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

Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 272 posts

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#241

Post by darklajid »

gohrt wrote: post #197
SeoxyS wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it was wildly successful, how did we end up with tons of private competitors with a large market share (FedEx, UPS, DHL, OnTrac, etc). The U.S. Is one of the only countries where the state run postal service isn't sufficient. In Switzerland, for example, there is only the Swiss Post. Most countries, to my knowledge, operate with just one major postal network.

There are many niches within the general category of "post". USPS's focus (and monopoly) is on first-class and bulk mail. How much cost/time does it cost Swiss Post to ship a package 4000km ? It's at least 3x the price of USPS: https://www.post.ch/en/private/a-z-of-subjects/prices-sendin...

Erm. What are you comparing here?

I read your comment as 'Given USPS can send a package over 4000km in the same country, let's compare that with international charges in Switzerland'¹. Is that correct? Because that would be a liiiittle bit misleading in my world and I'd like to compare Swiss international charges with a USPS delivery from New York to Reykjavik please.

① Apologies if that isn't the case. But 4000km just felt too close to the east coast to west coast distance.

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#242

Post by SamReidHughes »

themartorana wrote: post #169
yummyfajitas wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was only wildly successful until our leaders "sabotaged" it by forcing it to obey standard actuarial practices. (Unlike the rest of the govt, the USPS is now required to fully fund it's pension plans.) See this comment for a more detailed explanation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6710602 Also, it's pretty hard not to be "wildly successful" when you get a legally enforced monopoly. Comcast is also "wildly s…

Yes and no. It's a monopoly that can't charge what it takes to stay afloat. Raising prices or changing delivery schedules requires an act of Congress! No member of Congress wants to have to answer for that, so the price of sending a letter hundreds - if not thousands - of miles, to be hand-delivered remains under one-half of one dollar $USD . THAT IS INSANE. It's been argued, deftly, that even with a decline in volum…

They can make a profit by paying their workers less. This is really about the USPS workers' union vs. Congress.

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#243

Post by darklajid »

SeoxyS wrote: post #162
binxbolling wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is wildly successful and doesn't cost us taxpayers a dime. If our "leaders" stopped actively sabotaging the USPS, it could be doing even better.

If it was wildly successful, how did we end up with tons of private competitors with a large market share (FedEx, UPS, DHL, OnTrac, etc). The U.S. Is one of the only countries where the state run postal service isn't sufficient. In Switzerland, for example, there is only the Swiss Post. Most countries, to my knowledge, operate with just one major postal network.

I might misunderstand postal services here. Is that mail/letters only? Or does it include parcels?

Because as far as I'm aware, Switzerland opened up to DHL et al. I'm not sure about mail/letters tbh.

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#244

Post by decasteve »

throwaway6497 wrote: post #228
austenallred wrote: post #3

Having a founder and product visionary (Jack) in the driver's seat at Twitter is absolutely the right move. Sure, Jack has his quirks, and seems a little bit crazy and minimalistic, but that's exactly what makes him the right person for the job. Twitter is executing on its vision now just fine, but that's just the problem: There hasn't been any vision left in the company. No truly big moves have been made, and the pr…

I think we tend to overuse the word visionary quite a bit these days in the industry. Have you read the book by other Twitter founder who was ousted? He paints a different picture of Jack. Jack is no slouch but a visionary? He is not in the same league as Elon Musk. Jack is a hipster in a suit; he is smart and has carefully crafted his public persona (probably inspired by Jobs and modeled his persona after his ideas)…

Elon also has a well crafted public persona. He's still visionary but easy to tell a lot of thought went in to how he presents himself.

A few interviews with his brother Kimbal takes Elon down a notch, in a fun brotherly way. Kimbal is the more natural and affable of the two.

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#245

Post by welanes »

notNow wrote: post #184

Seriously, what was Sacca thinking when he pressed the publish button on that Twitter piece? I'm half way through and it's just insane. He spilled the beans for every product that Twitter could build in the coming couple of years for everyone to see. Couldn't he just have sent those recommendations or feature requests to the top management and spared them the public humiliation or giving the competition free ideas an…

Ideas are ten a penny, plus there's nothing in the post that's innovative or surprising for anyone who uses Twitter even a little.

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#246

Post by billyhoffman »

refurb wrote: post #208
camgunz wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US doesn't require private corporations to offer a pension at all. If they do voluntarily, it's almost always a 401k. The USPS' pension funding forced on it by a "starve the beast" Congress is much different.

The US gov't sure as hell requires private corporations with pensions to make sure they are fully funded. The pension might be optional, but running an underfunded one is not.

Really?

From http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/business/pension-plans-inc...

"AFTER years of poor investment returns, the pension funds of the United States’ largest companies are further behind than they have ever been.

The companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 collectively reported that at the end of their most recent fiscal years, their pension plans had obligations of $1.68 trillion and assets of just $1.32 trillion. The difference of $355 billion was the largest ever, S.& P. said in a report.

Of the 500 companies, 338 have defined-benefit pension plans, and only 18 are fully funded. Seven companies reported that their plans were underfunded by more than $10 billion, with the largest negative figure, $21.6 billion, reported by General Electric."

Private corporations are not held to the same standard as the USPS for pension funding.

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#247

Post by signaler »

wyclif wrote: post #37
austenallred wrote: post #3

Having a founder and product visionary (Jack) in the driver's seat at Twitter is absolutely the right move. Sure, Jack has his quirks, and seems a little bit crazy and minimalistic, but that's exactly what makes him the right person for the job. Twitter is executing on its vision now just fine, but that's just the problem: There hasn't been any vision left in the company. No truly big moves have been made, and the pr…

The problem with this, as an early Twitter user (summer 2006), is that I don't really want Twitter to significantly change. The minimalism is a feature. It was SMS on the web. I always wanted Twitter to be more like a public utility, but that's impossible now because it's been "monetized."

Seconded. It's like the fabric of the web now. (Possibly why their Fabric API is called 'Fabric'). I wrote about this: http://blog.higg.so/2015/06/12/on-twitter/?24

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#248

Post by puranjay »

throwaway6497 wrote: post #228
austenallred wrote: post #3

Having a founder and product visionary (Jack) in the driver's seat at Twitter is absolutely the right move. Sure, Jack has his quirks, and seems a little bit crazy and minimalistic, but that's exactly what makes him the right person for the job. Twitter is executing on its vision now just fine, but that's just the problem: There hasn't been any vision left in the company. No truly big moves have been made, and the pr…

I think we tend to overuse the word visionary quite a bit these days in the industry. Have you read the book by other Twitter founder who was ousted? He paints a different picture of Jack. Jack is no slouch but a visionary? He is not in the same league as Elon Musk. Jack is a hipster in a suit; he is smart and has carefully crafted his public persona (probably inspired by Jobs and modeled his persona after his ideas)…

"Visionary" is this generation's "Genius"

Anyone slightly out of the ordinary is saddled with that tag.

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#250

Post by mrweasel »

austenallred wrote: post #154
mindstab wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and they will make money how? their expenses sure will go up.

They make $2 Billion/year already

No they don't. They had $1.4 billion in revenue, so they must have to have profits lower than that. In fact they lost half a billion dollars last year.

https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3ATWTR&fstype=ii&ei=qz... <- Income before tax: -578.350.000 USD.

Post reply on HN