OnlySycophants
― jaymc, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 14:02 (one year ago) link
I'm addicted to the rubber-necking but man, I'm so tired of seeing his big stupid head, is there even *one* pic on the whole net where he looks normal, he's like some sort of man-fish hybrid. I expect to see terrible gasping, slobbering gills all down his neck.
― MaresNest, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 14:15 (one year ago) link
I cannot imagine (particularly in this job market) a job that I valued so much but had no actual stake in where I receive that message and say anything other than 'thanx 4 the three months severance bruh'
― Beautiful Bean Footage Fetishist (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 14:35 (one year ago) link
there are people for whom its harder to quit for instance those on work visas, and theres those who see this as an opportunity for advancement which it certainly is, but yeah all things being equal id be so out of there
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 14:45 (one year ago) link
Twitter data suggests most of the people buying Twitter Blue are promoting three things: right wing politics, cryptocurrency, and porn. https://t.co/yiXnqX1gw8— Adam Smith (@adamndsmith) November 16, 2022
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 14:46 (one year ago) link
he also made some vague promise about huge stock grants for high performers for whatever thats worth
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 14:46 (one year ago) link
I'll be really disappointed in him if he doesn't bring a giant fork prop into the Twitter lobby today.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 14:50 (one year ago) link
but anyway tech workers and all workers should unionize
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 14:51 (one year ago) link
Yeah, that's what I want — stock in Twitter. (Or Tesla, for that matter.)
― but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 14:51 (one year ago) link
what twitter data? from ppl txting the phone# in yr bio? this is a wrd data tecnik
― i'm right back on my shit (Hunt3r), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 14:54 (one year ago) link
as someone currently unemployed in the tech industry in the bay area, proclamations like Musks kind of terrify me because I hate to think of other companies following suit, even in small ways; after the blunted attempts at compassion and empathy in the workplace during COVID (which IME weren't even followed very well, at least not where I worked), I can see more companies saying 'fuck it.' that said, this turn is basically setting himself up for a raft of discrimination lawsuits in CA so I expect him to cut costs by shifting all engineering to someplace with zero worker protections. Maybe Dubai.
― akm, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:00 (one year ago) link
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 bookmarkflaglink
Wonder what wildcat strike actions would look like here.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:02 (one year ago) link
― 龜, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:03 (one year ago) link
'he also made some vague promise about huge stock grants for high performers for whatever thats worth'
it's a private company, there is no stock
― akm, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:04 (one year ago) link
sure there is
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:05 (one year ago) link
there is the potential for there to be stock, you just won’t be able to do anything with it until elon takes twitter public again.
― 龜, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:09 (one year ago) link
Private companies, if they are corporations, do issue stock. It's just not traded on a public exchange.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:10 (one year ago) link
sometimes you can sell private stock or whatever its called
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:13 (one year ago) link
Sure, you can sell it unless a shareholder agreement restricts its sale, and if you can find a buyer. Or, you can cash in when the company sells or goes public.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:14 (one year ago) link
if i had twitter stock i would give some to everyone who liked my tweets, there should be a button for that
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:16 (one year ago) link
the rule around this is complicated but basically you can’t sell it for a year after you get it and if you can find a buyer they will be under similar restrictions. there is a pretty big “liquidity discount” vis a vid public stock. but there are services that will try to match you with a buyer if you own private stock. https://forgeglobal.com/buying-or-selling-private-company-shares/
― 龜, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:16 (one year ago) link
Musk email incoming:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWcfmkslT48
― “uhh”—like, this is an insane oatmeal raisin cookie “uhh” (President Keyes), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:17 (one year ago) link
musk took down that elephant thing hardcore
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:19 (one year ago) link
Good thread on what capitalists like Musk could be attempting in the tech workplace
It's...funny? I guess? to see a capitalist bullish enough to do to tech infrastructure what they've already done to every other kind of infrastructure. For a while the techies had the clout and mystique to hold off the barbarians, but looks like here they fucking come https://t.co/wDRldPh4jO— a furred tail upon nothingness (@dynamic_proxy) November 14, 2022
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:27 (one year ago) link
The worry that this is part of a new approach that will spread across the tech industry seems misplaced because it is clear he doesn't know what he's doing, and the result will be wrecking a popular brand and losing lots of money. Not really sure what the argument would be to copy this disaster.
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:36 (one year ago) link
i feel like twitter itself has to stay up in some useable form for it to function as both model and platform on which the model is being successfully pushed
but i am not a coder(which a furred tail very much is)
xyz, do you have any thoughts from within yr own experience and world (less as twitter's biggest fan and as more bulletins from the class-war front in yr own territory)
― mark s, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:46 (one year ago) link
idk I feel like that vulture capitalist approach only really works with companies or sectors in decline, where underlying infrastructure (real estate, supply networks, even just the value of the brand name) is worth more than the business itself. That's mostly not true in tech, which — all the vaporware and starry-eyed bullshit aside — is still full of very profitable companies that make money by making and selling actual goods, either hardware or software.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:50 (one year ago) link
it hadn't actually struck me until @dynamic_proxy said it out loud but of course (some of) the spiteful glee at twtr ppl being fired is rage against what he calls the "tech-professional class" from other professional layers as technies lose their formerly unbiddable heft
― mark s, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:52 (one year ago) link
I mean unbiddability survives layoffs, I would jump at the chance to get fired by Twitter or Facebook rn
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:53 (one year ago) link
Sadly I work in the public sector
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 15:54 (one year ago) link
Elon is currently testifying against a lawsuit that he took way too large a compensation package, this is a long thread but this may even be funnier than the Alex Jones one
Elon: "The consent decree was made under duress. An agreement made under duress, is not valid, as a foundation of law.""Are you trained as a lawyer?""I have some familiarity with the legal system. If you're in enough law suits, you pick up a few things along the way."/50— The Chancery Daily (@chancery_daily) November 16, 2022
― frogbs, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 16:02 (one year ago) link
agree, but, I'll be transparent here: I just left a company that hit a financial bump in the road, and the response was that the board ousted the (well liked) CEO, brought back a CEO that had left in disgrace over sexual harassment allegations, and he promptly gutted the company and appears to be positioning it for acquisition at a bargain price over it's struggling competitor, rather than buckle down and fix the issuess that needed fixing. the company was cash flow positive. CEO is a Musk simp, incessantly replying to Musk on twitter. So, I just saw this happen. It made zero sense to me from a financial standpoint, unless they were being dishonest about the finances (which is entirely possible).
― akm, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 16:04 (one year ago) link
I mean unbiddability survives layoffs
for sure and it likely (?) will in this instance also: @dynamic_proxy's argt is that musk's full-on assault on it -- all too familiar to many other "indispensible" layers in plenty of other industries -- is new in this instance, and also as public as it possibly could be really. what (given that it's only a new model in this specific instance) are the conditions for general contagion?
does musk have to succeed at twtr, for example?
― mark s, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 16:11 (one year ago) link
― mark s, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 bookmarkflaglink
There is just a lot of resentment toward a well paid class of people, and I see someone like Musk tapping into that and just hacking at it. IT is said to be a 'career', politicians tell people in deindustrialised areas to 'learn to code'. My feeling is that at some point, this just has to be stopped. Jobs have to suck.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 16:19 (one year ago) link
I mean coding absolutely does suck and is stupid as hell but it pays very well and it’s impossible to evaluate anyone’s performance
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 16:20 (one year ago) link
When Musk says “high performers” he means “people who cup my balls the way I like when they’re sucking my cock”
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 16:21 (one year ago) link
coding is fun its the results of coding that suck
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 16:22 (one year ago) link
A lot of the guys fired publicly by Musk will walk into other jobs no problem. As an industry people are well paid and pretty secure once they are in it. They don't have to perform amazing either, just get a pay rise by going somewhere else.
Musk is only saying/doing what all bosses are thinking.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 16:25 (one year ago) link
the technical people should be good tho its maybe not the best job market right now, if youre a random bizdev guy i dont think youre necessarily just laughing your way to the next job
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 16:28 (one year ago) link
Musk is only saying/doing what all bosses are thinking
this is key point i think: magazineland passed through this beginning like two decades ago, when VCs started eating up titles -- a similar downgrading of expertise, first slow then quick
it unfolded over a fairly long period -- the voice was bought up by new times media in 2005 after all but the torque supplied by "pivot to video" wasn't until 2015, a notorious complete lie fromfacebook that just stripped the authority of experience out from under those few editors still stubborn enough to back-talk their owners. deadpin's wrecker jim spanfeller is held in justified contempt by a layer of magazine workers who know what they're doing (and defector still seems to thrive) but it's not like he's shunned within the industry at large
― mark s, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 16:48 (one year ago) link
yeah I love coding what I don't love is having to say analyze a dozen different microservice I'm unfamiliar with to figure out why X is doing Y
― frogbs, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 16:54 (one year ago) link
love to produce bugs (sowing) hate to debug (reaping)
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 16:55 (one year ago) link
Pretty much
― frogbs, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 17:00 (one year ago) link
I’d rather be a secretary
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 17:01 (one year ago) link
But I like money too much at this point
it’s impossible to evaluate anyone’s performance
this is categorically false, cmon.
― akm, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 17:38 (one year ago) link
Well, impossible for nontechnical managers, which is the only kind I have
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 17:40 (one year ago) link
If I talk enough I think everyone assumes I’m doing a good job
i see, well then, you have a bad org structure, on the other hand, that might work in your favor
― akm, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 17:41 (one year ago) link
you're telling me!
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Wednesday, 16 November 2022 17:41 (one year ago) link