to keep those that stay, but Twitter isn't a startup - it already has a $44B valuation and lots of expensive debt.

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-exodus-tur...

Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#45

Post by batmanturkey »

sn0w_crash wrote: post #14
phillipcarter wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's a set of massive engineering systems, applications, advertising market, social institution, etc.? Big, complex sociotechnical systems require a lot of human beings to keep moving along.

This is not a company with multiple products. The ad platform is just barely usable, with an only slightly better UI than LinkedIn. Its core product has not changed meaningfully in 10 years. The company down much of its developer-facing offering years ago. There are e-commerce websites with a more complex stack than Twitter. This is a product that can run on 1,000 people and nothing about the user experience will be…

Well, heck, you can shrivel it down to ONE employee and then fire them, if you just wanna tank Twitter.

It seems like the sorta crackhead move we have come to expect from mister attention whore extraordinaire. He’s in a competition of some kind with Kanye, apparently.

Why is he wasting 40 billion on a trumpet of little worth if it’s worth so little?

What a weird mid life crisis sports car to buy, it’s not even red.

Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#46

Post by throwaway81523 »

phillipcarter wrote: post #36
knewter wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, the doddering fool tripped into wealth

Not a doddering fool, but it's arguable his best days are long behind him. I haven't seen anything about this Twitter thing that suggests he's going to want to build something bold and incredible, challenging a lot of smart people and giving them the agency to do it. Instead it feels more like the actions of someone with a drug addiction and way more money than they know what to do with.

Could be this: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/long-c...

“‘The Rage Would Come Out of Nowhere’: Personality Change Has Emerged as a Symptom of Long Covid”

Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#48

Post by jleyank »

anigbrowl wrote: post #35
toofy wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are there really that many of them? the numbers we’re seeing from truth social and it’s similars seem to indicate otherwise. my guess is, we’ll see far more users abandon twitter than we see of maga users swarming.

I don't believe so, but they are a very vocal demographic and in many respects have superior communication skills. Right leaning ideologues in recent years often come at discourse as a competitive sport or a kind of cognitive warfare, whereas liberals and leftists are more concerned with gaining external approval (of an audience or some third part) and pursue some sort of objective correctness or consistency, often t…

Skill? No, volume. Yelling and thumping things gets noticed. It doesn’t enhance or explain the message. Many people will choose to avoid the bs with unedited social media sites. Perhaps those who depart aren’t the marketing targets?

Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#49

Post by SilasX »

barbariangrunge wrote: post #9

I can’t imagine many engineering teams that would hold up very well if 75% of the team vanished —- you would lose so much knowledge of your own codebase for starters, and morale would be a disaster. 90% of those who remained would start thinking of switching jobs out of pure pessimism. Then again, I bet it won’t happen. The actual cuts will be far smaller once it’s actually time to do it… Unless his finances are too…

>I can’t imagine many engineering teams that would hold up very well if 75% of the team vanished —- you would lose so much knowledge of your own codebase for starters,

If so, then, to be blunt, that means their documentation was crap and they had unnecessary choke points to begin with.

We need to stop normalizing tribal knowledge.

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