Twitter is going down. The question is whether it will take Musk down with it.
I can only hope Elon goes bankrupt. He and his man-child-fans are the most obnoxious people on this planet.
Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work
681–690 of 1001 posts
Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work
#682I keep thinking it'd be much cheaper for Elon to have paid to build an entirely new Twitter that has the features he's looking for. Let's say Elon had set aside a budget to hire some of the best developers he's ever worked with or heard of, and lets give them an imaginary salary of 1.5 million total comp per year, at about 10 devs for easy math. And let's say another 500k for bennies. So our operating expense for top…
Anybody can build a twitter at a tiny fraction of the cost of Twitter. The problem is always user acquisition. It's extraodinarily difficult to get a vast segment of the userbase to switch to your platform. Even getting a tiny handful would cost vast sums of money. Think about it. If it could be done, it would be done and we'd see a largely segmented social media landscape with hundreds of twitter clones. It's not th…
I'm always curious if he just set aside say $250k/year (2 year contract maybe?) to the top 100 content creators at Twitter/IG/TikTok today.
Add $25 million to the annual costs and have the chicken/egg problem semi-saved.
Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work
#683Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the notion of a CEO doing all the things their workers do purely out of solidarity to be shallow and condescending. Obviously his job is different from theirs and he is going to have a different set of rules. And I doubt any of them would want to put in the number of hours he puts in. He's clearly a workaholic.
> I doubt any of them would want to put in the number of hours he puts in. I guess that would depend on whether they'd be getting employee comp/equity, or Elon's comp/equity.
My point is, gestures like "you're coming into the office, so I'm coming into the office" are simultaneously empty and counterproductive. His job involves travel, period. And besides, he owns the place.
Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work
#684I keep thinking it'd be much cheaper for Elon to have paid to build an entirely new Twitter that has the features he's looking for. Let's say Elon had set aside a budget to hire some of the best developers he's ever worked with or heard of, and lets give them an imaginary salary of 1.5 million total comp per year, at about 10 devs for easy math. And let's say another 500k for bennies. So our operating expense for top…
He doesn’t want to build a better twitter. He wants to _own this twitter_.
I wonder if he'll get himself retroactive added as a founder of twitter in the past just like tesla.
Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work
#685Let's say you run a company and you want to reduce staff. Let's also say you want to make an unpopular decision (or multiple unpopular decisions) that you know will drive a certain percentage of your staff to leave the company. Wouldn't it make the most sense to announce those decisions before making layoffs? Let people self select whether they want to stay and work for you and then make your layoffs after to ensure…
> Wouldn't it make the most sense to announce those decisions before making layoffs? Let people self select whether they want to stay and work for you and then make your layoffs after to ensure all teams are properly staffed. He's got huge debt and declining revenue - both of his own making - so he doesn't have time for employees to self-select based on minor incentives. He has to strip down the car fast while someho…
>then start hiring as necessary with the kind of people you want.
That assumes that people will still want to work for Twitter after all of this.
Given that there is no shortage of jobs for engineers even after massive layoffs at Facebook/Meta and Twitter, many people are going to think twice about signing up to work for a company and owner that have a reputation for treating people as disposable trash.
Employees are the company's most valuable capital - so if you unceremoniously boot out the most experienced staff that was keeping the ship afloat and expect to replace them with cheap new hires while maintaining productivity, security and revenue (which weren't great at Twitter to begin with), you would have to be delusional.
Some layoffs were likely justified but thanks to the hamfisted way they were done I am sorry for the recruiters that will have to look for new staff now. They will have a very unenviable job.
Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work
#686Let's say you run a company and you want to reduce staff. Let's also say you want to make an unpopular decision (or multiple unpopular decisions) that you know will drive a certain percentage of your staff to leave the company. Wouldn't it make the most sense to announce those decisions before making layoffs? Let people self select whether they want to stay and work for you and then make your layoffs after to ensure…
I worked at a place that did this in 2009. The problem with this method is that many people DID relocate to keep their jobs. And then were layed off two months later. Imagine uplifting your life for your job, and then being told you need to find a new job anyway.
I'm afraid that you shouldn't subduct to this tyranny in first place.
Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work
#687Let's say you run a company and you want to reduce staff. Let's also say you want to make an unpopular decision (or multiple unpopular decisions) that you know will drive a certain percentage of your staff to leave the company. Wouldn't it make the most sense to announce those decisions before making layoffs? Let people self select whether they want to stay and work for you and then make your layoffs after to ensure…
I worked at a place that did this in 2009. The problem with this method is that many people DID relocate to keep their jobs. And then were layed off two months later. Imagine uplifting your life for your job, and then being told you need to find a new job anyway.
Well yes, the actual best approach for the wellbeing of employee is to combine these two moves. Give employees the choice between taking a voluntary severance package or coming back to the office. Make it known that a round of layoffs is possible depending on the number of people who take the severance. That way no one is misled into moving and the company doesn't have to be as concerned with the distribution of people who refuse to work in the office.
And let's be honest, Musk isn't doing it in this order for the wellbeing of Twitter's employees.
Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work
#688Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I keep thinking it'd be much cheaper for Elon to have paid to build an entirely new Twitter that has the features he's looking for. It'd be even cheaper if he had the sense to not play chicken with Twitter's board only to get called on his bluff. Nothing about how he's handled Twitter thus far suggests that he ever took his offer to buy them seriously. He was showboating from the beginning and screwed up, and thous…
When you are this rich, stuff like this doesn’t matter. Even if he lost all the 40 Bn USD means he’ll still be the richest person on earth, that’s how much money he has. To keep with the poker analogy, his “bluff” involved only 40 poker chips, but he has 200 after the fact, while his “opponents” have 1 or 2 each. But in the end, money will always end up in his hands no matter what he does. When you are this rich, you…
You are neglecting to consider the other fundamental needs of a filthy rich person like an Elon Musk, two that are of greater priority than sheer wealth even, name and fame.
Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work
#689Earlier quoted context omitted.
And how do you find "the people carrying the previous culture" and other deadwood? You have to observe them over several weeks/months. But Elon didn't do this at all. He is about as likely to have fired the best people as the worst people.
The only people he needs to not fire are ones running infrastructure. Rest can be replaced easily.
Except he has fired exactly those. Like the entire information security team. Giving Twitter your payment/CC info now is likely a very bad idea ...
Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work
#690I keep thinking it'd be much cheaper for Elon to have paid to build an entirely new Twitter that has the features he's looking for. Let's say Elon had set aside a budget to hire some of the best developers he's ever worked with or heard of, and lets give them an imaginary salary of 1.5 million total comp per year, at about 10 devs for easy math. And let's say another 500k for bennies. So our operating expense for top…
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