# Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter - now the Pit edition (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 25, 2022, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442 "2022-04-25T22:50:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 148
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2944 "2023-01-30T00:08:52Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I suspect your experience might be affected negatively more than mine, because Twitter was ‘boosting’ liberal voices and shadowbanning conservatives, and if they aren’t now you may see a rightward shift in your feed as you describe. …I’m not seeing a "rightward trend. I’m seeing people that ideologically generally agree with _that I don’t follow_ at the same frequency I _used_ to see the people that I follow. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Or maybe the algo IS somewhat broken right now and actively being worked on. Fixed to do what? The **chronological feed** used to show tweets from people I follow, in chronological order. That got replaced by the **following feed** which shows just a _fraction_ of the people that I follow in chronological order, while whole other people have completely disappeared. And that includes “not famous” local people that I’ve had extensive interactions with in the past. The intent of the rebranded feed is quite clear. Musk has talked about how the feed will now prioritize ‘verified users’ and what we are seeing are just tweaks on the way to trying to make this work. So I’m not actually expecting this to eventually “get fixed.” This is actually the way they want it to work. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > He said that he fully expects to roll back many things they roll out, but he’d rather try stuff quickly than sit in analysis paralysis for years, which appears to be what was going on with old management. He has always said that if you’re not breaking things sometimes, you aren’t moving fast enough. You can’t “try a feature” for two weeks with no announcement, no fanfare, and reach any sort of reasonable conclusion from that sort of rollout. For example, they experimented with a “you may like” feature at the bottom of each thread. You’d get to the end of the thread and it suggested some other tweets you might be interested in. It took me probably a week to even notice it was there: then a few days later it was gone. What was the point of that? What could they have even learned from that type of rollout? No user surveys or feedback. Just there one day, then gone. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > The reason so many features have been coming out so quickly, BTW. is that they were already written but had been torpedoed or sidelined or delayed by old Twitter management. I’ve already told you about the shopping feature, which got torpedoed by Musk, but had the potential to actually generate revenue. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Musk said that a bunch of engineers came to him with features they had written that prior management refused to implement, so Musk looked them over, picked the ones he thought would be good features and let those guys run with them. He’s already unwound a couple of them, but others have worked well. Which ones have “worked well?” > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > By the way, giving agency to your team engineers is a great way to build morale. Treating them like shit though is a terrible way to build morale. Less pay, poorer working conditions, not paying the rent, having the threat of instant dismissal constantly hanging over their head are never a great way of building morale. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > This is not ‘beta testing with the public’, it’s straight-up agile development. “Throwing shit at the wall” is not straight-up agile development. It’s just throwing shit-at-the-wall. Agile is a methodology, and a much more rigorous and robust process than simply whatever the hell it is they are doing at Twitter at the moment. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Build constantly, ship often, be prepared to roll back and refactor when things go wrong, get feedback from customers, iterate. What are they “building constantly” now? It’s a mature product that is now billions of dollars in the hole. Revenue should be the primary concern, which means the focus should be on customer retention and making the advertisers happy. But the algorithm is now borked, and even the biggest Musk boosters are complaining about it, the sales team have been depleted, they are being sued for non-payment of rent, they are at risk of not being in compliance with multiple EU regulations and have probably breached the FTC consent decree, so I ask again: what’s up with all of this building constantly, shipping often, rolling back and refactoring when things go wrong right now? (And “get feedback from customers”? LOL. Customers didn’t even know they had implemented new features, let alone have any way to give feedback) What’s the end game here? Even though the platform pisses me off now I’m still using it. Its just that Musk has made it harder to use now. None of these “rapid changes” will bring in enough subscribers to make a dent on the debt Musk has saddled the company with. The only real hope they have, even in the short term, is to focus on bringing the advertisers back. Twitter’s product isn’t its tech. Its a social media company. The main thing it should be investing in right now is a killer sales team. But even the best sales team in the world would struggle to sell a platform that has welcomed back with open arms the openly transphobic, the white supremacists, the misogynists. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Musk applies that philosophy to everything from software to building rockets. It’s a philosophy that doesn’t work when you are essentially running a customer service operation. “Why is this supermarket giving me a smaller trolley with bigger wheels? And why are they suddenly taking it away from me?” A supermarket doesn’t need a dozen technical innovations every month. And neither does Twitter. I just can’t emphasise enough how much poorer the Twitter experience is now. On pre-Musk Twitter, the emergency in Auckland would have gotten its own featured section in the explore feed, with information updated through the news team that was based in Australia. But that team is gone now. So the best we can get now are updates on NFT’s. The damn thing’s broken. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2945 "2023-01-30T00:15:20Z")
> [@Chingon](#): > > Calling it “Agile Development” is a an amazing method for weird nerds to hand wave away any technical criticism of Musk. Anything that happens is simply “Agile Development”. Next time I trip over my shoelaces and faceplant in public, I will call it “Agile Walking”. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2946 "2023-01-30T00:34:29Z")
I find it amusing that Sam is defending everything changing, whether it be unavailable, less usable, missing features, or just hard to read in light of his known complaints about THIS board on discourse. After all, it’s all the same, isn’t it? Except that Discourse is by all reports (I joined after discourse) working more stably than the old version. For example “Just feeding back that virtually everything is awful” post 74… ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2947 "2023-01-30T01:01:32Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > Except that Discourse is by all reports (I joined after discourse) working more stably than the old version. It’s not just more stable, it’s far more functional. * * * As for this “agile development” stuff, advancing technology and the large body of experience in software development has enabled legitimate new methodologies, but from my outsider perspective, what’s happening at Twitter isn’t “agile” or “RAD” or any other formal methodology. When Elmo randomly introduces changes that either don’t work or else don’t work AND break other things, and does it in a totally undisciplined and unstructured manner, that’s not “agile development”, that’s what is technically known as “being a clueless idiot”. I once led a large project where we legitimately employed a limited form of RAD (rapid application development)l which is a related methodology. It did not bear even the remotest resemblance to Elmo’s directionless flailing. The major aspect of RAD that we were interested in was prototyping, an approach we had to take because the front-end user requirements were far too vague. So we had an ongoing process of building hundreds of UI screens with the back-end functionality temporarily simulated, and worked very closely with the client in refining those screens and documenting all the relevant workflows. It was a continuous process of **incremental development with constant client involvement**. This eventually led to a working model that was a solid embodiment of the system functional requirements that the client could sign off on. The back end could then be completed in a more traditional fashion. Which is not the same as “make a bunch of changes on a whim and throw all the shit at the wall to see what sticks” – with hapless Twitter users generally being completely unaware of what’s going on, or else strongly objecting to the changes. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2948 "2023-01-30T01:17:07Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > He’s an eccentric genius No, he really isn’t, and there’s no credible evidence that he is. I know and work with a lot of genius level people. He definitely isn’t one of them. By leagues. He’s probably pretty average overall. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I’ve actually run agile teams. How about you? Yes. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > way more comfortable talking to engineers about engineering There is no evidence at all that he has any kind of high-level understanding of engineering at all. In fact, when he speaks in public about technical and engineering issues, he doesn’t sound very bright or informed at all. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Musk has his own kind of charm though, which the left loved until they discovered he didn’t belong to their tribe. Nope, I’ve never liked Musk. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Twitter was ‘boosting’ liberal voices and shadowbanning conservatives Except they weren’t beyond a small handful of the absolute worst of the worst. Conservative voices simply are not popular outside of the right-wing echo chamber, because they’ve gone completely insane. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2949 "2023-01-30T01:27:36Z")
> [@BeepKillBeep](#): > > > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > > > Musk has his own kind of charm though, which the left loved until they discovered he didn’t belong to their tribe. > > Nope, I’ve never liked Musk. This. I went from knowing virtually nothing about Musk to reading the Ashley Vance biography and deciding that he was a major asshole. But his venture into Twitter opened up whole new levels of revelation. He’s a major asshole who has apparently lost his mind, and is in the process of losing his fortune, too. I’m sure he’ll survive as a very wealthy man because not even the worst kind of gross stupidity can make that kind of money disappear, but he’s definitely doing his best to drive Twitter into the ground. The best hope for Twitter is Elmo’s promise to fuck off and hopefully appoint someone competent to run the place. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2950 "2023-01-30T02:19:05Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Build constantly, ship often, be prepared to roll back and refactor when things go wrong, get feedback from customers, iterate. Wrong. Irate customers are not an inevitable part of agile. Rolling back software is a solution to mistakes, not an integral or inevitable part of agile. If you’re releasing software that’s so broken that you’re making customers irate and you have to roll it back, either: You haven’t accurately identified the small incremental value you want to deliver or, your testing process is fatally flawed. Rolling back released features represents wasted effort- the exact thing agile is designed to avoid. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2951 "2023-01-30T02:54:58Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > This sounds great. Is “be a genius in secret while looking like an idiot in public” also part of Musk’s management philosophy? I’m not being entirely facetious, I don’t know that much about the guy before the Twitter fiasco. Really, how do you explain his behavior? I can’t think of any other management genius who has behaved like this, so my inclination is to apply Occam’s Razor to the situation. I can still believe that he is a genius in a certain limited domain, but his public behavior certainly seems to place strict limits on the extent of that domain. For examples of Mr. Tweet’s past management and engineering idiocy, here’s a YouTuber who’s covered them often enough to have a seperate playlist for them: [Elon Musk-related - Adam Something](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf8qfSvZiyEsueKCRZXGeY1X-4fWNUWLq). Covers the Vegas Loop, the Dugout Loop, the Hyperloop, Starship Earth to Earth, the Tesla Semi, and the Mars Colony. All of which demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of practical engineering on behalf of Mr. Tweets. As a warning to poor Mr. Stone, Adam Something is a flaming leftist who has thought Musk was an idiot long before Twitter and ‘discovering that he didn’t belong to their tribe.’ ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2952 "2023-01-30T06:11:09Z")
Let’s see what some of Musk’s engineering colleagues say about his skills. From this Reddit thread, with sources to each statement: [https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/k1e0ta/evidence\_that\_musk\_is\_the\_chief\_engineer\_of\_spacex/](https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/k1e0ta/evidence_that_musk_is_the_chief_engineer_of_spacex/) > [@](#): > > Kevin Watson ([LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rkevinwatson/)) developed the avionics for Falcon 9 and Dragon. He previously managed the Advanced Computer Systems and Technologies Group within the Autonomous Systems Division at NASA’s Jet Propulsion laboratory. > > > Elon is brilliant. _He’s involved in just about everything_. He understands everything. If he asks you a question, you learn very quickly not to go give him a gut reaction. > > > > He wants answers that get down to the fundamental laws of physics. _One thing he understands really well is the physics of the rockets. He understands that like nobody else._ The stuff I have seen him do in his head is crazy. > > > > _He can get in discussions about flying a satellite and whether we can make the right orbit and deliver Dragon at the same time and solve all these equations in real time._ It’s amazing to watch the amount of knowledge he has accumulated over the years. Garret Reisman is another heavy hitter, both astronut and engineer. > [@](#): > > Garrett Reisman ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_Reisman), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrett-reisman-158ab730/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/astro_g_dogg)) is an engineer and former NASA astronaut. He joined SpaceX as a senior engineer working on astronaut safety and mission assurance. He was later promoted to director of crew operations. He left this position in May 2018 and is now a Senior Advisor. He also functions as Professor of Astronautical Engineering at University of Southern California. > > > “I first met Elon for my job interview,” Reisman told the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Today. “All he wanted to talk about were technical things. We talked a lot about different main propulsion system design architectures. > > > > “At the end of my interview, I said, ‘Hey, are you sure you want to hire me? You’ve already got an astronaut, so are you sure you need two around here?’ ” Reisman asked. “He looked at me and said, ‘I’m not hiring you because you’re an astronaut. I’m hiring you because you’re a good engineer.’ ” > > > > Managing SpaceX and Tesla, building out new businesses and maintaining relationships with his family makes Musk a busy billionaire. > > > > “He’s obviously skilled at all those different functions, but certainly what really drives him and where his passion really is, is his role as CTO,” or chief technology officer, Reisman said. “Basically his role as chief designer and chief engineer. That’s the part of the job that really plays to his strengths." > > ([Source](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/26/spacex-how-elon-musk-took-idea-cusp-history/5257977002/)) > > > What’s really remarkable to me is the breadth of his knowledge. I mean I’ve met a lot of super super smart people but they’re usually super super smart on one thing and he’s able to have conversations with our top engineers about the software, and the most arcane aspects of that and then he’ll turn to our manufacturing engineers and have discussions about some really esoteric welding process for some crazy alloy and he’ll just go back and forth and his ability to do that across the different technologies that go into rockets cars and everything else he does. Josh Boem: > [@](#): > > Josh Boehm ([LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshboehm/), [Quora](https://www.quora.com/profile/Josh-Boehm)) is the former Head of Software Quality Assurance at SpaceX. > > > Elon is both the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of SpaceX, so of course he does more than just ‘some very technical work’. He is integrally involved in the actual design and engineering of the rocket, and at least touches every other aspect of the business (but I would say the former takes up much more of his mental real estate). Elon is an engineer at heart, and that’s where and how he works best. > > ([Source](https://www.quora.com/Does-Elon-Musk-do-some-very-technical-work-code-design-etc-at-SpaceX/answer/Josh-Boehm?ch=10&share=8dc8bc2e&srid=Xuwj)) John Carmac:k > [@](#): > > John Carmack ([Twitter](https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack), [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carmack)) is a programmer, video game developer and engineer. He’s the founder of Armadillo Aerospace and current CTO of Oculus VR. > > > Elon is definitely an engineer. He is deeply involved with technical decisions at spacex and Tesla. He doesn’t write code or do CAD today, but he is perfectly capable of doing so. > > ([Source](https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1038832124747571200?s=19)) Bob Zubrin: > [@](#): > > Robert Zubrin ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Zubrin)) is an aerospace engineer and author, best known for his advocacy of human exploration of Mars. > > > When I met Elon it was apparent to me that although he had a scientific mind and he understood scientific principles, he did not know anything about rockets. Nothing. That was in 2001. _By 2007 he knew everything about rockets - he really knew everything, in detail. You have to put some serious study in to know as much about rockets as he knows now_. This doesn’t come just from hanging out with people. > > ([Source](https://www.wired.co.uk/article/whats-driving-elon-musk)) But sure, let’s go with some rando’s opinion on Youtube, rather than the engineers who worked with him. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2953 "2023-01-30T06:54:22Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Twitter was ‘boosting’ liberal voices and shadowbanning conservatives [Why Does **Sam\_Stone** tell this lie?](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/26/us/politics/twitter-shadowbanning.html) (This link may be behind a paywall.) _Poll ([view on site](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2953))_ ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2954 "2023-01-30T07:12:05Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > But sure, let’s go with some rando’s opinion on Youtube, rather than the engineers who worked with him. Okay, but as someone who is still somewhat open-minded about Elon’s skills, for me those quotes you gave are near meaningless. They are character references from people who worked with him - there’s no objective substance there, I have no way to know if these people are telling the truth. It’s argument from unknown authority. Whereas I have just watched the first 4 of the youtube videos that @Dissonance linked above - on Musk’s tunnels, Hyperloop and Starship Earth to Earth. Have you watched them? I have no idea who the guy is, but they are educational and informative, and explain clearly and factually why these ideas are ridiculous (maybe Hyperloop slightly less so than the others). Do you have any _factual_ rebuttal you can link to? ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2955 "2023-01-30T07:17:08Z")
Can you call yourself an engineer if you are elected to the National Academy of Engineering? > **[National Academy of Engineering Elects 111 Members and 22 International Members](https://www.nae.edu/?id=270224)** > > The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has elected 111 new members and 22 international members, announced NAE President John L. Anderson today. This ... > [@](#): > > **Musk, Elon Reeve,** founder, chief executive officer, and chief engineer, SpaceX, Hawthorne, Calif. For breakthroughs in the design, engineering, manufacturing, and operation of reusable launch vehicles and sustainable transportation and energy systems. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2956 "2023-01-30T08:01:57Z")
Just to be clear, the quotes below (the parts within quote marks) are quotes attributed to Elmo’s employees, helpfully provided by @Sam_Stone, but they aren’t from **Sam** directly. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Let’s see what some of Musk’s engineering colleagues say about his skills. From this Reddit thread, with sources to each statement: > > “Elon is brilliant … He understands everything.” Is this supposed to be an actual endorsement, or a comical parody? I’m imagining the engineer uttering that sentiment being on his knees with tears in his eyes, worshipping the genius of Elmo. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > “_One thing he understands really well is the physics of the rockets. He understands that like nobody else._” Like nobody else, ever! 😁 Does anyone need to wonder any more about the parallels often drawn between Elmo and Trump? > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > “The stuff I have seen him do in his head is crazy.” Now that one might be true. For all I know, he may be an _idiot savant_. The other side here is what we’ve _ **actually** _ witnessed Elmo do – in interviews, in his wild claims, in his behaviours, and most of all, in his decimation of Twitter, a once-functional organization that once had some semblance of social responsibility and managerial sanity. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2957 "2023-01-30T09:29:26Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > But sure, let’s go with some rando’s opinion on Youtube, rather than the engineers who worked with him. And I’m sure _none_ of those engineers were ever made to sign non-disparagement clauses or are worried about getting fired if they say something that bruises the Boy Emperor’s ego. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2958 "2023-01-30T09:31:54Z")
Rich boss praised in public by his employees - film at 11. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2959 "2023-01-30T11:23:54Z")
No, but you can elected for being CEO of a company that has produced some pretty cool rockets. I know you love resorting to sycophantic quotes of Musk’s genius, but as has been pointed out, they’re pretty over the top to the bottom of having clear and obvious falsehoods. All this proves is people like sucking up to a billionaire with very thin skin. Quelle surprise. Musk, when speaking on his own and not having somebody speak for him, doesn’t sound very bright. Why is that? Shouldn’t his genius be recognizable? I know when I speaking a genius (every morning in the mirror /s) I can tell. There’s a certainty that comes from listening to them that they definitely absolutely know what they’re talking about. I never get that sense from Musk. Ever. I mean the guy wanted to build a submarine too big for a hole. He “invented” the subway, but worse. He at a minimum okayed, if not designed, the escape hatches in Tesla’s being relatively inaccessible (an engineering genius should have noticed that this would be a problem). And of course we have the Cybertruck, which is so laughably poorly designed in both form (subjective) and function (objective) that no genius engineer would okay this. I actually expect that Musk may be responsible directly for a lot of the poor design of the Cybertruck. It reeks of form over function, and a look that is “futurey and cool” (citation needed) that would be on brand for Musk. Plus, let’s now forget his failures at PayPal at design, development, and leadership. And of course we have the very public failure at Twitter. You can post all the quotes from people all you like that may or may not be sucking up to Musk, but what really counts for me is where the rubber meets the road. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2960 "2023-01-30T11:44:18Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > the algorithm instead show me the same complete strangers, over and over again The patterns people report gives me the impression that ELoon tried to “fix” the algorithms to provide some affirmative action to the poor put-upon right-wingers, which worked slightly but mostly ended up breaking everything. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2961 "2023-01-30T11:52:57Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > After the video of the attack on Paul Pelosi, there were loads of tweets demanding that Elmo apologize to the Pelosi family. His only response was, “I did.” Not publicly, he didn’t. I can’t be arsed to find it again (see broken search), but he did tweet something along the lines of “that being said, I apologize”. Which is a quarter-assed apology stand-alone, but a little better in the thread. In addition, when Jenna Ellis (one of Trump’s “lawyers”) asked what he was apologizing for, he pointed to his JAQ post, so I think that counts. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2962 "2023-01-30T12:06:43Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Musk has his own kind of charm though, which the left loved until they discovered he didn’t belong to their tribe. This is ridiculous. Let’s try rephrasing it. Musk advocates for issues that most folks on the left advocate for, such as reducing climate change, and so many folks on the left appreciated him; but when he started acting in ways that many on the left found destructive to issues they advocated for, many folks on the left appreciated him less. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/2963 "2023-01-30T12:15:34Z")
The right (apparently including Sam) tend to think in tribal terms and assume that others do too. When others don’t, they declare this to be evidence of hypocrisy rather than consider that the assumption they’ve based this conclusion on is fundamentally wrong. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442.md?page=147) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442.md?page=149)