Why so upset that somebody is using his wealth to buy a company? Evidently you really dislike him and think it's a bad investment so shouldn't you be happier?
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Twitter likely to take idiots offer to buy them for $43 billion
- Thread starter Jimmy Higgins
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If Twitter isn't guilty of widespread censorship, then Musk's plans to open it up won't make a difference, will it? Why so upset?So Donald Trump is banned for inciting violence in the Capitol Building... therefore Twitter is guilty of widespread censorship... yet 534 or 535 members of Congress can post to Twitter.
AdamWho
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I am a little confused about the claims that "Elon created X from scratch"...
He hasn't actually created anything. Paypal, Tesla, SpaceX.... these are all things he bought into and put his name on.
He hasn't actually created anything. Paypal, Tesla, SpaceX.... these are all things he bought into and put his name on.
Politesse
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Paypal in particular was created by the sale of Confinity, and they were not the only company trying to establish themselves as everyone's favorite digital wallet either, just the ones who won out over the pack by virtue of having a nice interface. Not exactly stretching the boundaries of ingenuity. Doing what everyone else is doing, but doing it slightly better, is the mantra of every single entrepreneur ever.
bilby
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You needn't be better; Just more popular is sufficient. Betamax was a vastly better videotape format than VHS, but VHS was a slightly more common choice for early adopters, so the studios tended to put more of their movies out as VHS tapes, which created a feedback loop - people bought VHS players because more movies were available on VHS, and so studios put more of their movies out in VHS only, so people bought VHS players...
PayPal was more popular because more vendors had PayPal accounts, making PayPal more popular...
Our economy tends to amplify the tiny variations between competing options, until only one or two massive successes survive - making the winner as much a matter of good luck as good products, or even good marketing.
The tales of Betamax's superiority are vastly exaggerated. Sony lost because it tried to create a licensing monopoly and its tapes were too short for consumers.
Isn't that indeed a virtue?
What's wrong with doing something everyone else is doing but doing it better?
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Every time I hear someone with a Tesla say "I have a self-driving car!" I just laugh. When I watch the videos of a Tesla "FSD Beta" trying and failing to navigate something that the cars deployed by the company I work for could do without any fuss I just laugh. I can't speak to his rockets, or his car company specifically (I like the "Plaid" thing), but when it comes to autonomous vehicles? He's all hat, and no cattle.
Handing his "self-driving" tech over to consumers with little more than a price point to manage entry and using them to collect data? This is astonishingly stupid, and some people are inevitably going to be killed as a result. When - not if - that happens, the headlines will scream "self-driving cars are dangerous" and it will set the industry back years. Just like Uber's accident did. In case you haven't heard, a "self driving" Uber vehicle hit a woman in Arizona and she died. Was it the fault of the car? From what I've gathered (talking to people who worked there at the time)? Not really. It was a combination of operator error, a company keen to deploy tech that wasn't ready (in order to push up the stock price) and the company relaxing safety standards in service of the bottom line.
But what the hell do I know?
Oh...shit...I actually do know a little about this.
My brother in law has a Tesla, and he does not make that claim.
However, when somebody actually makes a self-driving car, and I mean, I climb in the back to have a nap and then I am gently awoken by smooth jazz when I arrive at the destination driving, I'll be first to say 'take my money'.
In any case, I was talking about PayPal 'doing it better' by having a nicer interface, and wondering why people would express dismay that a product that does something better wins more market share.
TV and credit cards
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Tesla had a total of three employees when Musk provided the initial funding. I can only imagine what it takes to bring a new car company into the industry from near scratch to profitability. Many have tried and failed. Then of course there is not only breaking into the market but turning it on its head, making all the big players follow your lead and providing the infrastructure for doing so with little to no help from the government. Piece of cake. A little luck and a pile of cash is all it took, I’m sure.
I’d like to read what you have on SpaceX. As far as I know, Musk did create it. Most importantly he personally interviewed all initial employees. This is what makes a successful organization. No one can do it all by themselves but it is most critical for that one person to get the right people in the right jobs to make it successful.
Musk did not create these two companies as much as he revolutionized these two industries.
Twitter? Largely drivel.
Perhaps he can make something purposeful of it. But he will not have created Twitter either.
Jimmy Higgins
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He didn't create Paypal from scratch... or at all, I believe. Tesla was different. He didn't design the cars, he didn't do most of the work... but he was able to finance and develop a car company from scratch... which is virtually impossible to do, because of the cash burn required. SpaceX... that is definitely not from scratch (hundreds of billions to trillions of US Government dollars helped him get to a more advanced starting place) and it seems an absolute waste. Going to Mars? The James Webb scope is worth one trillion trips to Mars.
But Tesla, that was an incredible accomplishment.
Twitter will be Musk's Falkirk. I just don't see how this is remotely a good decision, philosophically or financially. Bezos saved the Washington Post... for a lot less money. And that produces a product,. Twitter is an echo chamber where great ideas aren't discussed. It makes Facebook look like The Academy. Musk is literally saving Twitter from a strawman.
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I highly doubt Musk wrote one character of the code that created that interface.
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I just heard that there is a Twitter account called Elon Musk's Jet, @ElonJet. It shows the location in real time of where Musk's private jet is all all times. Musk asked Twitter to take down the account. Twitter refused. It was shortly after that that Musk floated the idea of buying Twitter.
Jimmy Higgins
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Why are liberals not allowed to have opinions.
Musk bought a massive social media company (rarely ever a good investment), for a premium (even worse) to deal with alleged censorship (which really doesn't exist).
1) A single person shouldn't have this much wealth, where they can buy a company for over $40 billion... on a whim.
2) The people supporting this maneuver are giddy that Trump will be unleashed again, a guy that violated the companies terms and conditions by egging on an insurrection that got people killed.
3) It is a bad investment. Flat out, but alt-right boners be swelling... when they are already allowed to post on Twitter.
And the Babylon Bee is trash! Seriously, what is with the right-wing and their inability to understand humor?
Jimmy Higgins
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Musk's accomplishment was Tesla... not Paypal. He put money into Paypal. He created a car company from nearly scratch, which no one can do. It is technically impossible because of the cash burn required. But he did get that across the line. SpaceX, is an absolute mockery of trying to move mankind into the future as going to Mars means nothing compared to what the Hubble and James Webb accomplished (or will accomplish).
The engineering is interesting for SpaceX, but SpaceX has to exist for a few decades without killing people to become something.
Jimmy Higgins
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Betamax was superior. VHS had one thing going for it, you could record a full football (NFL) game. Betamax would create several things better than VHS, and VHS would just clone them.
The funny thing is that RCA actually could have beat them both with their video record, but the inter-RCA tech squabbling prevented that.
Politesse
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You're asking how it's possible that people who think the CRTs are attacking every time they see a black woman in a superhero movie might be too dumb to detect a joke?
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Elon Musk spent nearly 7 times Jack Dorsey's net worth to buy Twitter
Dorsey, who resigned as CEO last fall, has a net worth of $6.6 billion, according to Forbes. Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion.
www.newsweek.com
Twitter has accepted Musk's offer.
Heh. The “it’s not happening but it’s good that it is” pipeline.