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Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

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Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#301
post #18

Paul is an out of touch reactionary billionaire. when you’ve lost your own, maybe it’s time to acknowledge you don’t know what you’re doing

Are you confusing Paul Graham with Peter Thiel? PS: You're posting this on pg's site.

This isn't pg's site, and hasn't been for a long time.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#302
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're assuming that Elon isn't doing what he intended to do, turn Twitter into his own personal, right wing echo-chamber with political influence.

He could have bought parler, truth or whatever for far less and already been closer to his goal.

Twitter was/remains? a geopolitical & cultural instrument. The precise reason why there is a fight over who gets to say what on Twitter is because it is a powerful platform for propaganda and agitprop. You can organize uprisings on Twitter. That is why it is such a hot potato. (It is not about utility. think Payless vs Prada.)

Elon apparently bet on the fact that the establishment could not stomach the idea of reconstructing that high visibility platform elsewhere. Everyone knows it is not simply about technology. Twitter remains "the clown car that fell into a gold mine". He will probe on how far he can go but will promptly retreat (ex: EU).

My guess is that his strategy is to prolong this period of uncertainty. Things like PG's decision may signal a consensus that they need to reconstruct humpty dumpty elsewhere.

Watch for trends in use of twitter as a news source in establishment press. If that significantly declines, the political class will follow.

p.s. It is upsetting to think that one of the immediate beneficiaries of Twitter itself being 'deplatformed from polite society' is the relief it offers regimes like Islamic Republic. They are happy, that much is fairly certain.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#303
post #32

It's interesting to see these tech influencers and their lag time on giving Elon the benefit of the doubt before they've had enough. Will Elon ever have a "coming to jesus moment" and realize that he's alienated so many of his peers that he is, in fact, in the wrong? Or is he so delusional that he really does believe he has the answers?

You're assuming that Elon isn't doing what he intended to do, turn Twitter into his own personal, right wing echo-chamber with political influence.

There's this weird thing where a principal might be deluded about their own intentions. It's useful because it allows them to give inaccurate information about their future behavior without 'lying'. If a sincere/passionate person's actions regularly mismatch their words, suspect this.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This feels disingenuous. Elon Musk was barely more than a nobody when he got involved with Tesla and started SpaceX. Fenty was founded after Rihanna had scored countless hits and was basically a household name.

> Elon Musk was barely more than a nobody when he got involved with Tesla and started SpaceX. He was extremely wealthy and had a lot of connections from buying his way into other companies. He was not yet a household name/ global celebrity, only one in more niche (but very powerful) circles, that changed soon after.

But so were hundreds/thousands of other people, most of whom did not go on to found companies rivaling Tesla and SpaceX.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#306

They're literally banning mentioning your Mastodon handle. Unbelievable. Like Paul, I will not be adhering to this absurd new rule. If they ban me for that, then I guess that's that.

Twitter is dead as dead as MySpace now. Time to move on.

No post body was provided.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#307
Related to this - what's the deal with the HN new pages having a bunch of "[dupe] Twitter bans promotion of other social networks"? Shouldn't posting the same link add to its upvote count?

Paul Graham is specifically leaving because of this, feels like a pretty major topic of interest to HN...

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#308

Amazing that just a month ago he tweeted[1]: "It's remarkable how many people who've never run any kind of company think they know how to run a tech company better than someone who's run Tesla and SpaceX.". It's been fascinating watching so many VC types ignore so many red flags just because some of Elon's early actions validated their priors (e.g. tech companies are bloated and need to layoff staff). [1] https://twi…

Strong Opinions, Weakly Held comes to mind.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sort of decisions or behavior would lead you to believe that somebody is stupid?

Is it necessary to believe anyone is "stupid" as a personality? I just disagree with people's opinions on certain things. And if I frequently disagree with someone enough, then I just quietly stop paying any attention to what they say.

How is judging people’s way of thinking as being a binary between “necessary” and “unnecessary” not just calling people “stupid” or “not stupid” the same thing just using different words?

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This feels disingenuous. Elon Musk was barely more than a nobody when he got involved with Tesla and started SpaceX. Fenty was founded after Rihanna had scored countless hits and was basically a household name.

> Elon Musk was barely more than a nobody when he got involved with Tesla and started SpaceX. He was extremely wealthy and had a lot of connections from buying his way into other companies. He was not yet a household name/ global celebrity, only one in more niche (but very powerful) circles, that changed soon after.

You’ve completely moved the goalposts there
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