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Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

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Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#981

Post by smsm42 »

john-radio wrote: post #402

A lot of the tweets that are quoted in the article have been removed. For example, Twitter employee Cristina Angeli is mentioned in the story for having tweeted an image of "staff members... flooding an internal Slack channel with blue heart emojis as they wait to learn their fate tomorrow", but that tweet is deleted on twitter itself because "This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules." This is ironic if you consider all…

> consider all the complaining that Musk does in the public sphere about "freedom of speech"

It is a bit frustrating how people refuse to understand the difference between "you can't speak this because we don't like what you said" and "you can't post internal company privileged information while being employee at the same company". Supporting freedom of speech doesn't mean Musk would endorse anybody doing anything, including divulging company's internal communications publicly (and without permission from people whose communications are getting revealed, probably).

> then people had better take screenshots of the tweets they want to quote, just in case.

That has long been the case, Twitter was removing and blocking messages (and people) for much less reasonable causes than leaking private communications of Twitter employees.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#982

Post by smsm42 »

danans wrote: post #820
mikkergp wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will be interesting to see how Elon defines success. Twitter in it's current form is a dead end, and there's no way "more free speech" is going increase either revenue or users. So if you think Elon is going to succeed at making Twitter a better Twitter as we know it, then I'm confident this take is wrong. Which is why he's focused on the everything X app or whatever. Now, I wouldn't want to underestimate Elon, he…

> Twitter in it's current form is a dead end, and there's no way "more free speech" is going increase either revenue or users. I think this is failing to imagine how bad things could get societally. Imagine if more consumers and advertisers start enjoying consuming and being associated with malevolent, hateful, and violence-inducing speech. Many in the 1930s-40s enjoyed the hateful caricatures of Jews that the Nazis…

> Imagine if more consumers and advertisers start enjoying consuming and being associated with malevolent, hateful, and violence-inducing speech.

Why imagine? Twitter is full of malevolent, hateful, and violence-inducing speech on any day of the week. That has long been the case. True, some instances of such speech which went contrary to political ideology of Twitter employees and management was deleted, but other instances, that aligned with their ideology, were flourishing. And consumers of Twitter and advertisers don't seem to mind too much.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#983

Post by stonecharioteer »

memish wrote: post #850

There's an asymmetry here where Twitter and other companies get blamed for layoffs, but didn't get praised for providing highly paid jobs that put their employees in the top 1%. Even Stripe just had layoffs and they are a much more productive, tighter run ship. Twitter cutting deeper than Stripe shouldn't be surprising. It's not a secret that they were overstaffed and are known for rest & vest. This goes way back. In…

Elon Musk is 100% Gavin Belson.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#984

Post by narrator »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #454

I don't get all this antipathy towards what Musk is doing. It's an established maxim of the venerated Warren Buffet that the very first thing you need to do after buying a company is clean house, and get rid of the people who put it in the shape that made it buyable to begin with, starting, and especially, at the top.

The line between public and private has been blurring very badly since 2016. People are treating Twitter like it's an extension of the executive branch and somehow it's illegal for Musk to just buy it and run it how he sees fit.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#985

Post by theonething »

idiotsecant wrote: post #578
bentt wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a few years, if not sooner, Twitter will be right there with Tesla/SpaceX in terms of resume cachet. Everyone will see their culture has been transformed to one of rigor and performance. The "A" players will surface and they will do more with half the staff (or less even) than they ever did with 7500 people... and it will be noteworthy. Musk will be in the mix heavy for about 6 months. He'll make executive hires t…

SpaceX and Tesla have no 'resume cachet'. They are widely known in engineering circles as hiring huge numbers of entry level or just barely above entry level engineers, exploiting their interest in technology to work them like rented mules until they burn out, and then discarding them. It's not a negative having worked at one of these places necessarily but unless the next employer is looking for an engineer with sou…

This comment is just plain wrong.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#986

Post by theonething »

AustinDev wrote: post #947
Cyberdog wrote: post #906

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really relate or sympathize with the Silicon Valley types, no. I don't do the yoga and $8 latte-shakes and the Kegerators and Ping-Ping tables; I come into an office I rent myself in a flyover state, do a full day of work, and then go home, usually after sundown, seven days a week, and I make a lot less than those kids in California do. So it doesn't really burn me up to see the less productive ones trimmed o…

>60 days severance. No it’s crazier than that they get paid for the next 90 days but are not allowed to work at Twitter. They’re in a paid but ‘non-working’ status. In addition they will be offered severance. This board is hilarious in thinking that the package musk is offering is in any way ‘cruel’.

> This board is hilarious in thinking that the package musk is offering is in any way ‘cruel’.

So much agree. The attitudes here are just laughable. The drama, entitlement, the faux "empathy", violins, crocodile cry me a river tears.

The factory worker or janitor working hard doing honest work and struggling to put food on their table get my sympathy, not these tech workers with cushy jobs in the top percentile of wages.

I'm one of these btw and am very thankful and I don't feel I'm entitled to it. I've been laid off. And you know what I did? I got another tech job. Barring special circumstances, it is that simple.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#987

Post by bArray »

lagolinguini wrote: post #184
bArray wrote: post #181

> Yep, the team is gone. The team that was researching and pushing for algorithmic transparency and algorithmic choice. The team that was studying algorithmic amplification. The team that was inventing and building ethical AI tooling and methodologies. All that is gone. If you want to justify your position, I would suggest highlighting the positive changes you _did_ make, rather than the positive changes you _intende…

> If you want to justify your position, I would suggest highlighting the positive changes you _did_ make, rather than the positive changes you _intended_ to make. Imagine where the world would be if bell labs didn't invest all that money into positive changes that people _intended_ to make.

> Imagine where the world would be if bell labs didn't invest all that money into positive changes that people _intended_ to make.

The people at Bell Labs could point at something and say "despite this never making it to market, this is what I contributed to the world".

Also Bell Labs is probably not a great example of a sustainable company, because they are not still operating today.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#988

Post by PestoDiRucola »

anon400232 wrote: post #970
antipaul wrote: post #963

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those threads are gold! “Maybe we don't talk twitter on twitter” “Satya: Thx for the chat. Will stay in touch. And will for sure follow-up on Teams feedback!” “jack [presumably Dorsey]: I'm off the twitter board mid May and then completely out of company. I intend to do this work and fix our mistakes. Twitter started as a protocol. It should have never been a company. That was the original sin.” Larry [Ellison; Oracl…

Ok, what if Twitter was a protocol instead of a centralized operation run by a company? (Is this what Jack was getting at?) The implications would be many -- and I'm skeptical scalability and the user experience would be comparable. Any good writings on this?

Most importantly, why would it be better as a protocol? Twitter's "problems" are social and not technological.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#989

Post by bArray »

pjc50 wrote: post #221
bArray wrote: post #181

> Yep, the team is gone. The team that was researching and pushing for algorithmic transparency and algorithmic choice. The team that was studying algorithmic amplification. The team that was inventing and building ethical AI tooling and methodologies. All that is gone. If you want to justify your position, I would suggest highlighting the positive changes you _did_ make, rather than the positive changes you _intende…

An AI that promotes a single holocaust denial tweet has committed an unethical act, regardless of how it gets there.

An AI doesn't have agency in the same way humans do. The AI has zero understanding of holocaust denial, in the same way another tool does, or a dog, or a child.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#990

Post by tacker2000 »

Cyberdog wrote: post #906
Bhilai wrote: post #541

Sorry to say this but comments on this thread are very disappointing and show a basic lack of empathy in HN crowd. I am obviously generalizing and I know most of you are not heartless souls. FFS people, a huge number of people have lost their livelihoods, sense of belonging and might fall into financial hardships in current market conditions. Whatever you think of Elon or Twitter employees, its good to be grounded in…

I don't really relate or sympathize with the Silicon Valley types, no. I don't do the yoga and $8 latte-shakes and the Kegerators and Ping-Ping tables; I come into an office I rent myself in a flyover state, do a full day of work, and then go home, usually after sundown, seven days a week, and I make a lot less than those kids in California do. So it doesn't really burn me up to see the less productive ones trimmed o…

Yea i also dont understand the faux outrage. I mean the guy bought it and now he has to make back his investment and if he thinks its gonna happen by kicking out half of the people out then so be it.

Apparently Twitter was too bloated, with some staff not working a lot or doing useless stuff.

In CA this is fully allowed and legal so yea tough luck, but im pretty sure these poor Twitter #OneTeam souls will be gladly picked up other tech companies, they dont have to worry.

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