Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work • Hacker News Board

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#971

Post by tejohnso » Fri, Nov 11, 2022, 2:54 PM UTC

DonsDiscountGas wrote: post #35

kypro wrote: post #23

I am split on the remote work thing from a productivity / creativity perspective. I do think there are times when I'm less productivity working from home compared to the office. I also think as a team we're less creative. Some of the best stuff I've done in my career has come out of casual conversations with my team about the stuff we're building. I've noticed I don't think about what I'm building as much when workin…

IMHO the ideal situation would be for people to work in their own offices, with doors that closed, and short commutes. Easy to work distraction-free alone, easy to have group meetings and random chats. But real estate costs have made this approach untenable, so something has to give.

> easy to have group meetings and random chats.

I don't understand this argument. How is online chat not easy? With slack, I can fire off a question to any coworker instantly. I don't have to physically relocate myself to wherever they are in the office to ask it. And they can answer when it is appropriate for them, rather then be disturbed by my incursion into their space. If it's something that requires a conversation, then we schedule time to have a video chat or instantly transition to realtime video if convenient for both of us.

And how are group meetings not easy online? Online we can see / hear each other in near real time, we can type on the same document an see each other's edits in near real time, we can draw...I mean...What are people doing during group meetings that are difficult without physical presence?

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#972

Post by tejohnso » Fri, Nov 11, 2022, 2:57 PM UTC

rockbandit wrote: post #969

kypro wrote: post #23

I am split on the remote work thing from a productivity / creativity perspective. I do think there are times when I'm less productivity working from home compared to the office. I also think as a team we're less creative. Some of the best stuff I've done in my career has come out of casual conversations with my team about the stuff we're building. I've noticed I don't think about what I'm building as much when workin…

This comment really strikes a chord with me. Some days, I’m way more productive, others not so much. What I do love is eliminating the commute time. That is time I’ve been able to utilize in other ways that really contribute to my mental well being. Walking the kids to school (instead of driving), walking the dog, exercise, catch up on chores or errands, etc. That is probably my favorite aspect of working from home.…

> Zoom fatigue is real

Wouldn't you experience in-person meeting fatigue sooner than zoom fatigue? What is it about sitting in the comfort of your own home having a conversation that is worse than sitting in an office having a conversation?

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#973

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Nov 11, 2022, 3:14 PM UTC

encryptluks2 wrote: post #832

philliphaydon wrote: post #829

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2020 the company I worked for did ~25% temp salary reduction so they could feel safe that they could keep everyone employed and such. 3 months after everyone did it they said "thank you thank you we are so happy we don't need to let anyone go". 2 months later they laid off ~50% of the development team and people throughout the company... At the end of the year they said no bonuses, followed by an email saying desp…

Employees need to get everything in writing as part of a contract/agreement. If a company won't put it in writing, then you should assume they are lying.

[deleted]

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#974

Post by ericmcer » Fri, Nov 11, 2022, 3:49 PM UTC

bergenty wrote: post #880

ericmcer wrote: post #604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone is looking at it too short term. Twitter isn’t going to disappear and he has shown a willingness to ride through rough economic times to reach his vision. Social Media is how people interact with the world now, most info we receive is filtered through it in some form. In the last 10 or so years the idea that these platforms need tight moderation to control what and who is speaking on them has become ubiquito…

It’s not a new idea though, having a completely open platform. It quickly devolves into cp, racism and general abstract violence. We’ve learned this lesson already at this point.

Obviously not completely open. Open in the sense of ideas and viewpoints, not like an open market for illegal activity. More like one where Trump wouldn't be banned.

Is that a good or bad thing? I don't know, in an ideal world humans could self-regulate and make good decisions about how they use information. The status quo is that we cannot control ourselves, and need to have sophisticated controls that filter out objectionable info.

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#975

Post by shagmin » Fri, Nov 11, 2022, 3:50 PM UTC

memish wrote: post #836

dragonwriter wrote: post #745

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He also wants to recreate the place per his own vision, so it makes sense to get rid of as many people carrying the previous culture as you can and then start hiring as necessary with the kind of people you want So, he's destroying all of the institutional knowledge, the brand image, and the existing business relationships, while pivoting to a radically different market. He wanted a fresh startup to sink $44 billio…

It's weird how many people are experiencing sudden onset amnesia. Prior to Elon getting control, everyone understood Twitter was a mess, was losing tons of money and not able to get anything done for the past decade. Obviously it needs a major shakeup.

I had no idea what the financial situation was, other than that it's not part of FAANG for a reason. According to [0] Twitter was actually on a positive trajectory. Revenue has generally gone up over time. Profit wise 2020 was bad, but overall the last 5 years were much better than the 5 years prior to that. There is no shortage of companies that needed a shakeup more than Twitter.

https://www.businessofapps.com/data/twitter-statistics/

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#976

Post by atq2119 » Fri, Nov 11, 2022, 4:38 PM UTC

sixothree wrote: post #878

memish wrote: post #827

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's intellectual dishonest to the extreme to say he's stupid. If you really can't see the evidence in front of your eyes, here's John Carmack: "Elon is definitely an engineer. He is deeply involved with technical decisions at spacex and Tesla. He doesn’t write code or do CAD today, but he is perfectly capable of doing so." Here's Kevin Watson, who developed the avionics for Falcon 9 and Dragon and previously managed…

Have you listened to him speak for any length of time? It's painful.

That take frankly says more about you than about Elon Musk. Yes, his manner of speaking was unusual for somebody in his position, but it's perfectly compatible with great technical depth.

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#977

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Nov 11, 2022, 5:24 PM UTC

jesuscript wrote: post #273

slg wrote: post #208

Let'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…

Quoted post unavailable.

[deleted]

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#978

Post by dragonwriter » Fri, Nov 11, 2022, 5:26 PM UTC

memish wrote: post #836

dragonwriter wrote: post #745

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He also wants to recreate the place per his own vision, so it makes sense to get rid of as many people carrying the previous culture as you can and then start hiring as necessary with the kind of people you want So, he's destroying all of the institutional knowledge, the brand image, and the existing business relationships, while pivoting to a radically different market. He wanted a fresh startup to sink $44 billio…

It's weird how many people are experiencing sudden onset amnesia. Prior to Elon getting control, everyone understood Twitter was a mess, was losing tons of money and not able to get anything done for the past decade. Obviously it needs a major shakeup.

IIRC, Twitter was (just barely and recently) profitable, before Musk took over and saddled them with $1 billion/year in debt service and tanked ad sales.

It wasn't awesome, but it had found a working groove.

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#979

Post by P_I_Staker » Fri, Nov 11, 2022, 5:36 PM UTC

memish wrote: post #827

abxytg wrote: post #481

Or -- he's stupid.

It's intellectual dishonest to the extreme to say he's stupid. If you really can't see the evidence in front of your eyes, here's John Carmack: "Elon is definitely an engineer. He is deeply involved with technical decisions at spacex and Tesla. He doesn’t write code or do CAD today, but he is perfectly capable of doing so." Here's Kevin Watson, who developed the avionics for Falcon 9 and Dragon and previously managed…

Yeah, but some of those people are fucking idiots.

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#980

Post by panick21_ » Fri, Nov 11, 2022, 6:11 PM UTC

scarface_74 wrote: post #858

appleflaxen wrote: post #816

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is bipolar, which I think is a more plausible answer. Can a person really become the richest person on earth being stupid? Maybe, but I think it strains credulity a bit.

Seeing that by no reasonably objective measure should Tesla be worth what it is, maybe he is just a good marketer. I’m not saying that “marketing” alone made Tesla successful. I am saying that it made the stock valuable.

Tesla made almost the same profit as Toyota last Quarter. While having a much, much better position in terms of debts and company value. And while the company is still growing at incredibly rates each quarter. All this while major competitors are shrinking.

The Tesla stock really only went up when they had proved they had cracked mass production of the Model 3 and were making an electric vehicle at industry leading margins.

One can argue Tesla stock is still to high, but its certainty not 'objective'. Good annalists disagree and you can reach almost any valuation depending on your future assumptions.