Editor’s note: This piece was written and published before Elon Musk changed the price of Twitter Blue to $8/month. I have updated the post with a little bit about my thoughts about his additions to Twitter Blue. It doesn't fundamentally change this piece, thankfully. I’ve gone into more detail below, but every single problem that charging $20 a month has transfers right over to charging $8 a month, because charging for verification is a terrible idea.
Keep it up Ed! You provide a level of insight into value of Twitter here that is sorely missing from the average nitwit wallstreet analyst. Your coverage of the clusterzuck that is Meta has been equally fantastic for similar reasons. Analysts so often get horrifically bogged down in the quant side of things they forget to step back and ponder the question of Wtf the company is even trying to accomplish, if it is technically possible, and if any actual human wants it at all let alone pay for it. Seeing someone intelligently layout and answer some of these questions is very refreshing.
I really enjoyed this article. Your style of writing is amazing - it’s entertaining while still being informative. Thanks for making this substack free - I’m a student and wouldn’t have been able to afford an actual subscription, so I’m really grateful to be able to read it! By the way, Musk is totally a “chaotic evil” on the moral alignment chart.
I don't think it was the worst idea to start canning middle managers and employees who don't commit any code. Other than that, working for Musk seems to be a nightmare given how often he changes his mind - based on other people's tweets no less. Must be like working for Donald Trump.
The irony of it all is, Musk has essentially made it so he can't tweet in the way he used to. Now that he's the owner, *all* of his tweets automatically become associated with Twitter the company and are therefore subject to advertiser scrutiny (as an example look at his recent conspiracy theory tweet that he had to delete). It's sort of funny that person who is so terminally addicted to Twitter would do the one thing that would make Twitter impossible to use.
Ed, I know you are a proponent of the sheer shitposting value of Twitter and I agree. I mean the book of dril tweets is sitting here on the shelf next to me. But as someone who has hated Twitter for a decade in reaction to all the dumb shit it did wrong, all the idiots it radicalized, and the horrible president it persistently and shamelessly enabled, the last week has been absolutely tremendous.
Keep it up Ed! You provide a level of insight into value of Twitter here that is sorely missing from the average nitwit wallstreet analyst. Your coverage of the clusterzuck that is Meta has been equally fantastic for similar reasons. Analysts so often get horrifically bogged down in the quant side of things they forget to step back and ponder the question of Wtf the company is even trying to accomplish, if it is technically possible, and if any actual human wants it at all let alone pay for it. Seeing someone intelligently layout and answer some of these questions is very refreshing.
I really enjoyed this article. Your style of writing is amazing - it’s entertaining while still being informative. Thanks for making this substack free - I’m a student and wouldn’t have been able to afford an actual subscription, so I’m really grateful to be able to read it! By the way, Musk is totally a “chaotic evil” on the moral alignment chart.
"Lords and Peasants" should be right up there with "Nigerian prince" in the list of scam techniques to filter out the suckers. And sycophants.
I don't think it was the worst idea to start canning middle managers and employees who don't commit any code. Other than that, working for Musk seems to be a nightmare given how often he changes his mind - based on other people's tweets no less. Must be like working for Donald Trump.
The irony of it all is, Musk has essentially made it so he can't tweet in the way he used to. Now that he's the owner, *all* of his tweets automatically become associated with Twitter the company and are therefore subject to advertiser scrutiny (as an example look at his recent conspiracy theory tweet that he had to delete). It's sort of funny that person who is so terminally addicted to Twitter would do the one thing that would make Twitter impossible to use.
Ed, I know you are a proponent of the sheer shitposting value of Twitter and I agree. I mean the book of dril tweets is sitting here on the shelf next to me. But as someone who has hated Twitter for a decade in reaction to all the dumb shit it did wrong, all the idiots it radicalized, and the horrible president it persistently and shamelessly enabled, the last week has been absolutely tremendous.