Submitted by MythOfMyself t3_ymn3ba in singularity
ChronoPsyche t1_iv4qs8e wrote
Resist the temptation to make everything in the world about "xyz topic of interest". I see this a lot in certain subreddits that revolve around something members see as revolutionary. For example, r/superstonk members thinking that everything in the world is related to a conspiracy to suppress GME.
So no, he's not secretly firing people because of the "coming AI takeover", whatever that means.
He overspent on Twitter and is trying to cut costs. Elon Musk is infamous for overworking his employees, so it seems he thinks he can fire half of them and then just have the other half work twice as much. That of course isn't going to work, but he will discover that the hard way.
sensationswahn t1_iv5453c wrote
Fair point about r/superstonk , there is a lot of weird things going on with that stock though.
ChronoPsyche t1_iv5hh2h wrote
For sure there is. It's just, sometimes the alleged associations get a little bit "out there".
dasnihil t1_iv50zi5 wrote
i personally never care about what elon does or says but my best guess is that he loves saying/doing outrageous stuff to stay on limelight maybe.
also for many that don't know, he was one of the founding members of OpenAI.
hugosebas t1_iv61vac wrote
So the question remains, what did he see on Twitter that is worth spending 40 Billion dollars?
I mean, he has done some very questionable choices in the past, like The Boring Company hyperloops, but even that at least has a reasonable motive behind it, if you really squeeze your eyes, it kinda makes sense. Twitter though? Idk what is he seeing on Twitter that can possible be worth 40 Billion.
Usually he has a long term vision for the things he invests on. The best reason I have seen so far is that he wants to make Twitter, a Tiktok, but for text.
ChronoPsyche t1_iv62v7c wrote
We've known he has wanted to make his own social media to compete with Twitter for a while. To accomplish this he decided to just buy Twitter and turn it into his desired social media. Basically buying out the competition.
This is a very common practice, the difference is that instead of it being a big company buying out a small company, it's a billionaire buying out a big company. Never before possible until recently with the wealth of billionaires ballooning to insane heights.
hugosebas t1_iv65053 wrote
Yeah, but for 40 Billion? Is it really that worth making a Twitter competitor for that much money? In my mind, given what he did with his other companies he will try to innovate social media, I just don't really understand how that can possibly be worth 1/5 of his net worth.
ChronoPsyche t1_iv67k1g wrote
What do you mean by innovate?
hugosebas t1_iv6iwmt wrote
I am not sure if I understand your question, Google gives me the definition below:
Innovate: "make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products."
If you are asking how it is that Musk will innovate Twitter, that is what I would like to know, will he just try to optimize management?, maybe with AI?, automating staff?, reducing costs? Is that enough to recover his money? I don't think so, in my view, he would need to make Twitter better as a product to consumers and I just don't really know how he can achieve that in order to recover 40 Billion dollars.
In a recent interview, when talking about Twitter, he said this:
"In terms of what it could be, I think there is an enormous amount of potential, that will be very difficult to achieve, but I think possible and I think ultimately it could be one of the most valuable companies in the world"
Innovation is this untapped potential he believes Twitter has, that can make the company one of the most valuable companies in the world, I'm just curious to what is his vision for Twitter.
ChronoPsyche t1_iv6qxed wrote
I know what the word innovate means. It seemed like you had something in particular in mind you thought he was going to do. If not, then I'll point you to the possibility that he may want to make Twitter like WeChat.
hugosebas t1_iv6t9iy wrote
Nah, I didn't have anything in mind really, the closest thing I got was to make some kind of Tiktok/Twitter hybrid. I heard that he wanted to make it like WeChat, but honestly I didn't really looked much into how WeChat worked and I always thought it was some kind of Facebook/WhatsApp, but looking into it a bit more, I am starting to understand what he wants to do. It is in fact something we don't have here in the west, but given that WeChat is China only and given that we have all kind of currencies here in the West it will be kinda hard to implement something like that globally, at least the financial part of WeChat. But ok, at least I am starting to understand where this is going.
hugosebas t1_iv68jtc wrote
Twitter is bleeding money atm and as been in the last 2 years, Twitter's best year was 2019 with 1,4 Billion annual net profit, even if he could maintain that, it would take around 30 years before he can make his money back. If he is not expecting to make Twitter into something truly revolutionary, I don't know what is he thinking.
ChronoPsyche t1_iv6rgcv wrote
It's definitely not out of the realm of possibility that he is not acting rationally. He is a smart businessman but he is also a huge risk taker. A lot of his risks have paid off, a lot haven't.
blueSGL t1_iv80z8y wrote
> what did he see on Twitter that is worth spending 40 Billion dollars?
as far as I can remember all his financials (and the world's in general were way better when he put the offer in) problem with locking something like that in and then the wind changes is you can be on the hook for comparatively a lot more because the sale price does not change but the economic climate has.
It really looked like he wanted to go to court to get out of the deal, discovery started and they allowed in communications that would have meant he has to pay anyway because of what was said, so he dropped it all and paid up.
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