Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

411–420 of 1001 posts

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#411

Post by abdabab »

jerlam wrote: post #365
jacquesm wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the way Twitter is faring is actually proof to the contrary, you can't lay off half your staff and expect the machine to just keep chugging along. You either design it from day #1 to be run with a very tight crew or it becomes a much larger machine with a different kind of profile. Compare Instagram with Twitter.

Counterpoint: Netflix, which did a lot of layoffs in the 2000s and as the story goes, redesigned their entire HR process around 'lean'.

I’m sure Netflix in 2000 had a lot simpler tech stack than Twitter in 2020. However your point is taken.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#412

Post by [deleted] »

BryantD wrote: post #259
wpietri wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

To be absolutely fair… do you have a reference for Zip2? I was at AltaVista for the acquisition and while I wasn’t close enough to it to be sure, I know he walked away with a bunch of money.

[deleted]

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#414

Post by richbell »

wpietri wrote: post #378
dontknowwhyihn wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at Zip2, and am pretty sure Elon was not fired.

Thanks for the correction! That's my mistake. I remembered it as the board firing him from CEO, as happened at PayPal, but according to Wikipedia, at Zip2 the board only refused to make him CEO.

IIRC some pieces frame Sorkin joining as Elon being "demoted" to CTO; after ousting Sorkin, he tried to become CEO but, as you said, the board shot him down.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#415

Post by bsaul »

norwalkbear wrote: post #107

He'll be back. If you hate Twitter you will despise Mastodon.

Never understood how people would leave twitter for mastodon (which is federated) as a way to protest against nonregulated free speech (not the case for pg, but that’s what’s started the trend).

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#416

Post by ben_w »

rc_mob wrote: post #211
KMag wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon could both be smart and making huge mistakes. It happens all the time.

Elon is definitely not a smart human. Maybe 25 years ago he did a thing. Ok.

Someone can be both smart and Dunning-Kruger themselves in the face.

I don't know why someone who (self-diagnosed?) as having Asperger's thinks they'd be a good fit for leading a social media company, that feels like having a an amputee selling staircases [0]; but the rocket nerds I follow seem pretty convinced Musk genuinely knows actual rocket science.

[0] as in: it could work, but you'd not expect it by default

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#417

Post by elliekelly »

KMag wrote: post #169
cyberphobe wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in the replies to this tweet he insists[1] "Elon is a smart guy" in spite of all the evidence to the contrary [1] https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1604557444247539712

Elon could both be smart and making huge mistakes. It happens all the time.

This is absolutely true. But I think “smart” leadership avoids repeatedly doubling down on their mistakes. You can, very rarely, double down on what looks like a bad bet and come out ahead. I’m not even sure I’d call that smart but it does happen. But it takes a not-smart person to see the losses stacking up over and over and decide to dig in their heels.

Even if you’re absolutely certain your goals and overall strategy are right a smart person would understand that something needs to change in the messaging and/or execution given the overwhelmingly negative feedback.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#418

Post by BiteCode_dev »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #37
belligeront wrote: post #15

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…

The hubris is what gets me. The sheer audacity that the peons had in suggesting Musk didn't know what he was doing!

Yet, he has the courage of expressing those opinions without sarcasm, on his own public account, and later own admit to change his mind, while being a very exposed figure.

And you use a throwaway.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#419

Post by baxtr »

pg wrote: 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…

> seemed like a good time to learn about alternatives.

Would be great to see you being more active on HN again!

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#420

Post by dredmorbius »

dpweb wrote: post #171

I think the preferred approach if you’re outraged about Twitter management, is speak out about it on Twitter, as opposed to quit in protest. Fight the fight if it’s worth it.

Exit, Voice, and Loyalty:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit,_Voice,_and_Loyalty>

Post reply on HN