# Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter - now the Pit edition (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** elon-musk\ **Created:** [August 13, 2024, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634 "2024-08-13T00:48:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 91
**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:** [February 27, 2025, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1822 "2025-02-27T07:04:11Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > It’s _so_ easy to look at their results and be like, surely I could do better, and the answer is just a flat out no. You can’t scarcely imagine it but you would be 1000x worse than all of those people to such an amazing extent. I’d probably be terrible because I have zero interest in business management and greed is not my strong point. But that wasn’t my point. My point, in my most recent post, was that quite a large number of ordinary people **would** be capable of doing those jobs. How do I know this? Because they’ve done it. To wit: > [@wolfpup](#): > > If the skills of a CEO are so awesomely rare and extraordinary that they deserve to pull in tens of millions per year, then how come all these guys who founded small startups were still able to successfully manage them when they became giant corporations? Some incredible coincidence? > [@Shalmanese](#): > > Again, if anyone made this claim in any other arena of skill, the _community_ consensus would heap ridicule and scorn on that person for how out of touch they are. > … > Again, I want to point to the specific claim I’m refuting here which is that it’s “unknowable” whether any of us could have built Tesla or SpaceX. It’s not, it’s as knowable as the results of throwing a random person in the cockpit of an airliner or asking them to write a scientific paper. This is begging the question. The argument that some of us have advanced is that it takes no great, specialized, or magical skill to manage a large business (beyond obviously a good knowledge of the business itself) and have provided evidence for that fact. Simply asserting that “of course it does, therefore your’re wrong” doesn’t advance your argument, and neither do your flawed analogies. Flying an airliner takes a great deal of training, running a business can obviously be self-taught to most folks, and while running a large corporation is obviously different than running a small business, we also know that it can be successfully self-taught at each step of the way as the business grows. I can also give you an example of a major failure of some of those “skills” that you seem to be championing. I once worked for a small-ish tech company whose owner, as the company grew, came up with the idea that the company’s tech development efforts should be comparmentalized into separate departments (nothing wrong with that) and that each department should be headed up by an MBA – a graduate of a business school, trained in those very “skills” you value so much. The MBAs knew nothing about the business or the particular technology they were overseeing, and had little interest in it. The whole thing was a colossal flop and was abandoned within a year. I’m surprised it lasted that long. What this company needed was innovators at all levels, not freaking business school graduates. ---
**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:** [February 27, 2025, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1823 "2025-02-27T20:49:12Z")
[![](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:lzcbpquo423usgnfqyujjazu/bafkreicb6qfn27koqt3ne66pikgfnejajksr4qthgukncayd2mkiqqbjwu@jpeg) ](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:lzcbpquo423usgnfqyujjazu/bafkreicb6qfn27koqt3ne66pikgfnejajksr4qthgukncayd2mkiqqbjwu@jpeg) Someone wanna tell this idiot there’s a reason there aren’t any 60-year-old ATCs? ---
**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:** [February 28, 2025, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1824 "2025-02-28T01:23:05Z")
A tale of two tweets [![](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:t4x2ruk2qmob2b2cx55h4v7r/bafkreigwwh25p6chz4ugb6zjc3zomte7lbt6z7qydnfwbdt4stjd3zrtue@jpeg) ](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:t4x2ruk2qmob2b2cx55h4v7r/bafkreigwwh25p6chz4ugb6zjc3zomte7lbt6z7qydnfwbdt4stjd3zrtue@jpeg) [![](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jkj7qm4o4kwjbk6geoatopu3/bafkreibmzfamvqkeozp7ti6zmzehty4kwzaq7u2tu7fbqde3lpuxm2233q@jpeg) ](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jkj7qm4o4kwjbk6geoatopu3/bafkreibmzfamvqkeozp7ti6zmzehty4kwzaq7u2tu7fbqde3lpuxm2233q@jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1825 "2025-03-01T06:53:49Z")
Related to the Eloon hatchet job at NOAA. [![](https://images.spot.im/image/upload/q_70,fl_lossy,dpr_3,h_96,w_100,c_scale/v200/45910a72-dfb2-41b1-b4be-8077d20e8e2d) ](https://images.spot.im/image/upload/q_70,fl_lossy,dpr_3,h_96,w_100,c_scale/v200/45910a72-dfb2-41b1-b4be-8077d20e8e2d) ---
**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:** [March 2, 2025, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1826 "2025-03-02T08:17:07Z")
Karl Jobst, a Youtuber who covers cheating and fraud in the world of competitive video gaming (he got Billy Mitchell stripped of the Donkey Kong records he cheated to achieve, for example) has a video out about Elmo’s paying people to play Diablo for him and other gaming shenanigans. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/z1ykCc588Zw/maxresdefault.jpg "The Elon Musk Cheating Scandal") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ykCc588Zw) ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1827 "2025-03-02T23:00:01Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Elmo’s gonna get a Delta flight full of Texans fans on their way back from an away game shot down by the Air Force. As you’ve quoted him already (but applies here, too): > [@](#): > > We will make mistakes, we won’t be perfect Alrighty, then! On DOGE being so sterling an example of Trump’s wise leadership (in appointing Elon): > [@](#): > > … Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has made more inflated savings claims on its digital “wall of receipts.” > > Tuesday’s update to the federal website included inaccurate data … The White House has not responded to multiple requests over the last two weeks to explain the DOGE savings process, why changes have been made to the data, or if they are concerned about an official government data source sharing inaccurate information. … > **[DOGE's savings page fixed old mistakes — and added new ones](https://www.npr.org/2025/03/01/nx-s1-5313853/doge-savings-receipts-musk-trump)** > > An NPR review of new data added to DOGE's "wall of receipts" finds the group quietly changed previous errors, added new ones and still has little verified savings to show for its work. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1828 "2025-03-03T15:09:17Z")
Not sure if fraudsters should be pointing fingers about “ponzi schemes” > **[Elon Musk Calls Social Security 'The Biggest Ponzi Scheme Of All Time'](https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-calls-social-security-212613265.html)** > > The tech billionaire argued Friday on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast that one of America's most enduring social safety nets is an insidious ploy. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1829 "2025-03-03T15:14:34Z")
Anybody who isn’t a moron knows how SS works. That means Trump will be shocked and I await him letting us all in on this secret that “nobody knows.” It’s an insidious ploy to take money from productive workers and give it to old ladies so they don’t have to eat cat food for lunch. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1830 "2025-03-03T15:22:58Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Anybody who isn’t a moron knows how SS works. I’d be willing to bet the average person doesn’t know how SS works. That doesn’t make your statement untrue, but I can think of a number of people, including my parents, who would not be able to tell you the basic outline of it. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1831 "2025-03-03T15:49:25Z")
I would guess the type of people who don’t understand how SS works are the type of people who are convinced that Musk will scrap SS and replace it with something which costs nothing and gives even more benefits. When they eventually lose SS and end up with no benefits at all, they’ll blame the Biden somehow. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1832 "2025-03-03T19:02:46Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > > [@Cheesesteak](#): > > > > Anybody who isn’t a moron knows how SS works. > > I’d be willing to bet the average person doesn’t know how SS works. That doesn’t make your statement untrue, but I can think of a number of people, including my parents, who would not be able to tell you the basic outline of it. The fact that low to middle income Trump voters in LCOL areas thought they’d see any benefit from “No Taxes on Social Security” goes to show that they don’t fully understand how it works. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1833 "2025-03-03T22:52:11Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Not sure if fraudsters should be pointing fingers about “ponzi schemes” This is from last year but it’s a good rebuttal to “Ponzi scheme” claims. [https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2024/12/04/dissecting-a-gop-senators-misleading-social-security-attack/](https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2024/12/04/dissecting-a-gop-senators-misleading-social-security-attack/) The ironic line in it to me: > If billionaires like Elon Musk paid into Social Security at the same rate as the rest of us on all of their income, we could expand benefits for everyone and pay them in full forever. ---
**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:** [March 3, 2025, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1834 "2025-03-03T23:02:20Z")
TSLA is down another 3% today, which has now pretty much wiped out the post-election bump they got. Let’s hope it keeps dropping. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1835 "2025-03-04T04:37:00Z")
What is [18f](https://18f.org/)? And why is the head DOGEbag [so sure](https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-week-ahead-cff) we will be fine without them? ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1836 "2025-03-06T20:14:46Z")
I maintain that Musk is an organizational genius, based upon his performance at Paypal _and_ Tesla _and_ SpaceX. It’s very rare to have a serial succeeder. Is he great manager? No. Is he a turnaround artist? No. Could he do I good job as bog standard S&P 500 CEO? I very much doubt it. Musk has a strong skill set, but it’s narrow. If he didn’t have such a exceptional skill set, there would be many more people with an analogous track record. There are not, so he is. Unless you think that not many people want to make oodles of money. Theil isn’t in the same league. It’s obviously very dangerous to have a person with poor impulse control running the country, and I’m not just talking about Elon Musk. Trump is the same way. Anyway, the Musk bubble appears to be popping. Bloomberg: > While Elon Musk is busy in Washington, his publicly traded company has been suffering. Having skyrocketed in the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump’s election, Tesla is now [in free fall](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2025-02-28/tumbling-tesla-shares-start-to-worry-investors-video) and increasingly a target of protesters. Every weekend, more people have shown up at Tesla dealerships across the US with signs and chants, demonstrating against Musk’s effort to gut federal regulators and agencies while firing tens of thousands or workers with Trump’s blessing. Overseas, it might be even worse for the carmaker: Tesla sales [have collapsed in Europe](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-25/tesla-market-value-slips-below-1-trillion-as-europe-sales-sink). Maybe betting on Trump boosting Musk’s companies wasn’t the smartest move for investors after all? The remainder few paragraphs are pretty ugly. Gifted article, good for 7 days. [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-04/podcast-how-tesla-became-elon-musk-s-collateral-damage?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc0MTI5MTg4OSwiZXhwIjoxNzQxODk2Njg5LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTU01CTkVUMEFGQjQwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiI3RUU0QUE0NTMyMEM0Mjk0QTBDQTNBODJERUQyQ0YyOSJ9.acf4PMr1MkrAwzdjmVrNuuMB\_BudctW3f72I-4-7aWU](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-04/podcast-how-tesla-became-elon-musk-s-collateral-damage?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc0MTI5MTg4OSwiZXhwIjoxNzQxODk2Njg5LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTU01CTkVUMEFGQjQwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiI3RUU0QUE0NTMyMEM0Mjk0QTBDQTNBODJERUQyQ0YyOSJ9.acf4PMr1MkrAwzdjmVrNuuMB_BudctW3f72I-4-7aWU) ---
**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:** [March 6, 2025, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1837 "2025-03-06T20:17:31Z")
The Intercept has found and published Elmo’s work email. > **[We Found Elon Musk’s DOGE Email Address and We’re Fighting to Reveal His...](https://theintercept.com/2025/03/06/elon-musk-doge-email-address-foia/)** > > The Intercept is publishing Elon Musk’s government email address to aid those seeking information on DOGE in the public interest. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1838 "2025-03-06T20:23:44Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > I maintain that Musk is an organizational genius, based upon his performance at Paypal _and_ Tesla _and_ SpaceX. I’ll counter with Neuralink and the Boring Company and Twitter. The ‘genius’ in those earlier companies (and it’s no accident those came earlier) is that he did not try as hard to look like a genius of that sort. He partnered with the right people to do the actual running and organizing of things and mainly handled the cheerleading and fundraising end of things. Even the motivational part, at least for some people. And I’ll admit he was (maybe still is? when he’s not really high) perhaps a genius at that side of things. Now, for whatever narcissistic reasons, he wants to ALSO be seen (not really ‘be’ but ‘seen’) as a genius as a hands-on CEO and as an engineer/scientist/programmer. And he’s not good at that part. Not at all. If he really wanted to cement any sort of legacy, he’d have let himself remain a figurehead CEO while his quite apparently willing flunkies - like Gwynne Shotwell at SpaceX - did the real day to day stuff. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1839 "2025-03-06T20:29:42Z")
People like Musk, Trump, and Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos) have some weird ability to get people to believe in their ideas and invest massive amounts of money in their companies regardless of the feasibility of their ideas. Regardless of whether or not they should be admired for that ability, the fact is that being able to raise large amounts of money is one of the main aspects to having a successful business. Even though I think Musk is an moron, he’d be a great person to bring on board to raise money for a company over a typical smart person. Many companies have great people but can’t generate sufficient cash flow to stay in business. With someone like Musk raising money, the cash would be flowing in and be able to keep the business running until it could become self sufficient. Many companies have massive failures on their path to success. Consider a company like Apple. It had massive failures with the Lisa and NeXT computers. Or even Apple computers in the 90’s. Apple was on it’s way to failure when they turned things around with the iPod and iPhone. Failures are to be expected. The ability to keep the cash flowing regardless of the failures is what helps make a business successful. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1840 "2025-03-06T20:29:48Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > I’ll counter with Neuralink and the Boring Company and Twitter. Hey, no fair cherry picking his failures. It’s only OK to cherry pick his successes. And cherry pick the times when those successes were actually successes. If Tesla is having issues now, surely it’s not because Musk did something non-genius, right? ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1841 "2025-03-06T20:32:49Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > With someone like Musk raising money, the cash would be flowing in and be able to keep the business running until it could become self sufficient. Of course. But he got high on his own supply. It’s like Trump. If he just wanted to have the title of President and goof off all day while other people did the work, he could have. But he also can’t stand being seen as a figurehead puppet while others are the “real” brains. Musk is the same way. He has to be “the” genius behind the companies or nobody can be. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634.md?page=90) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634.md?page=92)