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Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

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Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#391
post #350

I'm not leaving Twitter. It seems more likely than not that Elon will reverse the ban on links to other social media sites. I just don't want to hang out there in the meantime. Plus given the way things are going, it seemed like a good time to learn about alternatives. I still think Elon is a smart guy. His work on cars and rockets speaks for itself. Nor do I think he's the villain a lot of people try to make him out…

[deleted]

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#392

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…

> just because some of Elon's early actions validated their priors (e.g. tech companies are bloated and need to layoff staff).

You're right that assuming success at Tesla/SpaceX indicated success at Twitter ended up being wrong.

But these "priors" are still very true. Tech companies are bloated, Elon sucking at running a social network doesn't change that fact

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#393

BTW, he's already backtracking and stating he has not "left twitter": https://indieweb.social/@paulg@mas.to/109536543079310226 "I haven't "left Twitter." I just don't want to keep using it while it's banning links to other sites. Plus given the way things are going, it seemed like a good time to learn more about Mastodon." Expect Musk to reverse this policy, and all the people who were fine with all the even more ter…

There's nothing to backtrack on. Go re-read the original tweet - he never said he was leaving Twitter. If that was his intention, he probably would've explicitly said so. The OP's post title is based on an incorrect assumption.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk is a celebrity. Celebrities start successful companies all the time. Is Rihanna a brilliant business woman for starting a successful beauty line? Is she a business genius , which is what Musk gets labeled so often? Maybe she really is, but I don't see her get that label, I think her value add is very clearly "she is famous, people will buy shit that she puts her name on". What they have in common is that they ha…

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.

Who is "Rihanna" ?

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#397
post #75

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…

For sure. Given that Musk was fired from [deleted, see note 1] and PayPal, you'd think they might have had more questions. But people look at failure much more carefully than they look at success. I think the next wave of interesting questions is around the extent to which Musk contributed the apparent successes, SpaceX and Tesla. We won't know for a long time, as a lot of the people in the know have a strong incenti…

Musk is a victim of his own success. Even if he isn't solely responsible for the success of Tesla and Space X in his mind enough of it is him.

The problem here is overconfidence / blind spots. Twitter is a different type of business. Musk looks to be doing a Mike Jordan or a Shaq. Basketball isn't baseball, nor is it rapping. Both of them recovered from those bad decisions. Will Musk? Time will tell.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk is a celebrity. Celebrities start successful companies all the time. Is Rihanna a brilliant business woman for starting a successful beauty line? Is she a business genius , which is what Musk gets labeled so often? Maybe she really is, but I don't see her get that label, I think her value add is very clearly "she is famous, people will buy shit that she puts her name on". What they have in common is that they ha…

Is her beauty line worth more than (top three classic beauty supply companies)?

Does her beauty line rival that of the gods? Because I don’t want another Trojan War starting.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#399
post #109

Can't say about pg, but I left Twitter (I'm a regular, non-blue user) because the ads lately got out of control. Every other post is a promoted ad from a totally unrelated category, which I can't relate to. Ads targeting either stopped working, or Twitter allowed large numbers of low quality advertisers to push their ads.

I turned my ad-blocker off a while ago, out of curiosity, and my ads have been a mix of (mostly) no ads at all or (occasionally) a bunch of ads at once for really strange things. One time I got six ads in a row for locations in China. Not tourist spots, mind, but stuff like a dig site in a Chinese city. Another time I got amateurish Christian evangelism and a guy promoting a article in Nature about cats recognizing their names. I'm not even sure why the second guy was promoting that article, as they were neither a co-author nor affiliated. Very rarely do I get ads that are even remotely related to the kind of accounts I follow on Twitter.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#400
post #127

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…

Majority of people here on HN were also convinced he will try to make Twitter better. Not everybody believed that he will succeeded but it seems like majority belived that he will at least try hard. Like improve app to purchase things (one click checkout), integrate with real time news, some free speech, sports, … so many ideas

> Majority of people here on HN were also convinced he will try to make Twitter better.

I was one of them. But slowly we saw him fuck it up, and then double down. Twitter is toast unless Elon is dumped by his investors

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