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Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll

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Re: Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll

#221

For people sick of this shit I recommend changing the hacker news link to this https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=last24h&page=0&prefix=fals...

Is there a way to only see headlines with Algolia, not story excerpts as well? The UX for the above link is really disorienting.

Re: Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll

#222
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would work. It's hard to think of a better choice.

Let’s try. I suggest Kalanick or Neumann!

What's Sam Bankman-Fried up to these days?

Re: Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll

#223
post #162

Now that the poll is leaning toward "yes", Elon is adding conditions, namely, you have to invest your life savings. Lex Fridman volunteered to do it for free, and Elon replied: > One catch: you have to invest your life savings in Twitter and it has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604626103326253056

Not really a big catch for those without many savings.

[Edit]: Also, it's a bit of a stage rule as most of Musk's wealth is still in SpaceX and Tesla.

Re: Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll

#224
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, what's he going to do, set Roko's Basilisk on you?

No, you just did that to him.

I wouldn't be surprised if GP gets flagged by > 0 people.

Re: Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll

#225
post #162

Now that the poll is leaning toward "yes", Elon is adding conditions, namely, you have to invest your life savings. Lex Fridman volunteered to do it for free, and Elon replied: > One catch: you have to invest your life savings in Twitter and it has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604626103326253056

And Lex is going to bite that bullet even.

No way Elon follows through, surely?

Re: Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll

#226
It's instructive to contrast what other billionaires did with media properties they owned:

- Jeff Bezos personally bought Washington Post but he left it alone and let the editors run it. What Jeff did do was invest some money into the IT department to modernize the workflow tools (metrics dashboards, etc) for journalists. He stayed out of the decisions of what stories get run on the front page.

- Rupert Murdoch owns Wall Street Journal but when Elizabeth Holmes asked him to squash negative stories about Theranos, he refused and stayed out of it. He let his editors run the stories even though it embarrassed him because he was a big investor.

Both those guys are more detached from those media outlets and don't meddle in it day to day.

What tech people like Paul Graham and others were hoping was for Elon to apply his scientific first principles type of thinking that he demonstrated previously at SpaceX+Tesla to Twitter. E.g. Tesla A.I. competency to clean up the bots and make the platform better.

Instead, Elon let the Twitter monster abuse his ego and his reputation as a savior is ruined.

Best thing Elon should have done was to focus only on the technical aspects of Twitter and let some more level-headed less-emotional people manage the editorial aspects.

Hopefully, Elon notices that we don't have endless HN and reddit front page articles about Rupert Murdoch's jet.

Re: Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll

#227

Can you even turn Twitter around at all, even if he steps down and finds a replacement? It was burning money before Elon, after buyout it is technically in even bigger loss. Advertisers and many influencers have basically fled from it. Politicians are also looking into regulating or outright ban it due to recent headlines of suspending journalists and more. I still can't help but think that 40+ billion dollars probab…

Twitter was fine before Elon, there were no existential risks to it. Everything happening to Twitter today is Elon’s doing. Any story otherwise is Elon’s preferred fiction.

That's not true.

Twitter was already losing money, whilst ads, their primary income source, is taking a hit due to economic problems. At the same time, the way they did ads is (the same as FB) running against secular trends against data sharing and privacy.

Jack and previous management had utterly failed on the product front. Excluding Spaces and Blue (for news junkies, which already got shot), what product changes had Twitter done in the last decade? 280 and what else?

Was all this survivable? Probably, but poor execution by Jack and crew meant that if it wasn't Elon, some hedge fund was going to take over Twitter. And the changes that make Twitter profitable likely, at minimum, badly damage it.

Re: Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's important that this community in particular bear witness to Musk's actions, as Musk's potential employees are largely drawn from this community.

I think you mean competitors..

Both are true and quite important, yes.

Re: Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll

#229

Can we please stop falling for this obvious tactic? How many days in a row does he have to do something seemingly-unhinged, and then follow it with some spectacle of a poll to shift the narrative? Is it really that easy ?

I guess I'm not sure what you mean by "shift the narrative". The fact that Musk is considering stepping down as head of Twitter is an entirely reasonable thing to be interested in as a followup to bad decisions he's made as head of Twitter.

If he stepped down, I would forever wonder what would have happened, had he stayed on!

It's been incredibly interesting so far.

Re: Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll

#230

Let's not forget that it's 3 in the morning Qatar time after an insane World Cup that Elon was live tweeting from the stands. Definitely adds some flavor to this!

A bunch of his saddest posts have been in the early hours of the morning, like 1-4am. He seems to have a pattern of getting really upset about something and then Posting Through It, and it reminds me in a really sad way of how some of my most troubled friends always feel worst after midnight. It sucks to see people with near-limitless resources just sit and wallow in (self-inflicted) misery when they could probably d…

Honestly, just going to bed would be the best option.
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