Twitter

[LennStar]

Watch someone with a swarm of unconditional fans and yes-man advisors. They will fall in the end. The funny thing is how few people in positions of influence and power figure out how this natural process leads to ruin.

Oh, they know it. But they are smart enough to avoid it. They think.

[FireLane]

I don't quite buy the evil villain narrative. I just think he's someone who has amassed so much wealth and power that he doesn't feel the need to listen to any criticism.

The thing is, when you're divorced from reality in that way while also controlling monumental amounts of power/wealth it's all but inevitable that you will become an evil villain.  We all have asshole impulses that need the occasional scolding to keep in check.  Without listening to the scolding you start to go off the deep end.

"Remember thou art mortal!"

Roman emperors had someone to tell them that... I bet a lot of CEOs would benefit from it too, not just Musk.

[LennStar]

I don't quite buy the evil villain narrative. I just think he's someone who has amassed so much wealth and power that he doesn't feel the need to listen to any criticism.

The thing is, when you're divorced from reality in that way while also controlling monumental amounts of power/wealth it's all but inevitable that you will become an evil villain.  We all have asshole impulses that need the occasional scolding to keep in check.  Without listening to the scolding you start to go off the deep end.

"Remember thou art mortal!"

Roman emperors had someone to tell them that... I bet a lot of CEOs would benefit from it too, not just Musk.

Oh, you mean the slave that when an victorious general came home in a triumph, had to whisper that into the general's ears while he received the applause of the masses?
That's something I really like!

[jinga nation]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/03/inside-elon-musks-cost-cutting-drive-at-twitter/

Elsewhere, Musk is drawing on experience from his own equity investors in the deal.

Pablo Mendoza, a managing director at Dubai-based Vy Capital, which provided $700 million to the $44 billion takeover, has been working along with Silicon Valley entrepreneur Suril Kantaria, who founded health insurance tech platform Savvy, to assess what to do with existing vendors, according to five people familiar with the situation.

In some cases, the pair have focused on renegotiating existing contracts that were mandatory, or in other cases, they have simply terminated deals.

When telling vendors that the company does not plan on paying them, Mendoza has often resorted to pleading with them that his job is on the line, another person said. Nevertheless, he has enjoyed relative success, negotiating down some bills by between 50 and 90 percent in some cases, the person added. Mendoza declined to comment.

Kantaria, meanwhile, also worked with James Musk to close one of Twitter’s three data centers. That move was hailed as a major win by Musk at the Morgan Stanley investor conference, but critics argue it could contribute to technical instability on the platform.

Another person in Musk’s inner circle is Omead Afshar, a longtime Tesla executive who once led the company’s Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. He joined late last year but was quick to earn the nickname “the Elon whisperer” among staffers because of his ability to read the mood of the mercurial billionaire.

At Twitter, Afshar is now helping solve “the biggest, stickiest issues at the company,” including cutting infrastructure costs, people said. Recently he has been involved in tense negotiations over large cloud spending contracts with Amazon and Google, two people said. Musk said at the investor conference that cloud spending was now down 40 percent.

Reducing cloud spend by 40% while reducing data centers to only two. Less users, less advertisers, less content. Decisions, decisions...

[Travis]

NPR and PBS quitting Twitter over being labeled "government sponsored media" which lumps them in with authoritarian propaganda channels. NPR receives 1% of its funding from the US government while other news sites around the world which are heavily funded or influenced by their governments have yet to receive that tag.

[bacchi]

NPR and PBS quitting Twitter over being labeled "government sponsored media" which lumps them in with authoritarian propaganda channels. NPR receives 1% of its funding from the US government while other news sites around the world which are heavily funded or influenced by their governments have yet to receive that tag.

And Twitter is censoring anti-Modi tweets in India and, possibly, worldwide.

Don't bite the hand that controls where you can build factories and sell cars.

[ChpBstrd]

The great gen-x / millenial dream of the internet being a good thing dies a little bit every day.

I’d suffocate it with a pillow if I could.

[GuitarStv]

NPR and PBS quitting Twitter over being labeled "government sponsored media" which lumps them in with authoritarian propaganda channels. NPR receives 1% of its funding from the US government while other news sites around the world which are heavily funded or influenced by their governments have yet to receive that tag.

And Twitter is censoring anti-Modi tweets in India and, possibly, worldwide.

Don't bite the hand that controls where you can build factories and sell cars.

Probably because Musk is a free speech absolutist.

[LennStar]

NPR and PBS quitting Twitter over being labeled "government sponsored media" which lumps them in with authoritarian propaganda channels. NPR receives 1% of its funding from the US government while other news sites around the world which are heavily funded or influenced by their governments have yet to receive that tag.

I hope they also start labeling "profit oriented company funded" soon!

btw. Twitter inc. no longer exists. It's now all an "X" holding (don't ask me which one it is at the moment, there are several numbered).

Musk loves this letter, I prefer the game X4 over the Musk holding X4.

[maizefolk]

The whole things was stupid. It makes Musk look bad. It makes twitter look bad. NPR is not government sponsored media. Fin.

Having completely agreed on that, the talking point NPR uses about being only 1% funded by the federal government bothers me as being true-but-misleading. NPR's operating budget last year was about $300M. About 1/3 of that revenue (NPR says 31%) comes from fees paid by local NPR-affiliated radio stations for content (let's call it $90M).

The corporation for public broadcasting, which is funded by federal government appropriations, provides ~$92M in funding to those same local NPR-affiliated ratio stations in a mix of direct grants to support operations of public radio stations and grants for radio programming and national program production and acquisition.

Now those same member stations also receive donations and it may well be that the member donations primarily fund the $90M local public radio pays to support NPR and the federal grants primarily go to cover all the other costs of running a radio station (salaries, rent, equipment, maintenance, etc). But money in fungible and if federal funds weren't going to local public radio stations -- and to be clear I'm really glad local public radio is something we subsidize in this country! -- all those other costs would still have to be paid.

TL;DR Federal funding directly and indirectly likely supports closer to 1/3 of national public radio's total annual revenue ... and there is nothing wrong with that.

[sonofsven]

NPR and PBS quitting Twitter over being labeled "government sponsored media" which lumps them in with authoritarian propaganda channels. NPR receives 1% of its funding from the US government while other news sites around the world which are heavily funded or influenced by their governments have yet to receive that tag.

How much government subsidy $ does Tesla get I wonder?

[GuitarStv]

NPR and PBS quitting Twitter over being labeled "government sponsored media" which lumps them in with authoritarian propaganda channels. NPR receives 1% of its funding from the US government while other news sites around the world which are heavily funded or influenced by their governments have yet to receive that tag.

How much government subsidy $ does Tesla get I wonder?

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html#:~:text=Elon%20Musk's%20growing%20empire%20is%20fueled%20by%20%244.9%20billion%20in%20government%20subsidies,-During%20an%20event

:P

[Fru-Gal]

I’d suffocate it with a pillow if I could.

Do it!! :-D

Between Twitter being owned by a loco billionaire censorist and AI taking over social media, I predict the next phase of the Internet is coming soon. Pinterest is overrun with AI-generated content, it’s crazy to see — and not very interesting, which is why social media will die.

[ChpBstrd]

I’d suffocate it with a pillow if I could.

Do it!! :-D

Between Twitter being owned by a loco billionaire censorist and AI taking over social media, I predict the next phase of the Internet is coming soon. Pinterest is overrun with AI-generated content, it’s crazy to see — and not very interesting, which is why social media will die.

Social media is starting to resemble a love child between 1990s daytime television and the big screen on Idiocracy. The promise of the algorithms that can hook anyone breaks down a bit when applied to people who are competent, motivated, initiative-taking, intelligent, sociable, and informed. The sharpest people I know have already quit, and aren't looking for the next big thing either.

Such products tend to bore when staring at dopamine-inducing content because they exist in a real world where exciting things are all around them, with dynamic potentials unlocked by their next actions or insights. These products also tend to see through the tricks of crappy ads and resist the calls to buy or believe stupid shit, even though they tend to be more prosperous than the average product. They are not the type to spend 3 hours at a time staring at a stream of "fail" videos, kittens pouncing things, or dancing bikini girls.

Such individuals were the first to quit FB and Twitter, and appear to be extinct among the TikTok, Reddit, and YouTube product base. I think the social media corporations are OK with that, because these individuals feature flighty engagement and purchasing behavior.

The most successful platforms are targeting the lower echelon of all the virtues described above. Facebook was a simplification of MySpace, Twitter was a simplification of Facebook, and TikTok is a simplification of Twitter, with each adaptation requiring less reading and featuring a faster stream of shorter videos. In terms of content, we are getting closer to the Idiocracy screen. In terms of feeding on the lifespans of products who have given up hope that there is anything better to do with their lives, we're getting closer to daytime television.

I don't think it's going away, but it will increasingly be seen as trash by the people who are resistant. Culture will split into products and non-users. The non-users will take over business, politics, sports, academe, and any other spaces requiring actual achievement. The products will blame the non-users for everything that's wrong with their lives and the world, while the non-users will blame social media.

[Fru-Gal]

Facebook was a simplification of MySpace, Twitter was a simplification of Facebook, and TikTok is a simplification of Twitter

Very astute! Never thought of it quite that way. You’re right, MySpace let you customize the look of your page in a way that FB eliminated.

[Metalcat]

Facebook was a simplification of MySpace, Twitter was a simplification of Facebook, and TikTok is a simplification of Twitter

Very astute! Never thought of it quite that way. You’re right, MySpace let you customize the look of your page in a way that FB eliminated.

I thought twitter was FB without the photos and Instagram was FB without the status updates.

I don't know what the fuck TikTok is, I downloaded it and watched videos for about 3 minutes and felt like throwing my phone across the room.

[GuitarStv]

I don't know what the fuck TikTok is, I downloaded it and watched videos for about 3 minutes and felt like throwing my phone across the room.

Sounds like you know exactly what the fuck TikTok is then.  :D

[Metalcat]

I don't know what the fuck TikTok is, I downloaded it and watched videos for about 3 minutes and felt like throwing my phone across the room.

Sounds like you know exactly what the fuck TikTok is then.  :D

So it's supposed to be that unpleasant?

[LennStar]

I don't know what the fuck TikTok is, I downloaded it and watched videos for about 3 minutes and felt like throwing my phone across the room.

Sounds like you know exactly what the fuck TikTok is then.  :D

So it's supposed to be that unpleasant?

No, it's supposed to make your brain melt, so that you can be easily formed by ads. For those who have a good working model that IS painful, but that is coincidental.

I don't think it's going away, but it will increasingly be seen as trash by the people who are resistant. Culture will split into products and non-users. The non-users will take over business, politics, sports, academe, and any other spaces requiring actual achievement. The products will blame the non-users for everything that's wrong with their lives and the world, while the non-users will blame social media.

I recommend Nancy Kress beggar books to you. There work is a privilege you get elected into and supposed to pay for your electorate's needs.

[Metalcat]

I don't know what the fuck TikTok is, I downloaded it and watched videos for about 3 minutes and felt like throwing my phone across the room.

Sounds like you know exactly what the fuck TikTok is then.  :D

So it's supposed to be that unpleasant?

No, it's supposed to make your brain melt, so that you can be easily formed by ads. For those who have a good working model that IS painful, but that is coincidental.

Fascinating...but I still don't get it.

I legitimately don't understand how people can watch it. At first I thought maybe it was a young people thing, y'know digital natives and all, and maybe their interaction with internet content is just fundamentally different.

But DH's 53 year old frat buddy has gotten super into TikTok and tries to have these involved conversations with us about how amazing it is, and now I'm just more confused.

Granted, his frat buddy has the attention span of a fruit fly and the maturity of a 9 year old, so maybe it makes perfect sense.

[ChpBstrd]

I don't know what the fuck TikTok is, I downloaded it and watched videos for about 3 minutes and felt like throwing my phone across the room.

Sounds like you know exactly what the fuck TikTok is then.  :D

So it's supposed to be that unpleasant?

No, it's supposed to make your brain melt, so that you can be easily formed by ads. For those who have a good working model that IS painful, but that is coincidental.

Fascinating...but I still don't get it.

I legitimately don't understand how people can watch it. At first I thought maybe it was a young people thing, y'know digital natives and all, and maybe their interaction with internet content is just fundamentally different.

But DH's 53 year old frat buddy has gotten super into TikTok and tries to have these involved conversations with us about how amazing it is, and now I'm just more confused.

Granted, his frat buddy has the attention span of a fruit fly and the maturity of a 9 year old, so maybe it makes perfect sense.

You didn't give its algorithm enough time to react to your behavior, to find out what you dwell over and feed you more and more such things until you're interested in every little video.

It's the equivalent of smoking meth once, deciding you don't like the taste, and stopping before the addiction takes hold. You did something stupid in trying it, but you got lucky anyway.

[jinga nation]

Granted, his frat buddy has the attention span of a fruit fly and the maturity of a 9 year old, so maybe it makes perfect sense.

This is the goal to make America dumber than a 5th grader, hooked on small screens, so that bad stuff in the world around them doesn't get noticed. A controlled public is better than an educated critical-thinking citizenry.
America is going to beat China at their own game.
USA! USA! USA!

[Metalcat]

I don't know what the fuck TikTok is, I downloaded it and watched videos for about 3 minutes and felt like throwing my phone across the room.

Sounds like you know exactly what the fuck TikTok is then.  :D

So it's supposed to be that unpleasant?

No, it's supposed to make your brain melt, so that you can be easily formed by ads. For those who have a good working model that IS painful, but that is coincidental.

Fascinating...but I still don't get it.

I legitimately don't understand how people can watch it. At first I thought maybe it was a young people thing, y'know digital natives and all, and maybe their interaction with internet content is just fundamentally different.

But DH's 53 year old frat buddy has gotten super into TikTok and tries to have these involved conversations with us about how amazing it is, and now I'm just more confused.

Granted, his frat buddy has the attention span of a fruit fly and the maturity of a 9 year old, so maybe it makes perfect sense.

You didn't give its algorithm enough time to react to your behavior, to find out what you dwell over and feed you more and more such things until you're interested in every little video.

It's the equivalent of smoking meth once, deciding you don't like the taste, and stopping before the addiction takes hold. You did something stupid in trying it, but you got lucky anyway.

Ooookay, yes, this makes sense.

It also explains why I hate YouTube, Instagram, etc. I can't tolerate them enough to put in the time for the system to become addictive. I find them so aversive they don't get a chance to adapt to me.

I had the same problem with video games as a kid, I found them so unpleasant I couldn't put in the time to get hooked on them. I had about a 5 minutes tolerance and couldn't get past even the earliest of stages to feel compelled to continue.

So I don't have the attention span needed to get sucked into attention consuming digital media, lol.

[LennStar]

You didn't give its algorithm enough time to react to your behavior, to find out what you dwell over and feed you more and more such things until you're interested in every little video.

It's the equivalent of smoking meth once, deciding you don't like the taste, and stopping before the addiction takes hold. You did something stupid in trying it, but you got lucky anyway.

Well, I can't say about Tiktok because I never tried it, but I looked at Youtube shorts, which is officially their try to copy it.
The only interesting things came from channels I already follow. There were a few mildy funny ones, but that's not something you watch more than your 4 minute waiting time at the bus stop. Doesn't look like that algo did any good.
And since Youtube tries to copy Tiktok, a lot of my channels are now doing those shorts too (way more money in it per effort). Which in some cases is ok, but in more than half not. Too boring. Also how am I supposed to see anything in that phone format in 1/2 of the screen hight? sigh

[FireLane]

I'm in my 40s and I have a TikTok account (case in point: see my other recent post), so I can speak to that.

TikTok and YouTube are a lot like TV in general, in that there's a flood of anti-intellectual trash, lowest-common-denominator clickbait, and other assorted dumb shit. But there's also lots of informative, high-quality content, if you put in the time to find it.

I've watched longform videos on YouTube that are as good as any documentary. One I especially like is Dan Olson's channel, Folding Ideas, which has some outstanding deep dives on crypto and the metaverse.

When you start using it, the TikTok algorithm is a chaos, and yes, it will show you a lot of absolute garbage. But if you stay with it a little while and swipe away from those videos, it pretty quickly homes in on what you like. My feed shows me science and nature videos, gardening, recipes, travel and finance, plus occasional political news and commentary.

I don't know if it diminishes your attention span or not, but like all social media, it's a great time-waster. Good if you're bored, not so much if you have important things to do. I try to limit myself to a few minutes a day, and alternate with activities that promote a longer attention span, like reading books.

[dividendman]

Elon must values twitter at $20 Billion now... even if that's accurate he's lost over 50% so far.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musk-puts-20-bln-value-twitter-information-2023-03-26/

edit: oh dang, I guess that's old news.

[ChpBstrd]

I suspect Musk will move on from his Twitter debacle soon.

The new shiny fad/object is AI! Elon's branding of TruthGPT sounds a lot like Trump's Truth Social. Yes, it's obviously "truth" because the name says so.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/elon-musk-says-truthgpt-will-be-a-maximum-truth-seeking-ai/

[Tigerpine]

I hadn't heard of TruthGPT.  I had thought his next shiny object was brain implants.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/what-does-elon-musks-brain-chip-company-neuralink-do-2022-12-05/

[Metalcat]

I suspect Musk will move on from his Twitter debacle soon.

The new shiny fad/object is AI! Elon's branding of TruthGPT sounds a lot like Trump's Truth Social. Yes, it's obviously "truth" because the name says so.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/elon-musk-says-truthgpt-will-be-a-maximum-truth-seeking-ai/

Truth™, an Elon Musk digital product specializing in "free speech absolutism" strategies for suppressing dissent.

Coming soon!

[LennStar]

You know, the first time I hjeard it I thought it was a joke. The second time I remembered it's Musk we talk about.

The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret.

(If you don't get it, here is the source, but be warned, it's a Studley Johnson hole behind this link https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Discworld)

[Travis]

So the checkmark system is now in effect.


If you apply for a golden checkmark and Twitter denies you, they keep your $1000 deposit.
A lot of new and legacy accounts are displaying checkmarks despite not having paid for the new one including dead celebrities.
Stephen King said he didn't pay for his, and Musk chimes in saying he comped his along with a handful of other people.
There either is or will be settings that will hide the checkmark.
A number of parody or fraudulent accounts appeared with checkmarks giving people the impression that paying the fee is the only hurdle to verification.
This is also a problem since the algorithm favors accounts with the checkmarks.

And of course Musk thinks the chaos this is creating is hilarious.

[bacchi]

So the checkmark system is now in effect.


If you apply for a golden checkmark and Twitter denies you, they keep your $1000 deposit.
A lot of new and legacy accounts are displaying checkmarks despite not having paid for the new one including dead celebrities.
Stephen King said he didn't pay for his, and Musk chimes in saying he comped his along with a handful of other people.
There either is or will be settings that will hide the checkmark.
A number of parody or fraudulent accounts appeared with checkmarks giving people the impression that paying the fee is the only hurdle to verification.
This is also a problem since the algorithm favors accounts with the checkmarks.

And of course Musk thinks the chaos this is creating is hilarious.

Is he trolling? Or is he trying to cover up for his fuckups? "No, I meant to do that!" Given his throw-shit-at-the-wall approach to business decisions, I'm guessing the latter.

Conservative twitter is now angry at celebs for not paying $8/mth to a billionaire. ??

[scottish]

I suspect Musk will move on from his Twitter debacle soon.

The new shiny fad/object is AI! Elon's branding of TruthGPT sounds a lot like Trump's Truth Social. Yes, it's obviously "truth" because the name says so.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/elon-musk-says-truthgpt-will-be-a-maximum-truth-seeking-ai/

Truth™, an Elon Musk digital product specializing in "free speech absolutism" strategies for suppressing dissent.

Coming soon!

It'll probably be about as good as Truth Social.

[LennStar]

Conservative twitter is now angry at celebs for not paying $8/mth to a billionaire. ??

The right ingers here "joke" about left accounts (now having a check) being Nazi since a few days ago one of the biggest wrote that Nazis etc. use the checkmark and do you want to be a companion of that?

[Taran Wanderer]

https://apnews.com/article/twitter-musk-new-ceo-woman-5e21a5bdace17828f0fd2c627435ad4f

[Sibley]

I hope for this woman's sake that she's got a thick skin. She's going to take a lot of crap from people because they hate Musk/Twitter and it will spill over onto her.

[Metalcat]

I hope for this woman's sake that she's got a thick skin. She's going to take a lot of crap from people because they hate Musk/Twitter and it will spill over onto her.

She'll also have to take shit from Musk. Once he's not in charge, he'll have someone to blame for any failure.

[GuitarStv]

I hope for this woman's sake that she's got a thick skin. She's going to take a lot of crap from people because they hate Musk/Twitter and it will spill over onto her.

She'll also have to take shit from Musk. Once he's not in charge, he'll have someone to blame for any failure.

Didn't Musk's genius skyrocket Twitter to success though?

[jinga nation]

I hope for this woman's sake that she's got a thick skin. She's going to take a lot of crap from people because they hate Musk/Twitter and it will spill over onto her.

She'll also have to take shit from Musk. Once he's not in charge, he'll have someone to blame for any failure.

Didn't Musk's genius skyrocket Twitter to success though?

Rumor that this lady is the new CEO: https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/11/23720648/twitter-next-ceo-probably-linda-yaccarino

That means his CEO will be almost solely focused on the business, which Yaccarino is certainly qualified for. She already runs a multi-billion-dollar ads business and is well respected among the cohort of CMOs who need to be convinced to spend on the platform again. Importantly, I’m told that she and Musk also see eye to eye politically.

“She’s tough as fucking nails and she’s always wanted this job,” a former colleague says. “It’s perfect.”

If I had to guess, the reason Musk didn’t announce the name is because of unfortunate timing on Yaccarino’s end. NBCU is slated to give its annual Upfront presentation to advertisers on Monday, which Yaccarino is apparently in rehearsals for today. Awkward!

Update May 12th, 10:15AM ET: NBCU has announced that Yaccarino is leaving the company effective immediately.

[LennStar]

"eye to eye politically" - I guess that was 70% of the reason.
'nother libertarian nutjob? sigh

[jinga nation]

Unfortunately, the replacement CEO isn't Elona/Ellen/Shelon Musk.

[ChpBstrd]

Both Elon Musk and the people outraged at Elon Musk will move along now. Twitter may now more closely resemble 4-Chan than its original self, but that's old news.

Musk is supposedly going into AI now, which must be humbling after his multiple decision-making failures around Twitter.

[Daley]

Good to see now that Musk's run Twitter so thoroughly and irreparably into the ground, then and only then, is he hiring a new CEO. And that CEO? A woman, of course! If ye had any doubts that Twitter's crashing and burning, look no further than the glass cliff appointment of female leadership to scapegoat all of Elno's trainwreck management on.

[FireLane]

I was going to say this is a textbook glass-cliff scenario, but @Daley beat me to it.

Musk has utterly mismanaged Twitter. He's buzzsawed its employees, trashed its reputation, and scared away all its advertisers... and now he's handing the smoldering ashes over to a woman.

If she pulls off a miracle and turns the company around, Musk can just kick her out and take over again. If she fails, Musk can dump all the blame on her. He'll say he could have saved Twitter, but those meanie SJW liberals forced him to step back and put an unqualified female in charge.

[Phenix]

I was going to say this is a textbook glass-cliff scenario, but @Daley beat me to it.

Musk has utterly mismanaged Twitter. He's buzzsawed its employees, trashed its reputation, and scared away all its advertisers... and now he's handing the smoldering ashes over to a woman.

If she pulls off a miracle and turns the company around, Musk can just kick her out and take over again. If she fails, Musk can dump all the blame on her. He'll say he could have saved Twitter, but those meanie SJW liberals forced him to step back and put an unqualified female in charge.

Clutch those pearls!
"utterly mismanaged"
"buzzsawed its employees"
"trashed its reputation"
"scared away all its advertisers"
"handing the smoldering ashes over to a woman"

Did you even read that after you wrote it? Let's unpack this one at a time:
"utterly mismanaged" - followed his game plan; whether you agree with it or not doesn't make it mismanagement
"buzzsawed its employees" - part of the game plan, the place wasn't going to give him ROI with it's bloated workforce
"trashed its reputation" - and that reputation was...
"scared away all its advertisers" - that's just a false statement
"handing the smoldering ashes over to a woman" - you make it sound like he's purposely setting up some poor, dumb woman for failure; she seems to be a very good fit to grow the company (but let's focus on her gender and make this out to be a setup)

I'm 99% certain that after Musk hands this off, he's not coming back to take over.

You and Daley should get together and write a movie because you sure are good at writing fictional narratives.

[FireLane]

Did you even read that after you wrote it? Let's unpack this one at a time:
"utterly mismanaged" - followed his game plan; whether you agree with it or not doesn't make it mismanagement
"buzzsawed its employees" - part of the game plan, the place wasn't going to give him ROI with it's bloated workforce

Bold of you to assume there is a game plan, rather than Musk just following whatever chaotic whim strikes him on a given day.

Certainly the massive layoffs so soon after taking over the company suggest he wasn't following a plan. There's just no way he learned the inner workings of the company in such depth that, within a few weeks, he was able to figure out who was vital to Twitter and who was deadwood. Asking employees to print out their latest code changes as a way of showing what they've contributed also doesn't strike me as a sign of especially clever or effective management.

"trashed its reputation" - and that reputation was...

Well, for one thing, a haven for free speech. Musk has trashed that reputation by banning journalists who are critical of him, blocking links to competitors like Mastodon and Substack, inciting harassment against his own trust and safety council, labeling NPR "state-affiliated media" despite by his own admission not knowing where NPR gets its funding from, and, ironically, complying with more government censorship and surveillance requests than ever before.

"scared away all its advertisers" - that's just a false statement

OK, fair enough, that was an exaggeration. I should have said that Musk scared away more than 500 of its top advertisers and brought about a 40% drop in year-over-year revenue in just the six months or so since he took over. Completely different. Business genius!

"handing the smoldering ashes over to a woman" - you make it sound like he's purposely setting up some poor, dumb woman for failure;

Yes, that's what I'm saying he's doing. He's finding a scapegoat to take the blame for the results of his own erratic mismanagement.

[Daley]

You and Daley should get together and write a movie because you sure are good at writing fictional narratives. DADDY MUSK SENPAI, NOTICE ME!

FTFY

If you're gonna waste your days defending Elon Musk, you should do it on Twitter. That's the only place he pays attention to.

[Fru-Gal]

I’m a simple person, all I want at this point is for this future CEO to not be (now or ever) impregnated with a Muskbryo.

[Fru-Gal]

Silly me I forgot they all use surrogates now, I mean, not be contributing half the genetic material necessary to create a Muskbryo.

[Michael in ABQ]

"trashed its reputation" - and that reputation was...

Well, for one thing, a haven for free speech....

Unless you're a conservative. Or just anyone who dares to question the narrative.