this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
1219 points (96.0% liked)

Technology

34977 readers
112 users here now

This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.


Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.


Rules:

1: All Lemmy rules apply

2: Do not post low effort posts

3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff

4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.

5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)

6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist

7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The awesome Taylor Lorenz reports this on Mastadon. Highly recommend to follow her if you like these updates about what's going on.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 307 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

That man is repeatedly showing the world how stupid he actually is and how little he actually understands about running a company. He has never been in a situation like this where he wasn't surrounded by a bunch of people playing babysitter and doing all the leg work to try to actually get his shit ideas to work. IIRC I saw somewhere this morning that he hadn't even figured out what to call tweets and retweets, he really hadn't thought any further than changing the logo and repeating the same lame idea he had 30 years ago.

ABAM (All Billionaires Are Morons)

[–] [email protected] 121 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Or all billionaires are scum who have written the laws and ensured that the fine for this is no more than an annoyance and removing the sign without a permit was a worthwhile risk and the right call to make.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This guy gets it.

I think "all billionaires are scum" is perhaps too harsh, but it's far closer to the truth than the views of society at large.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You cannot become a billionaire without being a scummy person.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Rowling became a billionaire by writing popular books and selling the movie rights. She's a scummy person, obviously, but she didn't become rich by being one.

[–] priapus 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Yeah you definitely can become a billionaire without being a scummy person, just not trough business. You need to be an artist or athlete.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Definitely not going to be a CEO without being a piece of shit. You need that lack of ethics to make it that high.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can literally start your own company and assign yourself CEO. It's probably all of a filing fee away. It's easy to become a C-suite.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are you saying it’s easy to become scummy?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It's always been easy for people to be scummy. It just happens to also be easy to be a CEO of a company that does nothing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Which means you're born into a weird sociopathic upbringing. Very fee born into wealth see any issues with it and even then, it tends to be short lived. One of the Johnson and Johnson heirs put out a documentary, but not much after that.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

As you say, she's a scummy person, so you have no way of knowing that she only became a billionaire because of the books.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Most of the Harry Potter stories are stolen/copies of either existing young adult novels or existing mythology. There's very little original material or concepts. All writers borrow from other writers, but Rowling is just barely better than a plagiarist.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Rowling became a billionaire

Google says her net worth is £820 million. Not a billoonarrr.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Too harsh? Can you name one that isn't?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm pretty sure that future billionaire me seems like a cool guy, I'm totally not biased.

Eat the rich, except if I become rich, then I'm exempt because I am a honorary proletariat

/s but seriously tho, if anyone becomes a billionaire, they'll soon get corrupted by the wealth

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You don't become a billionaire without exploiting so many people and then hording those riches to yourself. You've already been corrupted by that point.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

You could exploit other billionaires, but that seems like the one thing you can go to jail for.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

A horde would come after their hoard of riches

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think for most people, they become an asshole on the way to becoming a billionaire. You don't make that kind of money without exploitation and plundering. The only exception I could think of would be if they inherited the money. And even so, if you inherit that kind of money and don't give out a good chunk of it, you're still scum imo.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

IIRC I saw somewhere this morning that he hadn’t even figured out what to call tweets and retweets

Obviously Tweet -> Xeet 💩

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Using the sino-X, pronounced “Sh”

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

...pronounced Faaht.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Yeets and re-Yeets actually make sense for outgoing messages.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

ABAM (All Billionaires Are Morons)

Bill Gates is actually a very smart, and nowadays even pleasant, man.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

He has not always been pleasant. Don't fall for the post-retirement PR spin

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Nowadays even pleasant" clearly implies he wasn't always pleasant though.

[–] priapus 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's easy to act pleasant when you no longer have anything to gain from being awful

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You say that, but look at the cadre of billionaires who no longer have anything to gain from being awful… but still are.

Old habits die hard?

[–] priapus 1 points 1 year ago

That is a good point. I think most of them are just plain awful people who enjoy causing negatively influencing the world, while others are only awful when it benefits them.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He is the best billionaire. That may not be a high bar, but it's something. If Elon Musk decided to retire and cure Malaria like Bill did (or maybe even just get back to space exploration or autonomous driving as he was doing before his Twitter craze, hopefully without fucking other people over?) I wouldn't mind him as much

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Most of Bill’s philanthropy was due completely to Melinda.

I’m watching with interest what new things he does now that he’s on his own.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'll take a horrible billionaire investing in malaria research over a manchild billionaire obsessed with naming everything X.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

You do realise it was Bill Gates who made the creators of the Oxford Astra Zeneca Vaccine make it paid and keep the methods of producing it hidden? Their original plan was to make the methods of production public, so that Governments could set up their own labs to produce more of it and save lives. There were many deaths that could have been prevented if it wasn't for this terrible human being.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I think we need to read between the lines here.

I honestly think he's intentionally driving Twitter into the ground. Thing is he can't just fire everyone and shut down the servers or he won't get the tax write-off. He's burying Twitter in a way that maintains tax status. So in a way that's smart, but also stupid he spent what he did only out of spite.

What he's doing to Twitter is like a jumbo jet pilot that commits suicide by crashing the plane (that's actually happened). Why do you need to take all those innocent people with you. Just go jump off a building, same end without killing a bunch of innocents.

Really his destruction of the platform is about control, he has some kind of personal beef with Twitter so he used his power and money to kill the whole thing. He's taking his bat and ball and going home.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is actually hilarious. It didn't occur to me that rebranding should also concern stuff like "tweets", mostly because I've never used twitter, but I'm really looking forward to what he will come up with for those terms.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

He has pretty much always been almost a caricature of a horrible boss.