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Twitter announces layoffs

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Re: Twitter announces layoffs

#381

Post by tajen »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #103
celticninja wrote: post #37

> The world needs a strong Twitter Really? Does it? I think Twitter needs a strong Twitter, shareholders need a strong Twitter even Twitter employees need it. However the world is, at best, ambivalent about Twitter, if it disappeared tomorrow a replacement would spring up within a few weeks if the world really needed a way to shotgun their messages into the ether.

> Really? Does it? When you're the CEO of twitter, yes. You're not going to say anything else.

I know one company [1] who set its mission to "Advancing humanity through the power of software". I wonder what's the credit when your values are quoted in a parody show ("Silicon Valley", HBO).

[1] https://www.atlassian.com/company

Re: Twitter announces layoffs

#382

Post by dragonwriter »

jusben1369 wrote: post #104
celticninja wrote: post #37

> The world needs a strong Twitter Really? Does it? I think Twitter needs a strong Twitter, shareholders need a strong Twitter even Twitter employees need it. However the world is, at best, ambivalent about Twitter, if it disappeared tomorrow a replacement would spring up within a few weeks if the world really needed a way to shotgun their messages into the ether.

Odd. While incredibly flawed it's still the single best toolto fight against censorship and public and private control. If you have doubts go look at how many national governments have blocked it at one time or another. The world is better off with a strong Twitter.

> While incredibly flawed it's still the single best toolto fight against censorship and public and private control.

But is it the best because it is better than the alternatives we would have without it is, or is it the best because its dominance in messaging prevents better tools (in terms of "the fight against censorship and ... control") from being developed or gaining traction and critical mass -- e.g., is the goal you point to really being served by a strong Twitter, or held back by it?

Re: Twitter announces layoffs

#383

Post by biot »

kenko wrote: post #323
aaroninsf wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ranks right up there with 'infer' for 'imply' in usage changes which I will go to my grave hearing foremost as a brazen signal of incomplete education. Kids: do not use either if you care about the judgment of your elders. Bonus protip: until you vest, you should care.

"usage changes" which have been around since long before you were born. Are there other long-established regionalisms/dialects you have a bug up your butt about? It might be pragmatic to care about the judgment of one's ignorant elders, when the ignorant have power over you, but in no other sense should one care about such opinions.

The first person to write "should of" and "could of" instead of "should've" and "could've" was certainly incorrect, because they misheard someone's speech and wrote it out phonetically in a way that no one had ever done before. At what point does the incorrect usage become so popular that we ignorant fools start teaching "should of" and "could of" as correct English to our kids?

Re: Twitter announces layoffs

#384

Post by joshrotenberg »

Geekette wrote: post #245
Sidnicious wrote: post #97

> Emails like this are usually riddled with corporate speak so I'm going to give it to you straight. I tried rewriting his email to live up to this promise: - - - Team, We're cutting our workforce to strengthen Twitter as a company. The team has been deciding how to best streamline Twitter, Vine, and Periscope to put their focus on the projects which will have the greatest impact. Moments, which we launched last week…

A (what-if-the-news-broke-via-Twitter) translation: Fam, Shit got real, gotta drop, 336 deep. Mainly ingenieros. Don't get shook, all drops get $. Keep keeping on. Questions? Holla @ur boy. -J

No room for "Moments #FTW" unfortunately.

Re: Twitter announces layoffs

#385

Post by skywhopper »

rodgerd wrote: post #339
hitekker wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone should take note of this person's excellent structure: he put the decision first. If you are writing a decisive message that can greatly impact many people's lives: write the decision first. Don't "sandwich" the truth. Sandwiching only makes sense when the decision or the mistake is not of huge significance. Beating around the bush in matters of great import will always harm the sincerity of your words. Afte…

> Everyone should take note of this person's excellent structure: he put the decision first. Going by my twitter feed, they implemented the decision first, with people discovering they were locked out of their twitter accounts and RAS before the announcement was made.

It's a hard problem to solve, but given that many of the folks being dismissed are engineers with elevated access to Twitter's data and services, it makes sense from a security and privacy perspective to disable access first. There's no good way to lay off 300 people at once. Hopefully Twitter actually follows through on the separation package and job search assistance. That's far more important.

Re: Twitter announces layoffs

#386

Post by [deleted] »

qwertyFish wrote: post #320
diego wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Startup world? This is a public company with thousands of employees who can get rid of 336 of them. It's pretty far from the startup world. This is the corporate world, and it happens to companies with long histories when their environment changes.

To counter, Twitter is a growth stage company and while public, it's value is priced exclusively on future value. It is only a 9 year old company working out product market fit and has only had a few profitable quarters, I only noted feb 2014 but there are likely a few more. So is it a startup? Idk wtf a startup is but Twitter isn't a blue chip.

[deleted]

Re: Twitter announces layoffs

#387

Post by fredkbloggs »

bduerst wrote: post #354
fredkbloggs wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, really, the world doesn't need any. But I'm curious why you think the world would benefit from fewer.

Isn't there no real value added with HFT? Isn't the question then 'why don't we have fewer?'

Apparently the people doing it are gaining something from it, else as you note there would be less of it. I don't know whether it's value-creating or not as a whole; there are different types and classes of HFT operations and algorithms (including those that try to trade based on rumors and sentiment), and various arguments about who is or is not better off for their existence. Someone who wants to assert that it's harmful needs to have some kind of tally of all the benefits/profits and all the harm/losses that shows net value destruction, or at the very least a complete ethical argument. All we got was "the world needs less of this", which doesn't really do much to further anyone's understanding nor provide a digestible view on the matter.

Re: Twitter announces layoffs

#388

Post by felixfurtak »

Sidnicious wrote: post #97

> Emails like this are usually riddled with corporate speak so I'm going to give it to you straight. I tried rewriting his email to live up to this promise: - - - Team, We're cutting our workforce to strengthen Twitter as a company. The team has been deciding how to best streamline Twitter, Vine, and Periscope to put their focus on the projects which will have the greatest impact. Moments, which we launched last week…

Now try to write it again in 140 characters ;)

Re: Twitter announces layoffs

#389

Post by sjg007 »

curiousjorge wrote: post #144

Have a feeling that Twitter is one of the uniocorns to go next year. He's approaching this as a simple restructure & pray with engineering teams when in fact the problem is a much more serious problem, there's a loss of confidence in Twitter from investors. I guess cutting when investors feel like it's due is a good way to appear like you are making changes when in fact the problem with Twitter is much more deep root…

Yes but Twitter fits in within mainstream media. Facebook could take the #hashtag business, but the pseudonymity of Twitter has general appeal. Doing anything but advertising is a bad deal for either Facebook or Twitter. CPA is really a bad deal for the platform.

Re: Twitter announces layoffs

#390

Post by School-Cotton »

loco5niner wrote: post #330
quarterto wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The purpose of language is communication. Did you understand what melvinmt meant? Yes, of course you did. What's the big deal? What are you gaining by "correcting" a pointless[1] semantic distinction, other than your own smug satisfaction? [1]: Yes, it's pointless. Why is there no such distinction for "more"?

> Why is there no such distinction for "more" Because English is weird. I still want two use it correctly.

Who decided what's correct, if not the community of English speakers?
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