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Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

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Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#991

Post by bArray »

Waterluvian wrote: post #187
bArray wrote: post #181

> Yep, the team is gone. The team that was researching and pushing for algorithmic transparency and algorithmic choice. The team that was studying algorithmic amplification. The team that was inventing and building ethical AI tooling and methodologies. All that is gone. If you want to justify your position, I would suggest highlighting the positive changes you _did_ make, rather than the positive changes you _intende…

I’ve worked at companies that had entire teams that did a lot of fancy-sounding nothing. Based on these details, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a team like that.

Yep. Something like "We engage selected ethnic communities for feedback on our algorithms and practices, helping to improve Twitter's social culture" translates to "I meet my ethnic friend for lunch and we hate on internal Twitter politics".

I'm not saying that some of these people are not doing good work, but I think these people need far more criticism than they get.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#993

Post by RockyMcNuts »

hackerlight wrote: post #883
cochne wrote: post #873

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it's mostly not Twitter betting blamed for layoffs, it's Musk. Twitter provided those jobs, not Musk. Musk is doing the layoffs, not Twitter. So someone not responsible in the least for the creation of those jobs is ending them. That is not to say the layoffs were not needed or justified (I don't know) but the asymmetry exists because it's an asymmetric situation.

Layoffs that improve economic productivity should be celebrated. The executives who do them should be congratulated. They are creating economic surplus by freeing up labor to add value elsewhere in the economy where it's needed more. So few people understand how much human prosperity would be stunted if people weren't allowed to be terminated when they were no longer productively adding value in a position.

it's important to distinguish short-run productivity and long-term sustainability. systems need slack. if you take away all the shoulders on all the highways you will get improvements in throughput and cost per trip. and any breakdown will be much worse because responders can't get through to clear it.

layoffs shouldn't be celebrated because they cause pain and they mean someone screwed up.

time will tell whether Musk is putting the business on a sustainable footing or killing a golden goose.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#994

Post by RockyMcNuts »

pavlov wrote: post #68

In four years Musk will be bored to death with Twitter and will sell it to private equity and the Saudis for $5 billion. At that point it will be mostly a platform for porn creators and crypto pumping, the only two verticals where Twitter seems to be actually growing lately.

temperamentally he is mercurial and polarizing which is the opposite of what Twitter needs.

maybe he can turn Twitter into a super-app on the console of every Tesla. a plan is not in evidence other than throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. 'move fast and break things' might really unlock opportunities, or destroy trust.

Zuck was unusually good at fake apologies while continuing to data-rape and strip-mine users, but trust is a problem for Facebook and will be exponentially worse for Musk.

it could indeed turn into MuskChan. if he is really going to turn a blue check into something anyone can buy without providing ID it's just a matter of time before impersonation scams multiply.

it will be an incredible distraction from challenges at his other ventures. Saudis and pedophiles are going to use it to abduct people. what is he going to do when people/nations go nuts about something on Twitter and take it out on Tesla?

I'm also skeptical of the weird turnabout between 'get me out of this deal at any cost' and rushing to pay up in full. either a side deal with e.g. Saudis or there was something existential about to come out in discovery.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#995

Post by andrewaylett »

webinvest wrote: post #546
nostromo wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "freedom of speech" (I know that the first amendment only applies to government censorship, but Musk likes to pretend not to) Freedom of speech is not the first amendment and vice versa. Freedom of speech is an ideal that applies to all people and all spaces, public and private, while the First Amendment only applies in America and to the government. People think they sound smart when they say freedom of speech onl…

First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.“

Right. We're probably all aware of the text -- this is a US-centric site, after all. But I think you make the GP's point all the more necessary: The first amendment to the US constitution restrains one party from introducing rules abridging freedom of speech. There are plenty of other parties who may or may not seek to introduce and/or enforce rules allowing or prohibiting various forms of speech which are not the US government. My own government, for example. And Twitter.

That an action doesn't breach the first amendment to the US constitution doesn't say all that much when it comes to whether it's consistent with the stated ideals of proponents of freedom of speech.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#996

Post by [deleted] »

anon400232 wrote: post #973
memish wrote: post #850

There's an asymmetry here where Twitter and other companies get blamed for layoffs, but didn't get praised for providing highly paid jobs that put their employees in the top 1%. Even Stripe just had layoffs and they are a much more productive, tighter run ship. Twitter cutting deeper than Stripe shouldn't be surprising. It's not a secret that they were overstaffed and are known for rest & vest. This goes way back. In…

> In 2014 there was a show called Silicon Valley ... Yeah, we've heard of it. > resonated for a reason Mike Judge has a gift for exaggeration and humor. I'd be surprised if even one out of 100 so called 'slacker' rest and vest employees even resembled 1/10 of big head's cluelessness and "beach / roof" lifestyle.

[deleted]

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#997

Post by skc »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #224
skc wrote: post #124

Serious question about this Twitter sale and how people expect it to go. What does it really matter to Musk or the other investors if this thing fails spectacularly.

I don't think there's anyone on earth who can afford to lose $44 billion dollars.

My point is even if that 44 billion was pissed away Musk is never going to be destitute.

The people that get hurt in this sort of thing aren't the rich and powerful.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#998

Post by Papirola »

gdubs wrote: post #476

Be Civil. Really shouldn't have to be said. Lots of gross comments here today, and I don't have the time to go check every last username but I only hope it's not long-timers here who are being so snarky and callous at people losing their jobs. And if it is, y'all should remember that the best developers have long memories. Would be wise to have a little empathy and delight a little less in the turning of the business…

> y'all should remember that the best developers have long memories

is this a threat?

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#999

Post by mikestaub »

losvedir wrote: post #180

And so the grand experiment begins. I feel bad for the folks losing their job because that always sucks, and I hope there's a decent severance package. Now we'll see what happens to Twitter... I hardly use it, so if it implodes it won't bother me too much. But I am curious to see if all the "how do you need X people to do Y?" commenters are correct in this case. The app is simple but doing simple things at scale is h…

Twitter will integrate with blueskyweb.org and the lightning protocol which will bridge users into web5. This will create a Cambrian explosion of innovation in the consumer social space, and begin the end of web2 social platforms like Facebook and Tiktok. The twitter social graph will be used to bootstrap a true Wechat competitor that is based on open protocols and data. Either that or it goes up in flames within 6 months.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#1000

Post by kulikalov »

ben7799 wrote: post #863
aliljet wrote: post #8

I'm pretty curious about how and where Twitter employees were distributed. For a company ostensibly worth $44 billion, having 7,500 staff feels pretty damn lean. It feels like Musk isn't just purging people, he's purging the Twitter culture...

Depends on how you value the company. Twitter is very overvalued if you look at accounting & finances more than influence and popularity and hype. Consider revenue and income (losses) and Twitter doesn't look good at all, they look horrible. They don't have that many employees, but they must be very very highly compensated and concentrated in very high cost areas. Otherwise the company is wasting serious money somewh…

The finance folks have this term: "Intangible Assets", it affects the valuation big time.
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