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The Unofficial "Elon Musk trying to "Save Everyone" from Themselves (except his Step-Sister)" Thread...

Renegade7

By Renegade7
in The Tailgate

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Simmsy

Simmsy

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, mistertim said:

 

Yeah for a guy who claims to work up to 100 hours a week he certainly seems to find plenty of time to monitor Twitter and post dumb ****.

 

25 minutes ago, PokerPacker said:

That doesn't seem too far off from the standard set by a typical office worker.

 

I went from construction, to project manager, back to construction. In my project manager phase, I would burn through some serious YouTube playlists in a day that would normally take a week. Something about office work, there just isn't enough to do to keep you busy very long.

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TheGoodBits

TheGoodBits

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Posted (edited)


A slightly plausible alternative to twitter slowly failing, piece by piece, under the burden of crushing technical debt that their remaining engineers cannot handle is that it simply gets turned off after Elon refuses to pay his AWS bill. :ols: 

Edited by TheGoodBits
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mistertim

mistertim

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, TheGoodBits said:


An slightly plausible alternative to twitter slowly failing, piece by piece, under the burden of crushing technical debt that their remaining engineers cannot handle is that it simply gets turned off after Elon refuses to pay his AWS bill. :ols: 

 

No wonder Musk is a Trumper. Two ****ing peas in a pod.

 

Also, I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play on one TV, but threatening to blackball suppliers from being able to do business with your other companies because they won't give you a huge discount at another one specific company feels a bit illegal. Is it?

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Destino

Destino

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Posted

I’m going to make a prediction now.  Twitter is going to be just fine.  Not without controversy, but fine in terms of business.  Elon is a dumbass that overestimates his own abilities, and his own popularity, but he’s not new at running a business.  He’s also likely surrounded by people that are likely great at what they do, and guiding their arrogant boss in the right direction. 

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China

China

Posted
Posted

Not that we didn't know this already, but...

 

Elon Musk Reveals His Sneaky Plan for New Twitter Content Moderation Council

 

When Elon Musk completed his $44 billion takeover of Twitter last month, advertisers and individual users feared what might happen to the site in the hands of a self-described “free speech absolutist.”

 

Musk sought to address their concerns by announcing the formation of a new “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints,” promising that no “major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”

 

In footage of a company Zoom call on Saturday obtained by TMZ, Musk revealed that while the council indeed will be formed, it will be completely powerless and the crucial decision-making power will ultimately lie solely with him.

 

“We are going to do a content council, but it’s an advisory council,” Musk said in the call. “It’s not a… They’re not the ones who actually… At the end of the day it will be me deciding, and like any pretense to the contrary is simply not true. Because obviously I could choose who’s on that content council and I don’t need to listen to what they say.”

 

Click on the link for the full article and video

 

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PleaseBlitz

PleaseBlitz

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22 minutes ago, Destino said:

I’m going to make a prediction now.  Twitter is going to be just fine.  Not without controversy, but fine in terms of business.  Elon is a dumbass that overestimates his own abilities, and his own popularity, but he’s not new at running a business.  He’s also likely surrounded by people that are likely great at what they do, and guiding their arrogant boss in the right direction. 


Bold. :)

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mistertim

mistertim

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1 hour ago, Destino said:

I’m going to make a prediction now.  Twitter is going to be just fine.  Not without controversy, but fine in terms of business.  Elon is a dumbass that overestimates his own abilities, and his own popularity, but he’s not new at running a business.  He’s also likely surrounded by people that are likely great at what they do, and guiding their arrogant boss in the right direction. 

 

I dunno, to me this feels a bit different than his other ventures.

 

At Tesla, SpaceX, and Starlink it sounds like he pretends to be a scientist/engineer but the reality is that he leaves it up to the real scientists and engineers to run the day to day stuff and he's content with taking credit after the fact, so he's not truly that hands on (because he doesn't know enough to be), but with Twitter it seems like he really has taken it upon himself to make all of the decisions, for whatever reason. Maybe because he learned to write some code 20 years ago and still thinks he knows what he's doing. Maybe it's just a power trip thing. Who knows.

 

I think if Elon keeps himself on his pedestal and keeps making these idiotic decisions that make little to no engineering or business sense, things could go south fast...especially if/when the outages start and there's nobody to fix the problems because he got rid of most of the people who actually know the systems architecture. If he somehow comes to his senses, realizes he's doing dumb ****, and hands over the real day to day work to people who know what they're doing, like at his other companies, then it could survive.

 

I think the main thing that could save Twitter for now is the lack of realistic options. But eventually if advertisers keep bailing, there's only so far being the main option will go, unless Elon wants to start pumping more money into it somehow to counteract that flagging revenue.

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CousinsCowgirl84

CousinsCowgirl84

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, mistertim said:

 

No wonder Musk is a Trumper. Two ****ing peas in a pod.

 

Also, I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play on one TV, but threatening to blackball suppliers from being able to do business with your other companies because they won't give you a huge discount at another one specific company feels a bit illegal. Is it?

Why would it be illegal?

6 minutes ago, mistertim said:

 

I dunno, to me this feels a bit different than his other ventures.

 

At Tesla, SpaceX, and Starlink it sounds like he pretends to be a scientist/engineer but the reality is that he leaves it up to the real scientists and engineers to run the day to day stuff and he's content with taking credit after the fact, so he's not truly that hands on (because he doesn't know enough to be), but with Twitter it seems like he really has taken it upon himself to make all of the decisions, for whatever reason. Maybe because he learned to write some code 20 years ago and still thinks he knows what he's doing. Maybe it's just a power trip thing. Who knows.

 

I think if Elon keeps himself on his pedestal and keeps making these idiotic decisions that make little to no engineering or business sense, things could go south fast...especially if/when the outages start and there's nobody to fix the problems because he got rid of most of the people who actually know the systems architecture. If he somehow comes to his senses, realizes he's doing dumb ****, and hands over the real day to day work to people who know what they're doing, like at his other companies, then it could survive.

 

I think the main thing that could save Twitter for now is the lack of realistic options. But eventually if advertisers keep bailing, there's only so far being the main option will go, unless Elon wants to start pumping more money into it somehow to counteract that flagging revenue.

He says he intends to find a new CEO for Twitter. So if he does that there is still a chance for Musk to turn his Twitter fortunes around. But if he continues to run the helm I agree there isn’t a great chance of success, despite what he was able to do with Tesla and SpaceX.

Edited by CousinsCowgirl84
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mistertim

mistertim

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Posted
5 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

Why would it be illegal?

 

He says he intends to find a new CEO for Twitter. So if he does that there is still a chance for Musk to turn his Twitter fortunes around.

 

I dunno, that's why I said I'm not sure if it is or isn't illegal. But couldn't it be some sort of potential conflict of interest, or even extortion, when he's essentially using one company relationship with a vendor to force that vendor to give huge discounts to another company that he also owns and runs? Seems pretty dicey. I think at the very least that would be a likely lawsuit.

 

As far as new CEO, sure...if he actually finds someone qualified vs someone who is basically an Elon simp and if he then actually gives that person the power to make any changes s/he sees fit. But I find that a bit dubious given the kind of iron fist he's ruling with now and how convinced he seems that he's doing things right.

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PleaseBlitz

PleaseBlitz

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1 hour ago, Destino said:


You’d be forgiven for thinking so if you spent anytime on twitter this last week.  Place has been wild.


FWIW, I think Twitter will be “fine.”  The many thousands of people that enjoy posting their inane thoughts into a dark abyss arent going to just stop. However, I think it will be quite a long while before Musk makes any kind of return on his investment, and this has mortally wounded the perception of him being a remarkably bright person. In return, he certainly has gotten a ton of attention, which appears to be his oxygen, so maybe well worth it for him. 

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Cooked Crack

Cooked Crack

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, mistertim said:

leaves it up to the real scientists and engineers to run the day to day stuff and he's content with taking credit after the fact, so he's not truly that hands on (because he doesn't know enough to be),

Probably true except for the Cybertruck. That seems like 100% Elon.

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tshile

tshile

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Posted

“Twitter will be fine” is an interesting take because I’m not entirely sure what fine is. 
 

between what is and isn’t allowed or is and isn’t correctly moderated

ad revenue issues (and they had it before)

various random musings claiming insider info about what to turn twitter into

other countries wanting certain access (or whatever) to operate, and whether twitter obliges such requests and for what gain (what if Twitter takes money for access to a market and in turn gives that government access to user data? I’m not entirely sure Twitter wasn’t guilty of blurring that morality line prior to musk)

 

Twitter has had a very rocky life. The winds of social media can be fickle. Employment there means chasing money and not a dream, not exactly the recipe for success in high stakes tech. 
 

whether it “turns off” and never turns back on, who knows. But I find it becoming increasing difficult to understand what the future or the vision is here. Rash decision making if basic math says it would add to revenue seems to be the trend. As does being an asshole for the sake of showing everyone who’s boss. 
 

I think you could reasonable argue the damage done is irreparable in terms of what Twitter was and could have been.  Doesn’t mean the site stops working and no one tweets anymore. But whatever twitters potential was, it could be gone for good. 

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Renegade7

Renegade7

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4 hours ago, Destino said:

I’m going to make a prediction now.  Twitter is going to be just fine.  Not without controversy, but fine in terms of business.  Elon is a dumbass that overestimates his own abilities, and his own popularity, but he’s not new at running a business.  He’s also likely surrounded by people that are likely great at what they do, and guiding their arrogant boss in the right direction. 

 

There's a failing New York Times article out comparing this to some of the "tactics" he pulled with Tesla and SpaceX...they also are doing just fine...

 

What Elon Musk Is Doing to Twitter Is What He Did at Tesla and SpaceX https://nyti.ms/3OEBUsN

 

Having said that, even reading that article comes across like he's taking it further with Twitter.  And there's a difference between being left with people hardcore to get all cars electric, go to Mars, and *checks notes* "something, something, freedom of speech"...

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TheGoodBits

TheGoodBits

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Twitter will be “fine” so long as Musk keeps bankrolling it personally. They made a little over $4.5b last year, largely from ad revenue. They lost money at that level of revenue. Say hypothetically, half of this revenue disappears as the site devolves into a right wing cesspool (honestly half is pretty generous to twitter at this point). I’d guess the top end of the subscription revenue is like… $50m/yr? That’s 500k people paying his $8. $50m is a lot less than the lost ad revenue. Elon is cutting payroll, trying to cut costs everywhere he can, but you can only cut so much while maintaining a usable site for the number of daily users they have. Unless that daily user count drops, which also impacts ad revenue substantially. 
 

Also keep in mind that the interest on the debt Elon took on to buy twitter has to be *at least* $1B/yr. So the “keep the lights on” baseline just went up significantly. This isn’t really conducive to running twitter as a leaner operation that is less dependent on ad revenue. The only way to really do it is increase the number of daily users and increase the level of monetization. Elon seems to be running a spring in the opposite direction. 
 

Like I said, not fundamentally an issue if Elon is willing to float the bill indefinitely, but they are almost certainly heading to either bankruptcy or Musk personally losing tens of billions of dollars on it. 

Edited by TheGoodBits
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Simmsy

Simmsy

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Posted

So let me get this straight: as long as Musk bankrolls all the lost ad revenue, hires everyone back, doesn't break anymore codes/laws/sanctions and steps down as CEO...Twitter will be fine? Does that sound fine to you?

 

You guys seem to think Twitter is too big to fail, its not. Also, unlike his other companies, Twitter isn't tangible, its value comes from the user base. The users WILL leave if they're not satisfied, they owe Twitter nothing and another fad or app will come along and take its place. Fine? Myspace is fine, AOL is fine, Yahoo is fine.* Twitter will never be what it once was, people are eager to migrate at this point. 

 

*In another thread, we were actually talking about how out of touch you would have to be to still use an AOL or Yahoo email account...thats not fine.

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