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Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

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Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#231
post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's completely wrong. Its a lost cause to try to explain economic theory on a forum but suffice to say that central banks factor completely arbitrary variables to get the number they want. http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpihqaitem.htm >The CPI is calculated using prices for a fixed basket of goods and services through time. While the basket is periodically revised to reflect changing consumer expenditures, some items bein…

Actually, the FED targets something called the PCE price index which is an attempt at measuring price increases across all consumer spending. But those are just measuring details, if you want to you can go to economic conferences and argue the finer details of these measurements with rooms full of PhDs. The point though is that inflation targeting is about trying to keep the cycle of rising wages and rising prices go…

>You don't need a PHD to understand what this means, you need only basic reading comprehension and minimal intelligence:

Quote from FED:

>The hedonic quality adjustment method removes any price differential attributed to a change in quality by adding or subtracting the estimated value of that change from the price of the old item.

What do you think "attributing a change in quality" or subtracting "estimated value" means? If you don't understand how the introduction of these arbitrary variables, invented by a politicized FED, completely nullify any informational value, nobody can explain it to you.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#232
post #117

Twitter is by far the #1 service I use everyday. It's been the most valuable to me from a networking perspective where I've made friends and professional connections. I also happen to be a shareholder. It's been disappointing to watch Twitter try to become a business and completely falling flat. The acquisition of Vine and Periscope haven't led to much and the user growth from Live video is still t be seen. The produ…

Twitter needs to find a frictionless way to get paid by their regular users that most users won't notice or think much about. Several potentials exist: can charge to follow additional users above a certain threshold; can charge to expand publishing platform (i.e., to be followed by more than a certain quantity of users); can have "premium channel"-style users that only paid members can follow (this may also be a way…

Paying in order to increase the maximum count of followers sounds really bad, given that those are the users that also generate content and hence the reason for why you also have lurkers with under 100 followers that just consume content.

Your proposal is a terrible idea, because Twitter should be paying those that genuinely attract an audience, not vice versa, since those people can always switch. Popular people will be popular anywhere. E.g. Linus Tolvards has a big and active audience on Google+, even though it is in general a ghost town.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#233

I've always sort of had this question that continues to feel naive - but I'm not sure I know the answer: why do so many companies feel like they have to grow perpetually? Why can't Twitter just be happy being Twitter, knowing its limits and making a stable profit? Instead it's more users, more VC money, more staff... constantly burning as quickly as possible. There's a ceiling on every business; it's all bound to com…

You nailed it, taking investor money and being guided by it to grow until your business breaks. Really appreciate your last paragraph.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is one simple item: "When you take someone's money, their priorities are now your priorities" If you can bootstrap your business with 30k and make a 20k profit every month, then why do you need 1 million dollars from investors? When you take the money, it's just a golden handcuff and ties you to that person for the future. If your business lasts longer than 20 years, that may as well be an additional marria…

Because your competitor can raise those million dollars, and eventually your 20k profit per month becomes 20k loss per month. You can build all your imaginary arguments about magical businesses that make 20k profit per month while being self-sustained with holocracy, cruelty free, authentic, organic etc. etc. But the reality is that doing big things at bigger scale requires huge capital. If you are willing to pass up…

Then the investors will get tired of subsidising the other company, it will get more and more user-hostile and quite possibly run out of money altogether and shut down, and users will be worse off in the long run.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#235
post #179
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What "betrayal" are you talking about? I've never used Twitter, so my knowledge lacks a little.

After years of being increasingly hostile to 3rd party developers, Twitter finally decided that you needed their permission to have more than 100k users of your twitter client. That announcement was bundled with tightened rate limiting and stricter controls over how you could display tweets. This was the final stake in the coffin for many Twitter clients. https://blog.twitter.com/2012/changes-coming-in-version-11-o..…

There was a period here on HN where every week or two they'd be a story or an Ask HN about someone hitting the limit and having to shut down.

To add a bit more to the context to the parent, all these third party clients made it possible for people to use Twitter how they wanted to, to tailor it to them. Twitter decided they wanted you to use it in their way.

It was a big shift in the culture of twitter. It's hard to quantify as everyone has their own perspective on it.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#236
Came here to say that I love Twitter and am online on it far more than on any other service.

I even clicked on its served commercials, because Twitter has my professional network and managed to score some ads that triggered my interest, versus on Facebook where I have a list of friends and acquaintances with which I've got little in common with.

Their problem is their ad inventory and their targeting. They should serve more ads and improve their targeting.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#237
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When an entrepreneur is excited about a thing she's building, the truthful answer to "how many hours per day do you work" is typically "zero or twenty-four, depending on what you consider work." I agree entrepreneurs can get burnt out, but at that point it's become a "job" and is probably time to move on.

you are incorrect in assumption that burnout can happen only once you lose passion for your work. one of endless examples in history - look up medical volunteers during WWI - passionate for saving lives all the time, yet burnout happened to many of those. there are limits to stress your body can sustain, and your mind can be totally disconnected with it, pushing and pushing.

> you are incorrect in assumption that burnout can happen only once you lose passion for your work

The assumption is not only incorrect, but I believe it is exactly reverse: Losing passing is one of the consequences of a burn-out. It is not a cause, but instead one of the (most visible) symptoms.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#238
post #203
post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why this? Burnt-out entrepreneurs are failed entrepreneurs, aren't they? There's always a limit on how much time you can spend per day, and this limit is far below the time you are awake. Push it too far, and you do not only lose your working power, but also your motivation and your inspiration.

When an entrepreneur is excited about a thing she's building, the truthful answer to "how many hours per day do you work" is typically "zero or twenty-four, depending on what you consider work." I agree entrepreneurs can get burnt out, but at that point it's become a "job" and is probably time to move on.

One can be passionate about multiple things at the same time.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is one simple item: "When you take someone's money, their priorities are now your priorities" If you can bootstrap your business with 30k and make a 20k profit every month, then why do you need 1 million dollars from investors? When you take the money, it's just a golden handcuff and ties you to that person for the future. If your business lasts longer than 20 years, that may as well be an additional marria…

Because your competitor can raise those million dollars, and eventually your 20k profit per month becomes 20k loss per month. You can build all your imaginary arguments about magical businesses that make 20k profit per month while being self-sustained with holocracy, cruelty free, authentic, organic etc. etc. But the reality is that doing big things at bigger scale requires huge capital. If you are willing to pass up…

Nothing lasts forever.

Having said that, the number of bootstrapped / angel-funded companies sitting there cheerfully producing a large-enough-to-be-useful profit for years on end is pretty huge. Others have given examples in other replies to this comment, but I just wanted to point out - they're not outliers, they're a trend.

The claim that the model doesn't work is rather easily falsified.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#240
post #117

Twitter is by far the #1 service I use everyday. It's been the most valuable to me from a networking perspective where I've made friends and professional connections. I also happen to be a shareholder. It's been disappointing to watch Twitter try to become a business and completely falling flat. The acquisition of Vine and Periscope haven't led to much and the user growth from Live video is still t be seen. The produ…

Twitter needs to find a frictionless way to get paid by their regular users that most users won't notice or think much about. Several potentials exist: can charge to follow additional users above a certain threshold; can charge to expand publishing platform (i.e., to be followed by more than a certain quantity of users); can have "premium channel"-style users that only paid members can follow (this may also be a way…

I imagine that they will try to leveraging/monetizing the influencer marketing trend more.

Essentially a company / influencer marketplace.

They are the ones with the perfect data insight.

This combined w/ a "show ad to people who follow person N (and alike) might be a very strong ad format only they (and instagram, snapchat) can provide

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