April 28, 2022

Jack Dorsey called Elon Musk the "singular solution" to Twitter's problems and said "I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness."

"Dorsey’s exaltation of Musk evoked 'great man' thinking — a theory of history in which individual heroes direct world affairs through force of will and intellect. Antiquated among academic historians, 'great man' theory has enjoyed a renaissance in the technology industry.... What 'great man' thinking obscures is that technological breakthroughs invariably build on the work of others.... Of course Musk can’t build cars or rockets or a social network without help. But the importance of the teams he assembled at Tesla and SpaceX has been overlooked by many, including Dorsey, in assessing his takeover of Twitter. In short, Musk can’t transform Twitter, or even keep it moving forward, without a workforce of highly capable developers, designers, product and policy thinkers who truly believe in his plans for the company. And that is exactly what, by all accounts, he does not have at Twitter right now.... He could try to win over Twitter’s existing employees.... On Tuesday and Wednesday, he issued a series of tweets critical of both Twitter as a company and individual Twitter employees, including its top policy executive, Vijaya Gadde. Those tweets have helped to fuel an ugly, and at times violently racist, harassment campaign against her...."

From "Elon Musk and tech’s ‘great man’ fallacy/Jack Dorsey called him the 'singular solution’ to Twitter’s problems. But no leader can go it alone" by Will Oremus (WaPo).

There's no link on any part of "ugly, and at times violently racist, harassment campaign," and I do not know what it refers to. I went to Musk's Twitter feed, but am I supposed to sift through all manner of crazy stuff like this...

93 comments:

Lyle said...

What is "violently racist"? Hogwash?

Jupiter said...

"There's no link on any part of "ugly, and at times violently racist, harassment campaign," and I do not know what it refers to."

Let me help you out, Professor. A lying whore at the NYT has claimed, without evidence, that someone, somewhere, tweeted something "racist" about this evil bitch. So now you are hearing it echo about in the cavernous collection of liepapers to which you subscribe;
"Racist! Violent! Insurrection! Democracy! White Supremacy! Colonialist!". Etc.

tim in vermont said...

Bezos and Bloomberg are both using their outlets to attack Musk, because he's the wrong kind of billionaire media owner, I guess.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"...individual heroes direct world affairs through force of will and intellect."

Biden probably has trouble directing his bowel movements, so yeah...'great man' theory under the umbrella of 'will and intellect' sounds damn good right now.

Chris Lopes said...

Some dare call it humor. You may not get the joke and it may not even be particularly funny (I don't), but it's someone's attempt at humor. Musk Tweets whatever he finds interesting, much like the owner of a blog might do.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Biden and his corrupt team are fuming mad that Musk brought up the twitter ban of anything regarding Hunter Biden.

Biden and his team of Soviets will put a stop to that. After all.. it is "free speech!" to muzzle all bad info on any democrat.
doncha know...

Earnest Prole said...

A scribbler thinks Elon Musk doesn’t understand that business requires collaboration?

Ron Winkleheimer said...

People take over corporations and kick out current employees and replace them fairly frequently. I read somewhere that steps have already been taken to safeguard the code base from disgruntled employees. I especially like how they highlighted that Musk disparaged an employee, but didn't mention that she will be the first person he fires.

Mike Sylwester said...

Democracy Dies in Darkness!

Readering said...

Politico published an article about in-house reaction to Musk purchase agreement featuring twitter gc, woman of S Asian ethnicity. Someone (man of same ethnicity) tweets about it in critical way with article link. Musk retweets in critical way. Woman suffers abusive attacks by readers of Musk tweet (in which he named no one but linked to article).

I think that's what's going on.

Of course there is a non-disparagenent clause in the agreement.

rhhardin said...

I went to Musk's Twitter feed, but am I supposed to sift through all manner of crazy stuff like this...

Think like a man.

Hari said...

"He could try to win over Twitter’s existing employees..."

Or

He could "[issue] a series of tweets critical of both Twitter as a company and individual Twitter employees" giving those employees the chance to leave the company before he fires them. He can then replace those employees with people he doesn't need to try to win over.

Musk may be the rare CEO who is okay with being feared rather than loved.

Virgil Hilts said...

They mean ugly rants against Vijaya Gadde from people online, not from Musk. But that's such a boring and silly argument. Every public figure who says anything political gets tons of nasty mean posts with racist and sexist language, from the left or the right, and I assume a good chunk of these posts are from bots.

Ann Althouse said...

"A lying whore at the NYT has claimed...."

Start again.

exhelodrvr1 said...

"What 'great man' thinking obscures is that technological breakthroughs invariably build on the work of others"

No shit - everything builds on the work of others. But people with greatness can see possibilities that others don't, even if they will need assistance on the building blocks to reach those possibilities. That is evident in all walks of life - music, art, computer programming, sports.
And Musk isn't trying to make any technological breakthroughs with Twitter - just some relatively minor technical improvements and remove some of the bias.

Krumhorn said...

The key to all of this is that the wailing, screeching, and hair-shirting about Musk is all from lefties. Believing fervently that they are made of better clay than the rest of us, the lefties have no problem saying or doing whatever it takes to keep opposing views unread and unheard. This is what comes from the bug-eyed certainty of having a monopoly on virtue.

- Krumhorn

Ann Althouse said...

"A scribbler thinks Elon Musk doesn’t understand that business requires collaboration?"

He thinks Musk is going to need the specific collaborators that already work at Twitter, and these people don't like him, but I think he'll be better off losing the very people who oppose him and suspect that there are way too many people working at Twitter. He needs collaborators, but not those collaborators.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"Those tweets have helped to fuel an ugly, and at times violently racist, harassment campaign against her...."

Yeah yeah yeah but nobody asks whether or not she deserves it. How completely predictable that these people would associate a Brahmin with a sacred cow.

Bob Boyd said...

Is this a call for talent to boycott working for Musk in a stand against free speech? Sounds like it.
Great man thinking vs. hive mind thinking.

gspencer said...

"including its top policy executive, Vijaya Gadde. Those tweets have helped to fuel an ugly, and at times violently racist, harassment campaign against her"

Maybe she can go to Taylor Lorentz's house party.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

On Tuesday and Wednesday, he issued a series of tweets critical of both Twitter as a company and individual Twitter employees, including its top policy executive, Vijaya Gadde. Those tweets have helped to fuel an ugly, and at times violently racist, harassment campaign against her....

Maybe, maybe not. But thanks to Taylor Lorenz for making it a lot harder to claim that it happened.

BTW, if you want to see Vijaya in action, here's her appearance on Joe Rogan's show with Dorsey in 2019 where she defends banning users.

Brian said...

Allow me to help Anne.

Here's the tweet that the article is referring to: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1519073003933515776.

In it, Elon (echoing former CEO Jack Dorsey), says in a reply, that it was inappropriate to suspend the NY Post based on the Hunter Biden Laptop article.

The parent tweet from Saager Enjeti, a podcast host, criticizes Vijaya Gadde and her handling of cencorship activities at twitter as part of her role as the policy and safety lead director and chief legal officer and general counsel of Twitter.

Vijaya is of Indian descent and was born in India. Therefore, to the media, any criticism of her is automatically racist and xenophobic. She is not to be questioned. Even by former CEO's.

That is the total public interaction of Elon to Vijaya. So given that, does the article make more sense now?

Brian said...

He thinks Musk is going to need the specific collaborators that already work at Twitter, and these people don't like him, but I think he'll be better off losing the very people who oppose him and suspect that there are way too many people working at Twitter. He needs collaborators, but not those collaborators.

That's exactly right. Which is why there is all this hand-wringing. They are trying to convince him to keep the existing team, by calling him a racist in media articles. They don't understand that the die has already been cast. He didn't spend $44 billie for sole control to say "steady as she goes"...

Narayanan said...

If/ after Jack Dorsey started Twitter - how did he lose control of it?

Narayanan said...

If/ after Jack Dorsey started Twitter - how did he lose control of it?

Kay said...

When regular people are cut out of the political process as they are here in America, we have no recourse left but to wish upon a star that a “great man” will save us.

Dave Begley said...

Jim Carrey could do a much better job as POTUS than Brandon.

Eleanor said...

The people who work at Twitter have fallen into the hubris of believing they are the only ones who know how to do what they do. The reality is there are thousands of people out there who can step into their cubicles, and many of them have already worked for Musk or would like the chance. Not all technically savvy people are lefties politically, and even some of them who are still believe in what Musk wants to do with Twitter. If you listened to the recording of the townhall with Twitter employees and the company CEO and the chairman of the board, most of the questions were about employee retention and compensation. Only a couple were about the company's philosophy.

Acme of Evolution said...

Readering might want to read that non-disparagement clause before invoking it. Here is the agreement, as filed with the SEC. The relevant language is at the end of Section 6.8. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1418091/000119312522120461/d310843dex21.htm

The language (“such Tweets”) is pretty clear that it covers only tweets about the merger and its related transactions. What do you see in Musk’s tweet that would make it fall in that category?

Jupiter said...

"Start again."

OK. How about, "At the NYT, a lying whore has claimed ..."

Greg The Class Traitor said...

In short, Musk can’t transform Twitter, or even keep it moving forward, without a workforce of highly capable developers, designers, product and policy thinkers who truly believe in his plans for the company. And that is exactly what, by all accounts, he does not have at Twitter right now....

He doesn't need ANY "policy thinkers". The delusions of the lovers of the "expert class" really know no bounds.

There's plenty of highly capable developers and designers out ere who will be more than willing to move in to Twitter after the leftist retards leave.

He could try to win over Twitter’s existing employees.... On Tuesday and Wednesday, he issued a series of tweets critical of both Twitter as a company and individual Twitter employees, including its top policy executive, Vijaya Gadde. Those tweets have helped to fuel an ugly, and at times violently racist, harassment campaign against her...."

There's no link on any part of "ugly, and at times violently racist, harassment campaign,"


1: The lack of links tells you the claim is a lie
2: Existing employees who celebrate Twitter having censored the NY Post for having published a factually true story are trash, and need to be gotten rid of.

Getting them to quit, rather than having to go through the effort of firing them, is a definite win for Musk

Dear Will Oremus, babbler at WaPo, a media company owned by an oligarch billionaire: Musk bought Twitter because the people currently running it are running it the wrong way. Getting rid of anyone who favors the current path is what Musk WANTS to do

n.n said...

Don't say gay. Whimsical, perhaps.

Diversity, diversitists, rabid, with singular/centralized solutions. Stand against persons of color, stand against pale face, stand against African-Americans.

I'll give Musk the benefit of the doubt. #PrinciplesMatter

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Thank you for the link, Acme!
Here's the text:
Section 6.8 Public Announcements. Except as otherwise contemplated by Section 6.5, so long as this Agreement is in effect, the Company, Parent and Acquisition Sub shall consult with each other before issuing any press release or otherwise making any public statements with respect to this Agreement or the transactions contemplated by this Agreement, and none of the parties hereto or their Affiliates shall issue any such press release or make any public statement prior to obtaining the other parties’ consent (which consent shall not be unreasonably withheld or delayed), except that no such consent shall be necessary to the extent disclosure may be required by Law, Order or applicable stock exchange rule or any listing agreement to which any party hereto is subject, in which case the party required to make such disclosure shall use its reasonable best efforts to allow, to the extent legally permitted, each other party reasonable time to comment on such disclosure in advance of its issuance, or is consistent with prior communications previously consented to by the other parties. In addition, the Company may, without Parent or Acquisition Sub’s consent, communicate to its employees, customers, suppliers and consultants; provided that such communication is consistent with prior communications of the Company or any communications plan previously agreed to by Parent and the Company, in which case such communications may be made consistent with such plan. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the restrictions set forth in this Section 6.8 shall not apply in connection with any Adverse Board Recommendation Change or dispute between the parties regarding this Agreement or the transactions contemplated hereby. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Equity Investor shall be permitted to issue Tweets about the Merger or the transactions contemplated hereby so long as such Tweets do not disparage the Company or any of its Representatives.

So, Musk can not disparage "the Company or any of its Representatives" in "Tweets about the Merger or the transactions contemplated hereby".

Was the tweet about the merger? no, it was not. Therefore it does not matter whether or not it was disparaging

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Readering said...
Politico published an article about in-house reaction to Musk purchase agreement featuring twitter gc, woman of S Asian ethnicity. Someone (man of same ethnicity) tweets about it in critical way with article link. Musk retweets in critical way. Woman suffers abusive attacks by readers of Musk tweet (in which he named no one but linked to article).

I think that's what's going on.

Of course there is a non-disparagenent clause in the agreement.


1: Dealt with the non-disparagenent clause in my last post. it has no relevance here
2: Now, let's consider what Musk said:
Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate

Did he attack the evil witch who organized the censorship?
No

He stated that the action was "obviously incredibly inappropriate", which is a true statement.

Is Musk responsible for how other people respond to his true statements of publicly known facts?
No, he isn't

Otherwise, every single person who attacked any Republican House members in the months before June 14, 2017 is responsible for James Hodgkinson shooting at the house Republican softball team.

Let us know when they're all in jail.

Until then? You hav no case against Musk

Chris Lopes said...

"OK. How about, "At the NYT, a lying whore has claimed ..."

One can make a point without calling people names. You went full Howard. Never go full Howard.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Ann Althouse said...
He thinks Musk is going to need the specific collaborators that already work at Twitter, and these people don't like him, but I think he'll be better off losing the very people who oppose him and suspect that there are way too many people working at Twitter. He needs collaborators, but not those collaborators.

That's very rude of you, concisely saying what I wanted to say, better than I said it, and first.

:-)

TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...

This is the third reference to "great man" theory from lefties in the last couple days. In each case, as always for lefties, they misrepresent (mis-represent) what great man theory says.

The reason for the resurgence of great man theories is that there is a growing acknowledgement that most of history is socially based (i.e., coming from groups of people instead of necessarily one or a few key actors) but that many, very pivotal changes are indeed triggered by the appearance and influence of a "great man" (it could be a "great woman" as well). Not everything, not nearly all, not in all times - but enough that it is relevant to history to understand when these "great men" have had an oversized impact on the happenings of humanity.

Will Musk be seen in the future as a "great man"? I dunno. But he's giving some of those highly influential men of earlier American history a run for their money. As an example, TR wouldn't have charged San Juan Hill without his Rough Riders. But they were HIS Rough Riders and they certainly would not have charged the Spanish without TR.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Oremus is wrong.
You should not think of the Dorsey quote in the context of the "great man" theory of history. That gives Musk too much credit.
Instead you should think of the quote in the context of the essential man.
Musk is like the character Nostromo in the Joseph Conrad novel of that name. Nostromo is not a great man, he just happens to have the combination of character traits, some good, some bad, which, in the novel, allow him to solve a difficult and critical problem.

TickTock said...

The belief in the inaccuracy of the "Great Man" theory is similar to the line we all remember to the effect that "You didn't build that."

Which is somewhat the theme of my sci fi novel, No Other Corsican. From the Epigraph

“That Napoleon, just that particular Corsican, should have been the military dictator whom the French Republic, ... had rendered necessary, was an accident ... [If] a Napoleon had been lacking, another would have filled the place ...” Letter from Friedrich Engels to Heinz Starkenburg, London, January 25, 1894

“There was no such other Corsican. To assert that on that particular foggy November morning some other Napoleon could have defeated the combined armies of the Tsar of Russia and the Holy Roman Empire fails in equal parts to understand both history and men.”

Viewed from the vantage point of a 1,000 years, the contribution of great men may be invisible. From the vantage point of 50 years, it stands out.

Richard Dolan said...

"Antiquated among academic historians, 'great man' theory has enjoyed a renaissance in the technology industry.... What 'great man' thinking obscures is that technological breakthroughs invariably build on the work of others...."

And Pharaoh didn't build the pyramids all by himself. So it's not just tech stuff. Nice to know that WaPo and its 'splaners are on top of it, just like Obama was back in the day (the 'you didn't build that' version of Obama, not the Obama talking about himself). Also, a great way to miss the point. Time will tell whether Musk can remake Twitter in his image, but I wouldn't bet against the "great man" on that one.

rcocean said...

"Those tweets have helped to fuel an ugly, and at times violently racist, harassment campaign against her"

Ugly = unsupported opinon - adjective hysteria
At times = weasel words designed to deflect any criticism of no specifics
Violenty Racist = Unsupported by any evidence. But better than "peaceful racism" I suppose.
Harrassment = unsupported opinion. one man's harrassment is another mans....

Pretty factual statement - for an MSM Reporter.

rcocean said...

Trump showed that keeping "X-burts" that hated you in the name of "efficiency" backfires. Those "x-burts" stab you in back, derail your agenda, and then flounce off to tell the world how terrible you are, and how proud they were to be part of the RESISTANCE.

Nope. As ANNE stated, Musk needs to clean house and get rid of all SJW deadwood. Clean slate. With Musk LOYALISTS.

Aggie said...

It has been disclosed that Twitter has 'locked down' the operating code for the platform, making it impossible to change. No doubt this is due to "Viva La Resistance!" that has shown itself to be so utterly destructive over the past half-decade, as Donald Trump found out to his dismay. The determination to spread the rot will be even more focused at Twitter - if Elon is smart, he will start summarily firing whoever has shown their colors in the past to cut out the agitators and terrify the remaining docile workers.

What I find interesting about this process, is the lack of transparency about the changes. there are a lot of conservative Twitter survivors that are noting that, suddenly, their followers are increasing by 10,000 a day or more, as if some throttling mechanism has been turned off. Still others are getting account suspensions lifted, apparently, or having the 'Ghost Ban' removed. But it appears to be inconsistent. So: how is it possible that 'LockDown' is allowing accounts to be restored, or their various throttles to be removed, and where is the vaunted Transparency explaining to us, finally, what in the merry hell goes on inside the walls of that stinking slimepit called Twitter?

cf said...

It sounds to me like a new call-to-arms to "Resist!"

Ugh, haha, another dreary revival of the Pussy-Hat-brained Fussy-Butt Tribe.

JaimeRoberto said...

Any one of us could have built an online payment company, an electric car company, a rocket company, and a satellite based ISP. Those ideas were out their for anyone to pick up and run with. I just didn't feel like it.

Jupiter said...

"One can make a point without calling people names."

Yes, the astonishing flexibility of language provides an infinity of ways to make an infinity of points. For example, you could make the point that in your estimation, anyone who works for the organization that employs Chuckie Blow is utterly lacking in veracity and personal integrity, without referring to one such person, unnamed but perhaps personally identifiable, as a "lying whore". You could call him a Howard, for example.

Beasts of England said...

’He could try to win over Twitter’s current employees…’

Too funny. Maybe the current employees should demonstrate their value to the new owner.

Ampersand said...

"In 2020, as Chief Legal Officer and Secretary at TWITTER INC, Vijaya Gadde made $7,344,261 in total compensation. Of this total $600,000 was received as a salary, $144,000 was received as a bonus, $0 was received in stock options, $6,597,261 was awarded as stock and $3,000 came from other types of compensation. This information is according to proxy statements filed for the 2020 fiscal year."

That kind of annual compensation exposes Vijaya to a great deal of scrutiny. If only it were possible to evaluate Vijaya negatively in connection with twitter's blatant and disgraceful viewpoint discrimination without indulging in racism or sexism.

Vijaya will make a much bigger pile of cash as she departs. The woke get woker, and the rich get richer.

MikeR said...

"For a man who has revolutionized the automotive and aerospace industries, the thinking goes, how hard could running a social network be?" Muddle-headed article. No one said it isn't "hard". No one said the people working there aren't important. It can still be true that a particular person is needed for the job and no one else can do it, if it can be done.

rcocean said...

"Any one of us could have built an online payment company, an electric car company, a rocket company, and a satellite based ISP."

Yeah, we'uns should just let them thar smart people do whatever they'uns want. 'cause who are we too obb-ject. We' uns couldn't have done what them thar clever pee-pul did.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Jupiter said...
"Start again."

OK. How about, "At the NYT, a lying whore has claimed ..."


Yo, Jup!

The article is from WaPo, not NYT.

It says that, right there in the post. You don't even have to LOOK at the link, let alone click on it.

Get the basic facts correct. Otherwise you're the one who ends up looking like a moron

Lurker21 said...

Elon is a playful, puckish lad who likes to wind people up with his pranks.

Jim Carrey was unrecognizable in Dark Crimes, a Polish crime film, but I doubt he could convincingly play the much older Biden.

Say Biden was incapacitated and was being played by actors, wouldn't they be tempted to portray him as saner and clearer thinking, and more in charge than he has been?

*

Idea for a novel/film: Frankenstein II Meets Napoleon III.

Or maybe give it a sports angle: Frankenstein 2 - Napoleon 3.

madAsHell said...

Jack Dorsey called Elon Musk the "singular solution" to Twitter's problems and said "I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness."

In other words, "Fuck it!! I got mine!!"

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Aggie said...

It has been disclosed that Twitter has 'locked down' the operating code for the platform, making it impossible to change. No doubt this is due to "Viva La Resistance!" that has shown itself to be so utterly destructive over the past half-decade, as Donald Trump found out to his dismay.

Nope, sorry, that's commonly done in IT departments all over the world for various reasons. In most cases it's done to prevent anyone from entering changes prior to a release or the go-live of a new system, but I suspect here it's being done to prevent sabotage.

Gahrie said...

Shaun King is out there calling Musk a racist who wants to bring back apartheid merely because of Musk's father and the fact that Musk was born in South Africa.

There is a reason why we have never seen or heard about Musk's father, even though his mom and brothers are fairly well known. What little we know tends to suggest that his father is an asshole, and Musk is estranged from him.

As to being born (White) in South Africa; first of all, Musk had no control over that and secondly he left as soon as he could at the age of 17.

There is nothing in his history to suggest he is a racist.

Earnest Prole said...

He needs collaborators, but not those collaborators.

Exactly, and thanks for making clear what I was very loosely implying. Unlike at Tesla, where virtually every employee is essential to producing the product, Twitter is populated by policy people and code-tweakers; Twitter's code will run just fine even if most of them left tomorrow. It's a little like the modern university: most of its employees are bureaucrats who have little to do with the act of transferring knowledge.

Brian said...

Musk retweets in critical way.

Did he? He echo'd what Jack Dorsey said as well. They made a mistake. Everybody admits its a mistake now right? Even the NY Times has said that the laptop was Hunters.

RMc said...

"A lying whore at the NYT has claimed...."

Start again.


If anything, he was being too kind.

TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...

I have vibes of "One" from Chorus Line from that headline.

One singular solution, every single step he takes
One techno evolution, every move that he makes
One smile and suddenly nobody else will do
You know you'll never be censored with you-know-who

Original Mike said...

"There is nothing in his history to suggest [Musk] is a racist."

He supports free speech for everybody. Ergo, racist.

Original Mike said...

"BTW, if you want to see Vijaya in action, here's her appearance on Joe Rogan's show with Dorsey in 2019 where she defends banning users."

What I'd like to see is video of her defending banning the Hunter laptop story. Haven't found one.

Original Mike said...

"Everybody admits its a mistake now right? Even the NY Times has said that the laptop was Hunters." (emphasis added)

How convenient.

tim in vermont said...

One of the animatronic jobbies at Disney's "Hall of Presidents" could. do a better job, but I don't blame Joe for snickering at calling Putin a "kleptocrat" given that's exactly what Joe is.

Maynard said...

Over the past several years I ignored arguments from lefties that use the word "racist" because it indicated that they are incapable of making a logical fact-based argument.

Now when I hear the term "violently racist" I am interested because it seems to be a sure sign of significant mental illness. The woke lefties are desperately fucked up.

Note that I am not referring to any lefty commenters here on this blog.

Michael said...

Althouse
You can bet there are too many “workers” at Twitter just as at every large public company. I imagine an X could be put on every other cubicle and office at their headquarters and Musk could either have them or the unmarked occupants fired and the company would never know the difference.

Gahrie said...

"Any one of us could have built an online payment company, an electric car company, a rocket company, and a satellite based ISP."

Yeah, we'uns should just let them thar smart people do whatever they'uns want. 'cause who are we too obb-ject. We' uns couldn't have done what them thar clever pee-pul did.


The objective truth is that we couldn't have done what people like Gates, Walton, Bezos, Jobs or Musk did, because we didn't. We didn't even know it was possible until after they did what they did.

What the Hell is your post about? What has Elon done that you would stop him from doing? Do you want him to stop building electric vehicles? Maybe you hate solar power and useful batteries? Are re-useable rockets evil?

William said...

Let's see how it plays out. Twitter gets a lot of traffic, but they were not able to sufficiently monetize that traffic. Musk paid a fat premium for Twitter. Maybe he sees something, and this will become a shrewd investment. Or maybe he has just paid a fat premium for AOL. Hubris is an occupational hazard among great men....Who was the greatest general of the Napoleonic era? My money is on General Bernadotte. He was not the most distinguished of Napoleon's marshals, but he knew when to change sides. He was active in Napoleon's greatest victories and then his greatest defeat. He became the King of Sweden and died in bed in his old age. His progeny still sit on the throne. There are metrics to measure greatness that were not dreamt of in Napoleon's philosophy

n.n said...

bring back apartheid

Spillover from a Hutu, Tutsi tribal conflict?

Insurrection by Mandela's Xhosa waging community conflict with the Zulu?

Kenya's elite suppressing Kenya's deplorables.

Perhaps a Slavic Spring: Ukrainian vs Ukrainian backed by special and Bidenesque interests.

Mitigating progress.

boatbuilder said...

That is some weapons-grade ass kissing by Dorsey.

Whether it will do him any good remains to be seen. Great fun to watch, though!

Danno said...

Everyone is all atwitter about the value of collaboration. Twitter ain't rocket surgery.

Stv30 said...

Your crazy stuff is much easier to sift through and find gold.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Wait.

Bigmanism is not the same as Greatmanism?

I'm out of the loop.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

There's no link on any part of "ugly, and at times violently racist, harassment campaign,"

That's a big problem the media has.

Drago said...

boatbuilder: "That is some weapons-grade ass kissing by Dorsey."

If you watch the 2019 Joe Rogan episode with Dorsey and the Twitter gaslighting liar Gadde, you'll hear Dorsey speaking repeatedly about increasing transparency and some other very Musk-like things.

I think Dorsey wishes he had the power Musk has to enact these changes.

Amadeus 48 said...

I think Elon is taking over an operation in a space with intention of improving it by adding features and better design. He also wants Twitter to stop being so arrogant about failing to serve half the country. He pointed out that it was a bad move to block a true story in the heat of a political campaign. Expect Twitter to fulfill its mission to provide a place for public issues to be explored. I think that Elon thinks Twitter went off-mission by trying to be something where America’s best thinkers made their cases. The problem was the lady herself—it was the way she saw her mission to guide the public discussion in a certain way.

Josephbleau said...

To extend from Homer, Elon Musk is the cause of, and the solution to, all of life's problems.

Original Mike said...

Blogger William said..."Let's see how it plays out. Twitter gets a lot of traffic, but they were not able to sufficiently monetize that traffic. Musk paid a fat premium for Twitter. Maybe he sees something, and this will become a shrewd investment."

He has explicitly said this wasn't about making money. I actually believe him. Guess you don't. Maybe I'm a sap.

John henry said...

I am with Ann about the use of "lying whore" it is rude language.

"journalist" include both the dishonesty and whorish nature in a single, albeit euphemistic word.

I should not have to say it but for the benefit of some of the intellectuals here "whorish" is a gender neutral word. It applies equally well to male and female journalists. Also those loons who claim to be both or neither

John LGKTQ Henry

Josephbleau said...

"One of the animatronic jobbies at Disney's "Hall of Presidents" could. do a better job, but I don't blame Joe for snickering at calling Putin a "kleptocrat" given that's exactly what Joe is."

My father in law had a company in the 38th inf rgt 2 inf Div in Korea. He says McArthur vs Truman was honest differences but Putin vs Beiden is insanity.

John henry said...



The objective truth is that we couldn't have done what people like Gates, Walton, Bezos, Jobs or Musk did, because we didn't. We didn't even know it was possible until after they did what they did.

I get what you are saying and don't disagree but I think "possible" may be the wrong word here.

Sam Walton had the idea to build Walmart. Bill Gates had the idea to build a "personal" computer. Henry Ford had the idea to build the "personal transporter" (PT or Model T) and so on.

Or Musk with space ships.

Once they had the idea, making it happen is relatively simple. Just throw resources at it, time, people, money, brainpower until the rockets fly.

Not easy, and lots of chance of failure, but relatively simple and straightforward.

But nothing, absolutely nothing at all happens until some thinks "you know, it would be really cool if we could..."

It is only then that you can even start thinking about whether it is possible.

It is the idea, vision, dream. Whatever you want to call it that is critical.

And that idea ways starts in a single man's or woman's mind. Always.

John LGKTQ Henry

Original Mike said...

"I am with Ann about the use of "lying whore" it is rude language."

He is often an ass just to be an ass. In this case, he defeats his own point.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

William said...
Let's see how it plays out. Twitter gets a lot of traffic, but they were not able to sufficiently monetize that traffic
Twitter's revenue is ~ $1 billion / quarter

How much money could Musk save by firing everyone at Twitter doing "idea hygiene", "trust and safety", etc, and selling the SF office building?

There's a lot of left-wing fat at Twitter. Expect Musk to try to cut it all

Greg The Class Traitor said...

John henry said...
Or Musk with space ships.

Once they had the idea, making it happen is relatively simple. Just throw resources at it, time, people, money, brainpower until the rockets fly.

Not easy, and lots of chance of failure, but relatively simple and straightforward.


If that were true, Jeff Bezos rocket company would be doing a lot better than it's currently doing

boatbuilder said...

The most interesting man in the world is also the richest man in the world, and has a movie villain name.

You can't make this shit up!

John henry said...

Greg, you missed the part where I said "lots of chance of failure"?

You missed the part where I said "not easy"?

John LGKTQ Henry

Josephbleau said...

What is this talk?

are we saying that an average group of joes from New Jersey could have gone to Los Alamos and built the bomb???

Innovation is driven by a sadly small number of effective people.

wildswan said...

"In short, Musk can’t transform Twitter, or even keep it moving forward, without a workforce of highly capable developers, designers, product and policy thinkers who truly believe in his plans for the company. And that is exactly what, by all accounts, he does not have at Twitter right now."

But maybe most people at Twitter have never agreed with the actions Twitter content moderators were taking. Maybe most people at Twitter actually want it to be what it began as - a platform for free expression. I think it's very possible that the Twitter purchase will have the unintended consequence of showing that many supposed wokies at Twitter were just hiding their inner opposition to enforced conformity because they needed to hide it in order to keep their jobs. And then, what would happen to other wokies at other corporations? A crash like the stock market in 1929. Every day the peasants were cheering the king as he passed; then one day they were storming the Bastille and setting up a republic. Surprise.

Think of masking - how people got on planes wearing masks, saying nothing. Then think of how we saw them cheering on planes when they got to take masks off. How they ALL ripped them right off.

effinayright said...

John henry said...
I am with Ann about the use of "lying whore" it is rude language.

"journalist" include both the dishonesty and whorish nature in a single, albeit euphemistic word.
**************

Yes. Most of us these days treat those terms as synonyms.

effinayright said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
effinayright said...

effinayright said...
Greg The Class Traitor said...
John henry said...
Or Musk with space ships.

Once they had the idea, making it happen is relatively simple. Just throw resources at it, time, people, money, brainpower until the rockets fly.

>>>>Yeah! I mean, nobody ever had the idea of a first-stage rocket that could be landed
and used again, until Musk thought of it. SNORT


Not easy, and lots of chance of failure, but relatively simple and straightforward.

>>>>whoever wrote this has NEVER worked in a start-up, let alone having your company get well-launched only to be brought down by a competitor's better ideas.

If that were true, Jeff Bezos rocket company would be doing a lot better than it's currently doing
***************

>>>>Agreed. Ideas are one thing: execution is quite another. Think of Segways. New Coke. Solyndra. Edsels. The Apple Newton. DeLoreans. Apple Glasses. Tokamaks.

And, of course, flying cars.

wendybar said...

Gahrie said...
Shaun King is out there calling Musk a racist who wants to bring back apartheid merely because of Musk's father and the fact that Musk was born in South Africa.


Shaun King is a white boy pretending to be black. He can SIT DOWN and shut up about RACISM any time now. Nobody cares what a litte white boy pretending to be black says about a REAL African American.

John henry said...

Effinay,

65 to 80% of all new products fail. Success is the exception.

But you caught my eye with New Coke as an example of a failure. It was not. It remained on the market for 17 years. 1985-2002

And, regardless of how much profit it earned on its own, it accomplished even bigger goals

1) it allowed Coca-Cola to rebrand the old boring Coke as "Classic Coca-Cola"

2) it got so many people talking about regular Coke that they got a huge sales increase across all "Coca-Cola" products. Classic, diet, cherry, vanilla etc

3) it got the public to realize that they didn't have to settle only for coke/diet Coke. Coke could come in flavors too. This allowed a lot of brand extension.

One of the measures of success is that people, including you and me here, are still talking about it. Which means we are talking about Coca-Cola and still driving minds share.

Far from being a failure, new Coke was a brilliant success.

Trivia: some very large percentage of the Coca-Cola concentrate used by us Coke bottlers is made in Cidra PR. At one point it was about 75%.

I sold a lot of production machinery to them in the 80s and 90s.

I also know that as early as the 50s,cherry Coke was popular in soda fountains, mixed as dispensed. It was not sold by Coca-Cola until 1985, slightly after New Coke was introduced.

John LGKTQ Henry

Jamie said...

I just hope that Musk is already thinking about how to defeat our new Ministry of Truth's "disinformation prevention" programming. Wouldn't it be the height of irony if Musk's bid for an open Twitter resulted in Chinese-style internet lockdown?