More Evidence Elon Musk is Losing His Flippin’ Mind

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DaHabes said:
Resulting in his no longer being "the richest man alive"....
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ThirstyBarbarian said:
Correct. He’s fallen down the list a ways.
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Tyeeking said:
LOL. Exaggeration much? He dropped from number 1 to number 2 on the Forbes and other lists.
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ThirstyBarbarian said:
Really? I thought he had slipped down to number 7 or something. Maybe he just looks like number 7.
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rocket_troy said:
Forbes say #2, although can't imagine Arnault sending any silver medals over... but... who knows...:dontknow:
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"Tesla shares have surged 74% this year, especially following the company’s price cuts to its entire electric vehicle lineup. Tesla shares ended Wednesday’s trading up 2.38%, pushing the company’s market cap to $677.87 billion. With this, Elon Musk’s net worth reached $191 billion, just $1 billion shy of Bernard Arnault’s $192 billion net worth."

https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-worlds-richest-person-again/
https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/
 
Savvy businessman...wth is that?

Musk is a disruptor who gains the confidence of people who have gobs of capital. Nice place to be.

How many families do Elon's enterprises directly support? How many families to his distractors directly support?
 
There’s a lot of hatred/jealousy and hypocrisy in this thread.

“I’m upset that he dared try and do something with a company that I didn’t think he should do, and he’s LOSING MONEY! Let’s hate him!”

“I’m upset that he dares to make an evil PROFIT with his car company, and he’s MAKING MONEY! Let’s hate him!”

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Hundreds of companies shadow-banned and de-monetized......no reporting. Elon Musk (CEO, Owner) boosts his tweets....front page news. If you thought it was fine for Twitter to remove and shadow ban people/organization and to cooperate with federal agencies in doing so, then you have no ground to complain about Musk's behavior. The people who've lost their mind (and their way) here is the mainstream press, for its failure to cover what now has been exposed as the direct action of Musk. Liberty dies when corruption is not exposed.
 
jderimig said:
Twitter produce 99.9% of the content. Users just type characters in a box. Twiltter formats it, puts in electronic form and distributes it. No different than your local TV or radio music stations. Paramount is a media company who buys the creative work of others, packages it, distributes it and profits on that service. Twitter profits on the number of eyeballs that is viewing the content which it enables to be viewed. A media company.

Also news networks do not create the source content the world does that. But news network can select, highlight, suppress or shape how that content is delivered. Much like Twitter did before the Musk purchase. A media company.
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They are different, and you know it. And if I’m wrong about you knowing it, I’m not going to get dragged off on a side topic to explain it to you. Just think about it for a minute or two and you will figure it out.
 
jderimig said:
Twitter produce 99.9% of the content. Users just type characters in a box. Twiltter formats it, puts in electronic form and distributes it. No different than your local TV or radio music stations. Paramount is a media company who buys the creative work of others, packages it, distributes it and profits on that service. Twitter profits on the number of eyeballs that is viewing the content which it enables to be viewed. A media company.

Also news networks do not create the source content the world does that. But news network can select, highlight, suppress or shape how that content is delivered. Much like Twitter did before the Musk purchase. A media company.
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Poe's Law: Without a clear indicator of the author's intent, any parody of extreme views can be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of the views being parodied.

I'm kinda stuck here. On the one hand, this is a clear statement, sincerely expressed, completely consistent with the author's other views.

On the other hand, it's so ridiculous, it beggars belief that it's sincerely meant and not a parody. Your argument is that in the screenshot below, 99.9% of the content is provided by TRF*. That's the stuff in the green area. The stuff in the red box is 0.1% of the content, something a user "just typed into a box." It's like saying that 99.9% of a meal is the plate and silverware and the rest is just a little stuff that someone threw together.

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Do you really think that we would all keep coming back if TRF just gave us the stuff in the green box and nothing in the red box on every post here? Of course we wouldn't. We generate the content that TRF uses to stay in business. That's the key difference between TRF/Twitter and Paramount. Paramount pays people to create content. Twitter and TRF get all of that for free (with the possible exception of people who get a share of ad revenue--don't know if Twitter uses that model or not). TRF and Twitter depend on people wanting to come here and share their thoughts and other people wanting to visit and see those thoughts. If Twitter changes so that people don't want to be associated with it on either side of that equation, it collapses.

* Strictly speaking, TRF doesn't even provide everything in the green box. There's a fair amount of user-generated content there, but you get my drift.
 
ep29030 said:
Hundreds of companies shadow-banned and de-monetized......no reporting. Elon Musk (CEO, Owner) boosts his tweets....front page news. If you thought it was fine for Twitter to remove and shadow ban people/organization and to cooperate with federal agencies in doing so, then you have no ground to complain about Musk's behavior. The people who've lost their mind (and their way) here is the mainstream press, for its failure to cover what now has been exposed as the direct action of Musk. Liberty dies when corruption is not exposed.
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Sure, Musk can do whatever he wants on his platform. We also get to point out his blatant hypocrisy.
 
samb said:
It’s hard when you realize all heroes have feet of clay.
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I think that’s what is happening here for me. Like I’ve said many times, I’ve had a lot of admiration for him and what he’s accomplished, and I still do, but it’s really disappointing to see him turn into a petty troll. I guess I expected more. This weird episode about changing the Twitter algorithm to boost his own tweets seems beneath the person I thought he was. Everything he’s done with Twitter seems like a petty distraction for someone with the kinds of ambitions I thought he had.
 
ep29030 said:
Hundreds of companies shadow-banned and de-monetized......no reporting. Elon Musk (CEO, Owner) boosts his tweets....front page news. If you thought it was fine for Twitter to remove and shadow ban people/organization and to cooperate with federal agencies in doing so, then you have no ground to complain about Musk's behavior. The people who've lost their mind (and their way) here is the mainstream press, for its failure to cover what now has been exposed as the direct action of Musk. Liberty dies when corruption is not exposed.
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Wasn’t there a congressional hearing on this last week, and it was pretty much a big nothingburger?
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
Wasn’t there a congressional hearing on this last week, and it was pretty much a big nothingburger?
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Oh, I'm done with the whole mess of them. We should be seeing alot of court hearings, not congressional ones. People should be tried for falsifying information given to courts, for keeping classified documents, and more. It's like nobody inside the beltway is required to follow laws anymore. Even if they aren't convicted, make them defend themselves in court. That would be a great use of my tax money, esp. compared to all the other ways it's spent now. Trials might not convict them, but they will think twice if they know they'll end up in court. As is, they are rewarded for bad behavior.
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
Correct. That was kind of my point. It started as one pretty harmless and trivial thing and has evolved into something completely different.
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I don't think the migration of youth into, or out of, Twitter (or Facebook before that) had anything at all to do with management or corporate direction. They tried it because it was new and popular, then moved on once their parents started using it. It was MySpace, then Facebook, then Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok, etc.

It's more about popularity, fads, finding your place in the world, trying to feel as if you are unique and different, and short attention spans.
 
Bravo52 said:
You don't get to be the "richest man alive" by having a "screwed up head". I think he'll come out of twitter richer by likely going public with it. Once he finds the right person to run it, he can just sit back and soak up all the dineros. I wonder if he convinced Congress to get rid of TikTok, a pseudo competitor... 🤔
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I disagree. You must be screwed up in the head to become the richest man in the world.
 
ep29030 said:
Oh, I'm done with the whole mess of them. We should be seeing alot of court hearings, not congressional ones. People should be tried for falsifying information given to courts, for keeping classified documents, and more. It's like nobody inside the beltway is required to follow laws anymore. Even if they aren't convicted, make them defend themselves in court. That would be a great use of my tax money, esp. compared to all the other ways it's spent now. Trials might not convict them, but they will think twice if they know they'll end up in court. As is, they are rewarded for bad behavior.
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Usually courts should be for bringing winnable legal cases, not for using the legal system to harass people with un-winnable or frivolous cases.
 
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My Grandpa was in a trucking union and was able to comfortably feed 5 children and a stay at home mother. He retired around 65 and lived comfortably for 20 years off of his pension and social security. One of the last things he told me a few months ago, well into his deathbed, was "If it wasn't for the union I would be working right now". Now I see us struggle whenever there is a 2 dollar price increase in Aerotech motors and chicken eggs. This article was released today. Another reason to the list. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/business/tesla-buffalo-union.html
 
Funkworks said:
Not sure what this means. Surely you and all governments do wish for a company to be profitable. When I rented a Model 3, it never took more than 30 min to charge 185 miles with a supercharger. You can try it for yourself with www.turo.com.
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It means a couple of things but specifically to this post, it is a means Tesla will make more profit. One of the major problems with EVs now is access to reliable power when you need it. Being at home in your garage is one thing, being on the road to granny's house is a whole different story. Especially when it's cold. The less time Tesla has those stations sitting idle, the more profit for them. It's a smart thing to open it up to all users. Clearly at some point, there will be a "crossing of the curves" and Tesla owners will complain they had to wait for a spot in line because of all those cheap Chevy Volts were hogging up the chargers.

The other issue is that it takes time. X times more than filling up a tank of Exxon's finest blend. At this point, Liquid fuel gives you more "impulse" for what you have to put into it. I'm positive that will change over time in both culture and physics. However, in the meantime, you still have to wait 30 min to charge...
 
georgegassaway said:
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I don't think Greg Gutfeld or any of the other 4 above Coldbert have Musk blocked. It is funny though.
 
samb said:
It’s hard when you realize all heroes have feet of clay.
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"Hero" doesn't mean what it used to. Musk is not a "hero", he serves as an example. Good for some, not good for others. People who base their identity on anyone but themselves have bigger issues than muddy feet.
 
Bravo52 said:
It means a couple of things but specifically to this post, it is a means Tesla will make more profit. One of the major problems with EVs now is access to reliable power when you need it. Being at home in your garage is one thing, being on the road to granny's house is a whole different story. Especially when it's cold. The less time Tesla has those stations sitting idle, the more profit for them. It's a smart thing to open it up to all users. Clearly at some point, there will be a "crossing of the curves" and Tesla owners will complain they had to wait for a spot in line because of all those cheap Chevy Volts were hogging up the chargers.

The other issue is that it takes time. X times more than filling up a tank of Exxon's finest blend. At this point, Liquid fuel gives you more "impulse" for what you have to put into it. I'm positive that will change over time in both culture and physics. However, in the meantime, you still have to wait 30 min to charge...
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Looks like a win-win to me. More chargers for everyone, more income for Tesla. If you're off to see Grandma 400 miles away, the kids will love a 30-min rest out of the car. People also need to charge.
 
Funkworks said:
Looks like a win-win to me. More chargers for everyone, more income for Tesla. If you're off to see Grandma 400 miles away, the kids will love a 30-min rest out of the car. People also need to charge.
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That's the "culture" part. Over time, it will change to be more accepting. Hope Grandma has spotted you some cash for the Model S. It's the only one that gets "400 miles". Still that's pretty good and 400 miles is a long way to go without a potty break.
 
Bravo52 said:
That's the "culture" part. Over time, it will change to be more accepting. Hope Grandma has spotted you some cash for the Model S. It's the only one that gets "400 miles". Still that's pretty good and 400 miles is a long way to go without a potty break.
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My scenario assumes a 200 mile range with a 30-min charge midway, which is possible with most EVs. That's not a big deal on the occasional road trip.

With a 400-mile range, you won't need to charge the car, but maybe the kids.
 
The people I know with electric cars seldom charge at a public station. They charge at home where it’s cheaper, and the charging speed doesn’t matter much because you can let it go overnight. They use the public chargers for long trips, and usually combine that with a bathroom break, stretching the legs, and maybe a snack. I have one friend who does at least a few road trips a year, and he likes to map out the stops in advance so that he knows what snack he’s getting—first stop near a Starbucks, next stop next to In-n-Out, last stop next to an ice cream place, etc.

More chargers is definitely a good thing. I think Tesla had been reluctant to open up their charging network to other brands of cars. I’m not sure why. But it’s good news for everyone that they will be opening them up.
 
So I decided to do a back-of-the-envelope run of Twitter's numbers per and post takeover. We don't really have any idea of the finances, but we do know that ~80% of the staff are gone and ad revenue is down ~35%. I dropped all expenses except "General" by 80% to account for loss of staff. General I kept at 40% because the costs of maintaining data centers aren't going away, and it wasn't clear where else that cost would go. Revenue was down 35% across the board, and I added in a stab at revenue for the verified check marks. It turns out that even if every currently verified user signs up at $8/month (round to $100/year), it's practically a rounding error. Not every verified user will stay signed up, but some others will sign on.

I was kind of surprised that it all penciled out to a positive cash flow. Right up until you count the $1.5B/year in debt service from the purchase. That really bites into profits. So by those numbers, the company went from being 10% in the red to ... being 6% in the red. Also hanging in the wings are potential EU fines if Twitter can't keep moderation up to EU standards. Those fines go up to 6% of global revenue, so they'll hurt if they hit too. Note that Twitter reportedly has only ~20 human moderators left, so it might be hard to satisfy the EU.

Note that these are really rough numbers. They're probably not unreasonable, though. It's hard to see how Twitter will get to profitability without either bringing back advertisers in large numbers or massively expanding revenue from the blue checks. The latter seems pretty far-fetched at current user levels.

Numbers in $millions. Data sources in links below.
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https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReports/PDF/NYSE_TWTR_2021.pdfhttps://www.reuters.com/technology/...rtising-revenue-final-months-2022-2023-01-19/https://www.statista.com/chart/28633/verified-users-on-twitter/https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/20/twitter-is-down-to-fewer-than-550-full-time-engineers.htmlhttps://www.thestreet.com/technology/elon-musk-has-a-huge-twitter-debt-bill
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
The people I know with electric cars seldom charge at a public station. They charge at home where it’s cheaper, and the charging speed doesn’t matter much because you can let it go overnight. They use the public chargers for long trips, and usually combine that with a bathroom break, stretching the legs, and maybe a snack. I have one friend who does at least a few road trips a year, and he likes to map out the stops in advance so that he knows what snack he’s getting—first stop near a Starbucks, next stop next to In-n-Out, last stop next to an ice cream place, etc.

More chargers is definitely a good thing. I think Tesla had been reluctant to open up their charging network to other brands of cars. I’m not sure why. But it’s good news for everyone that they will be opening them up.
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Tesla chargers are very reliable, and make people want to buy Tesla cars. It's a competitive advantage. By opening up the chargers to non-Tesla cars, people can buy non-Tesla cars and use Tesla chargers, which may be the best of both worlds for them. Tesla is losing exclusivity, so has to make sure they make up for it in charging costs.
 
boatgeek said:
So I decided to do a back-of-the-envelope run of Twitter's numbers per and post takeover. We don't really have any idea of the finances, but we do know that ~80% of the staff are gone and ad revenue is down ~35%....[snip]
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That's essentially why Elon and his legal team tried absolutely everything they could to bail out from it for months. They essentially paid $44B for goodwill and maybe a bit of IP and really not much else.
Look, I'd never bet against the guy and I'd always back him against Wall St short selling scum, but this will take all his brilliance, and more, to make this deal work. If he pulls it off, it will be truly epic.

TP
 
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