Musk offers to buy Twitter

[Brad]

I pay like $7 a month (if I remember right) for Micro.blog  which is both a social network community and a long/short blogging platform.  There are no ads and the fee helps keep spammers and assorted riff-raff at bay. 

I might have considered a monthly fee for Twitter pre-Musk but after seeing Musk run Twitter no way.  I only pay money to grownups. Plus I'm not giving Musk my CC details.

[rcjordan]

Despite usage declines, X remains 'stickier' than first thought | TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/26/despite-usage-declines-x-remains-stickier-than-first-thought/

[littleman]

While not a crash, that's a pretty significant year over year decrease.

[Travoli]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/11/03/elon-musk-x-has-started-selling-off-old-twitter-handles/?sh=6057572f5bcf

Elon Musk's X Has Started Selling Off Old Twitter Handles For Upwards Of $50,000

"Emails obtained by Forbes reveal that a team within the company, known as the @Handle Team, has begun work on a handle marketplace for the purchase of account names left unused by the people who originally registered them. In at least some cases, X/Twitter has emailed solicitations to potential buyers requesting a flat fee of $50,000 to initiate a purchase."

[ergophobe]

A friend has a 3-letter X handle that matches the abbreviation for one of America's major airports. They currently are on X with the handle FlyXYZ.

He's in his 80s and not particularly motivated by money so I don't think he himself would sell, but it I doubt he has or cares about a succession plan for the account so Elon will probably get it in the end if Elon and X last that long.

[Brad]

Elon's Censorial Lawsuit Against Media Matters Inspiring Many More People To Find ExTwitter Ads On Awful Content

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/11/27/elons-censorial-lawsuit-against-media-matters-inspiring-many-more-people-to-find-extwitter-ads-on-awful-content/

[rcjordan]

Elon Musk curses out advertisers who left X over antisemitic content | Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musk-curses-out-advertisers-who-left-x-over-antisemitic-content-2023-11-29/

[littleman]

He has to be an anchor on Tesla and SpaceX at this point.  Are these companies powerless to remove him?

[Brad]

I can't decide if Musk -

1. Is purposely trying to sabotage Twitter, without making it look like he's destroying Twitter on purpose.  Does he get a tax write off for the losses if Twitter goes under?

2.  Keeps screwing up and harming the company but is so ego bound he can't admit he's made a mistake, so he blames everyone else but never himself.

[ergophobe]

Third explanation comes from Morgan Housel and his idea of "wild minds."

The idea is that someone like Musk who decides to simultaneously take on Ford, GM and NASA has to have a wild mind to do that and to expect him to suddenly get on Twitter and shareholder calls and sound like the CEO of Procter and Gamble is not realistic. Rather his flaws and his genius are products of the same kind and that mind is always a bit unhinged, just that sometimes we admire the results and sometimes we are appalled.

He says that Gates is the only one he can think of who has that incredibly productive and hyper speed mind who managed to act as a fairly normal CEO. In many cases, the genius that makes a great innovator makes for a bad CEO and public figure.

Bill Shockley was Musk x 2 - total genius and totally offensive racist megalomaniac. I think the analysis would be similar. Brilliant but unhinged mind that turned out some of the best and some of the worst thought of then20th century.

[rcjordan]

Good luck with your boycott

https://old.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/1888qnm/good_luck_with_your_boycott/

[littleman]

Fourth explanation:  For whatever reason he's just not as sharp as he use to be.  I was watching an interview from around 2010 and he seemed like a very different person.

[littleman]

 The end of Elon Musk

[grnidone]

"And I think Musk could destroy Hamas almost instantly by becoming their CEO," Che joked.

- SNL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vbsStfNNok

[ergophobe]

>> sharp

That's a good observation. I haven't seen many interviews with him, but when I have I find myself asking about half the time if he has some sort of substance abuse problem or even some lève of bipolar. I don't really remember what young Elon sounded like though and, of course, I get filtered his most outrageous moments. Even being as charitable as possible, though, the very best case interpretation is that he has lost control of the narrative of his own life.