Elon & Twitter

[ZenRockGarden]

If Elon can get people to work on rockets or cars when he was known to be crazy and have pitched that the chance of success is less than 10%, he can get anyone to work for him today when he has a proven track record in achieving the impossible.

Minor difference: The Car and Rocket companies were doing things no one else ever did. Twitter's roadmap is to invent free-speech (8Chan?) or downranking (everyone) or maybe banking-and-apps-with-communication (WeChat clone). There is zero innovation in anything proposed for Twitter - right now Elon is just playing with reversing his own promise to not make any major reinstatement decisions without the new moderation board.... oops

 

[MC3OZ]

2: Banking-for-all in a communication app: That's either PayPal 2.0 or WeChat 2.0 - both of which already exist alongside many other competitors

It goes beyond Paypal into credit cards, transaction banking, and some loans.

Elon said loans were on the table, but I bet mortgages and business loans get ruled out.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

It goes beyond Paypal into credit cards, transaction banking, and some loans.

Elon said loans were on the table, but I bet mortgages and business loans get ruled out

And of course no one at PayPay has ever considered this

 

[ZenRockGarden]

It goes beyond Paypal into credit cards, transaction banking, and some loans.

Elon said loans were on the table, but I bet mortgages and business loans get ruled out.

PayPal Cashback Mastercard®

www.paypal.com

 

[stopcrazypp]

I explained the Twitter mission here:- Elon & Twitter

The benefits of working there or not working there here:- Elon & Twitter

@ZenRockGarden beat me to it as to why those two points specifically are not at all comparable to Tesla and SpaceX's mission statements.

I will add further unlike with Tesla and SpaceX, Elon does not have a clearly laid out plan to achieve either of those goals. He did for Tesla, first release a higher end car and then go down market to achieve volume. For SpaceX it was reusable rockets to reduce the cost of space travel and using the funds from that to eventually establish a colony in Mars.

For Twitter, for the town square idea, Elon already walked back on opening up on Twitter due to advertiser pressure, so it is pretty clear Twitter will remain moderated and under the pressures of advertisers. The only additional revenue source he laid out was the $8 checkmarks, and he walked that back also. There have been no other viable ideas for additional revenue sources to free Twitter from control by advertisers.

For the financial idea, he has laid out no plans to achieve it. It is clear he was inspired by Wechat, but he have not given a path way to achieve that.

The other huge issue is Elon didn't go in with a clear determination. He did everything possible to try to get out of the deal. He even bad mouthed the company. There was no determination like when he started SpaceX and funded Tesla. Employees are not blind to this given this was very public and widely reported (even people that don't follow Twitter or tech news knew about it because it was all over mainstream media).

When I was younger I would have been strongly attracted to working at Twitter, and would have paid an airfare to the US just to attend the job interview.
That has nothing to do with politics, I'm firmly left of centre.
Being the category of person who would loved to work for Elon, doesn't stop me seeing why others don't want to work for him.
These days I am too far past my prime to attempt to work for Elon.

Plenty of people were attracted to working at Twitter back before Elon's current conditions because the benefits were great, there was remote work available, and it was possible to maintain a good work/life balance. Now it's a different story. Elon clearly wants a workforce that will work for long hours in a highly motivated fashion, just like the early days of Tesla and SpaceX. But my point was that was driven by a very strong mission, just don't see a strong mission for Twitter. I'm not saying there are no people willing to work there even under those conditions (there are certainly Elon fans out there that might), but saying it's not at all same as with Tesla and SpaceX.

 

[MC3OZ]

And of course no one at PayPay has ever considered this

Yes, it was part of what Elon wanted to do at Paypal.

I'm only repeating what Elon told Twitter employees in a meeting, the details are widely available.

Elon was even asked about loans.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

Yes, it was part of what Elon wanted to do at Paypal.

I'm only repeating what Elon told Twitter employees in a meeting, the details are widely available.

Elon was even asked about loans.

You may wanna look at what PayPal already does

 

[MC3OZ]

You may wanna look at what PayPal already does

Elon's business plan and the Twitter mission are well known.

Whether or not they motivate employees and will be a success is hard to say.

Tesla wasn't the only car company, there were plenty of car makers, even a few electric cars before Tesla existed.

Compared to cars and rockets, computer software and banking is fairly simple and low capex.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

Elon's business plan and the Twitter mission are well known.

Whether or not they motivate employees and will be a success is hard to say.

Tesla wasn't the only car company, there were plenty of car makers, even a few electric cars before Tesla existed.

Compared to cars and rockets, computer software and banking is fairly simple and low capex.

Please. Single-stage-to-orbit is NOT "hey, let's make a copy of WeChat for the US"

 

[stopcrazypp]

We keep asking what Elon's amazing plans for Twitter are, and the two answers keep being:

1: Free speech absolutist town hall (um, that's either 8chan, or what twitter already was if you want a well moderated forum)

2: Banking-for-all in a communication app: That's either PayPal 2.0 or WeChat 2.0 - both of which already exist alongside many other competitors

You beat me to the points in a much more succinct way. #1 Elon already walked back his plans to based on advertiser revenue loss, so it does not look like he has a pathway to achieve it. His only new proposed idea for alternative revenue sources was the $8 check mark, but that has been put on hold. Then there was the whole back and forth about official checkmarks (which may dilute the value of the $8 check mark). The way things are going, Twitter would seem to operate much like before he bought it.

#2 as you point out there are already many competitors. Wechat really was the model Elon wanted to implement (a social media and payment app in one), but its massive success in China was mostly because credit card use is much less. In most other countries however, credit cards are widespread and the barrier to accepting credit card payments has long been lowered by companies like Square (years ago I already saw small shops use a card reader that plugged into their cellphone). Mobile payments are now handled by Apple Pay and Google Pay. For people to people transfer, people have long started using Zelle, which offers free transfers and supports all major banks. There isn't a high growth space for a new WeChat-like service.

 

[trayloader]

Every company Elon started is utter chaos in the beginning with a mountain of naysayers. Everyone in the world has an opinion and every little detail they can spot will be blown out of proportions. Yet the man is no one hit wonder.

The difference is Elon didn't start this company nor was it in its infant stage. There is nothing particularly inspirational about Twitter that would motivate people as much as Tesla and SpaceX did.

At this juncture, Twitter is not unique either (there's plenty of social media companies out there), while there was something unique for Tesla (only EV company at the time aiming for long range, which is what attracted me to them) and SpaceX (Reusable rockets and Mars Colony).

With the exception the time is gone.
Twitter is the Turbo for everything he now touches. What used to be 1 month is now down to one week and he constantly shows the he gives a f**** sake for investors, users, and friends (Jack White, Trent Reznor), while in parallel trying to trigger Trump.

The tides are turning in a way that the perception of the exact same actions which made him appear „cool“ are now showing a Uber fragile, overtaxed bossy kid.
The Moment the keyboard is taken away, the moment he shows a grown up responsibility is the Moment the bleeding of Tesla stops.

It feels like Beavis & Butthead took over

 

[bkp_duke]

so you have to be part of the cult

No, I just appreciate hard work. Not 4h work days and such. Ours has become a very "soft" culture in this country.

 

[wdolson]

Speechless. But I'm going to dig really far down in my pit of utter disappointment and say he's trying to pull in the 'Truth Social' crowd. If Hitler was alive, he'd probably give him a free account if it he thought it would help the stock.

Elon took Twitter private so he's not concerned with the stock price of Twitter. What he is concerned about it keeping the platform alive.

On the Elon and Twitter thread I pointed out Twitter is facing three existential crisis at the same time:

1) A lot of the quality content producers and their followers are getting happy feet and looking at other platforms. There are lots of them.
2) Advertising is the only way anybody has ever figured out how to make money from social media and advertisers are pulling back.
3) We have a lot of stories about the losses on the technical side as well on the legal compliance side. The lack of legal compliance people will probably lead to governments filing suits against the company and the loss of technical people could result in critical holes in the system coverage that could lead to disaster when technical problems crop up.

Twitter appears to be running OK right now, but technical problems will crop up, either from some kind of failure of something somewhere or some hacker getting into the system because there aren't enough people watching the chicken coop.

If any one of these three get bad, it could kill the company. Elon did a leveraged buyout to complete the purchase and the interest alone on the loans is over $100 million a month.

 

[MC3OZ]

Please. Single-stage-to-orbit is NOT "hey, let's make a copy of WeChat for the US"

It isn't the craziest business plan I have seen, not even close.
Time will tell.

 

[Paracelsus]

No, I just appreciate hard work. Not 4h work days and such. Ours has become a very "soft" culture in this country.

 

[aubreymcfato]

As much as I think this political crap is shooting himself (and us) in the foot, I find it hard to think that Europe has the energy to worry about whether or not 45 is on some app. Don't they have larger boogeymen to worry about?

The international class of overeducated people (ranging from 25 to 45-ish, cognitive workers, leaning left: I am myself a specimen, for better or worse) follows more closely the US politics than European politics. It's all over their social media, it has been for years. They consume their media in English, very often are expats. It's million of us. Politically, we/they count nothing; economically, not very much; culturally, a bit more.
In my personal bubble (US and European account) Musk is right now the boogeyman.
I think they're quite wrong but Musk trolling doesn't help anyone to think rationally at the moment.

 

[thx1139]

That's a matter of perspective. I don't see the poll as fake. Easily manipulated if someone wanted to, perhaps.

Regardless, it gives Elon complete cover from everyone except the conspiracy theorists ("Oh, he was going to do this regardless. It was all just a sham!")

Doesnt give him cover just show he lied. Why should we believe him on earnings calls? Why should we believe him when he gives out information at events? He has always been bad with estimates on timing when things will be ready. Now it is likely just because he doesnt know and just lies.

 

[thx1139]

The international class of overeducated people (ranging from 25 to 45-ish, cognitive workers, leaning left: I am myself a specimen, for better or worse) follows more closely the US politics than European politics. It's all over their social media, it has been for years. They consume their media in English, very often are expats. It's million of us. Politically, we/they count nothing; economically, not very much; culturally, a bit more.
In my personal bubble (US and European account) Musk is right now the boogeyman.
I think they're quite wrong but Musk trolling doesn't help anyone to think rationally at the moment.

"Overeducated" thats rich. People learning to much.

 

[aubreymcfato]

If true that's a major shame. Companies like VW, Hyundai, and most of the rest have been caught at various times cheating emissions. This literally kills people. That's on top of all of legacy auto spending countless millions/billions fighting climate change action and even general safety guidelines.

It's wild that people will pretend to virtue signal over Elon's stupid tweets (and they are stupid, it's not 3d chess) because they were told to be mad by the media, only to ignore all the rest. They will post "I'm doing the thing!" on Twitter and then get into their gas car that funnels money directly to the Saudis and Russians.

I quite surprised that you assume people should be rational in the first place....
We live in a neuroeconomy where all our dopamine spikes are used to engage us with social apps and sell us stuff.
All media and politics are in this game too.
The stupidity of Musk, IMHO, is to assume he's somehow more powerful than all this and he can tweet everything he can without real consequences. He could very easily solve half of his problems with silence.
He could do whatever he wants without tweeting and 80% of this would be over: and for what? pride? lulz? In this regard, he0s a man-child, without real friends to intervene. He's not only that, of course.
Not sure if he'll win this without serious damage.

 

[Nocturnal]

I quite surprised that you assume people should be rational in the first place....
We live in a neuroeconomy where all our dopamine spikes are used to engage us with social apps and sell us stuff.
All media and politics are in this game too.
The stupidity of Musk, IMHO, is to assume he's somehow more powerful than all this and he can tweet everything he can without real consequences. He could very easily solve half of his problems with silence.
He could do whatever he wants without tweeting and 80% of this would be over: and for what? pride? lulz? In this regard, he0s a man-child, without real friends to intervene. He's not only that, of course.
Not sure if he'll win this without serious damage.

I think that's what people/humans should aspire to, not that I expect it.