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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

#631

Post by rnk »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #515
FormerBandmate wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hyperbole. Tesla and SpaceX were insane accomplishments in moribund industries (the first successful auto startup in 80 years, and pretty much singlehanfedly revitalizing space travel which was basically dead, people with way more resources tried and failed at both of them). That being said, the Twitter acquisition is the work of a petulant child

Do Kia (reborn in 1986), Tata, and Saleen not count as successful? Tesla has had an impressive rise, but it's not like nothing happened between 1923 and 2003 in the automotive industry.

Good point, but I'm sure the point was no new american automobile companies succeeded until tesla

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

#632

Post by boredhedgehog »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #418
jasode wrote: post #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…

> 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. I don't think what you describe is actually possible. Compare Glenn Greenwald's writing about his work at an orga…

Do you happen to know what Greenwald thinks about public broadcasters like Britain's BBC? His description of "unconscious allegiance" to the source of income is one of the most succinct summaries of the peculiar mindsets that those systems too seem to foster.

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

#633

Post by shepherdjerred »

gloosx wrote: post #624

Can anyone explain me one thing? Is it some kind of special American sickness to place 51% on top of the 49% continuously? It's obvious to me that this is SEPARATION, and it leads to nowhere but a split. Every poll like this, it is a rocket strike to the commUNITY, essentially splitting it in half, forget about the unity. How come in thew modern world 51% prevail over 49%? How come it is a golden standard in a modern…

Democracy has been defined to mean "majority rules" in American politics. Do you have a better way in mind?

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

#634

Post by sph »

foepys wrote: post #604
intended wrote: post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Murdoch has been near single handedly the force that moved western news media and set us on the path we see today. Many would happily dance on his grave, and raise a toast to his departure from this realm. To say that he has a hands off approach to his editorial board, because of his handling of Theranos, is an unkindness to the harm he has caused to the fabric of decent society. If any lesson is to be learned from M…

Murdoch has little to no influence in the non-English speaking world. "The West" is a lot more than just USA, UK, and Australia.

Oh right, I guess one that was able to influence three of the richest countries in the world just isn't worth thinking about.

That's the worst kind of pedantic whataboutism.

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

#635

Post by andreareina »

Kronopath wrote: post #506
penjelly wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

has ambien script, has admitted to it influencing his behaviour on twitter in the past https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/79457837541523865...

I have no idea why people take Ambien when low-dose (<0.5mg) melatonin exists over-the-counter in abundance in the US.

Melatonin has been ineffective for me and several people I know. Low dose, regular dose, all sorts of protocols.

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

#636

Post by shepherdjerred »

pgwhalen wrote: post #238
samwillis wrote: post #5

This has had over 250k votes in the first three minutes. Thats insane! I can only imagine the infrastructure for this...

I hate to be the HN commenter that trivializes tech, but is that performance that impressive for a poll? Especially when there is no requirement for real time reads of the results.

> I hate to be the HN commenter that trivializes tech, but is that performance that impressive for a poll? Especially when there is no requirement for real time reads of the results.

It's still cool, even if it's not the _coolest_.

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

#637

Post by chris222 »

BeefWellington wrote: post #584
FormerBandmate wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hyperbole. Tesla and SpaceX were insane accomplishments in moribund industries (the first successful auto startup in 80 years, and pretty much singlehanfedly revitalizing space travel which was basically dead, people with way more resources tried and failed at both of them). That being said, the Twitter acquisition is the work of a petulant child

The ball was already rolling on Tesla before Elon came along though. He was the majority of their first funding round but their company structure and development of a concept car was already underway. He just saw the opportunity that others were already working on and funded it, then stepped in, pushed the original founders out, and claimed it was his idea in the first place until he and the company settled a lawsuit…

This is false. You should check the records as to what Tesla was before Musk and JB Straubel came on board, it wasn’t much. I highly doubt the company would have survived past the Roadster.

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

#639

Post by seanhunter »

themitigating wrote: post #435
wpietri wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is nothing about Musk’s history and management style that is even remotely close to what could be called “scientific first principles type of thinking”. Agreed. But the interesting question for me is: what are people seeing that they would mistake for that?

Weak people seek someone to follow. Trump, Musk, Thatcher. All they have to do is tell them what they want to hear and throngs of unwashed masses, filled with their insecurities and fear, will worship at their feet. "All you have to do is support me and I'll make everything allright" - any of the above

I am often reminded of the brilliant line from “The second Coming” by WB Yeats.[1]

“The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity”

Normal people are often full of doubt, their comments are often guarded by caveats etc. Dictators, populists, narcissists, confidence tricksters speak in absolutes. Their messages are very appealing because they seem so clear and straightforward. They can seem brilliant because of this certainty and sometimes can achieve a lot because they aren’t held back by the kinds of reservations and scruples that most people suffer from.

[1] https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-comi...

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

#640

Post by p1necone »

skinnymuch wrote: post #597
xigoi wrote: post #590

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just find it ironic how the sides have swapped. Previously when Twitter was censoring right-wing opinions, leftists went “it's a private company, they can do whatever they want and you're not allowed to criticize them”. Now that Musk has taken over, it seems to be the opposite.

What leftist did that? Leftists don’t believe in private for profit corporations. It’d be weird for them to care about capital ownership all of a sudden. When was Twitter censoring “right wing opinion”. Do you mean bigotry?

> Leftists don’t believe in private for profit corporations.

The left of the political spectrum in the USA is mostly to the right of actual communism.

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