Review: Extremely Hardcore: Inside Elon Musk's Twitter by Zoë Schiffer

 I suppose this book is best described as a companion to Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal. Musk is certainly an interesting fellow, and I have Isaacson's biography of him on my list. Lots of money does funny things to people. It's made Musk into a narcissistic autocrat who has taken Charlie Wilson's comment about General Motors ("What's good for General Motors is Good for the Country")** to heart. Substitute Twitter for General Motors.

You will remember that Musk offered $44 billion to purchase Twitter only to back down but then be forced to buy it. The company was saddled with a huge amount of debt (that continues to rise), Musk fired hundreds of employees, many of whom were involved with content moderation, others simply because they had the temerity to tell him the truth. Then he re-branded Twitter into X (he seems to have a passion for that letter -- personally I prefer the letter B for bullshit...) Advertisers began to flee in droves as the site became home to right-wing kooks and hate-mongers all in the name of free expression. What Musk did not recognize was that “Advertisers play an underappreciated role in content moderation,” says Evelyn Douek, a professor and speech regulation expert. “So much of the content moderation discourse has always been a highfalutin discussion on free speech, on safety versus voice. But content moderation is a product, and brand safety has always been a key driver in terms of how these platforms create value.”

Musk promised all sorts of things, including money, to some of the employees, promises he has yet to fulfill.  Indeed, there are many outstanding lawsuits to force him to pay off on those promises. (Hundreds of millions in severance pay guarantees. As of today, April 1st, settlement talks have gone nowhere.)

It's important to remember that both of these books reflect the personal opinions and experiences of those willing to talk.  Many of those remaining with the company were afraid to talk for fear of repercussions.  As these author states: "This book is a snapshot of the lives of Twitter employees during a pivotal moment in tech history." Looking at the history of tech, lots of prominent, highly touted apps fall by the wayside, so I'm not sure just how "pivotal" Twitter/X is/was. 

"But anyone seeking those answers discovered that the transition from Twitter to X wrought something entirely different. Musk’s intentions became clearer. In his mind, the company’s success had nothing to do with people’s work ethic or ability to think creatively. Instead, it was about placating the person at the top. Musk, after all, was the man with the vision. He was the one on the hero’s journey."

**This is the popular version of the quote.  What he actually said was  "Yes, sir; I could. I cannot conceive of one because for years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa. The difference did not exist. Our company is too big. It goes with the welfare of the country. Our contribution to the Nation is quite considerable.” (p. 26 of the transcript of his confirmation hearings for Secretary of Defense.) Substitute Twitter for General Motors and Musk believes this.  Source: https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2016/04/when-a-quote-is-not-exactly-a-quote-general-motors/

Comment: The Gambler starring James Caan

 Such an interesting movie. Caan plays an English professor with a gambling addiction.  He's $44,000 in debt to the mob's loan sharks;  so far, an ordinary movie.  What separates it from run-of-the-mill movies are Caan's English lectures.  The one on William Carlos Williams' "In the Grain" series of essays on history and literature through biography was fascinating. I immediately bought a copy for my Kindle. The lecture provides such a counter-point to the professor's own life: Washington was desperately afraid of losing and that caused him to abjure risk. Williams applies that observation to the American psyche: Americans fear change above all else. "Americans fear new experience more than they fear anything." (D.H. Lawrence. They are the world's greatest dodgers because "they dodge their own very selves."

Of course, the movie is all about risk and finally ends with a more prosaic ending.

2 + 2 = 5

 I happened to be reading about the Underground Man by Dostoevsky (Notes from the Underground) and the meditation on 2+2=5 seems to fit the Trumpists very well. Much like Dostoevsky’s “underground man” these idiots are trying to express a rejection of 2+2=4. They (unconsciously, no doubt) posit 2+2=5 to the world, especially to authority, to say “fuck you” to the system. This supposedly shows they have some kind of free will and a rejection of modern corporate society. "Truth" is what they say it is, usually in an overbearing and loud voice. Doesn’t matter how many proofs there are that says they are wrong. If they say it’s right, it must be, precisely because they say so. Not for nothing is this an example of absurdist and atavistic thinking.  but they are not smart enough to recognize it. 

"Merciful Heavens! but what do I care for the laws of nature and arithmetic, when, for some reason I dislike those laws and the fact that twice two makes four? Of course I cannot break through the wall by battering my head against it if I really have not the strength to knock it down, but I am not going to be reconciled to it simply because it is a stone wall and I have not the strength....And who knows (there is no saying with certainty), perhaps the only goal on earth to which mankind is striving lies in this incessant process of attaining, in other words, in life itself, and not in the thing to be attained, which must always be expressed as a formula, as positive as twice two makes four, and such positiveness is not life, gentlemen, but is the beginning of death....I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too. "

Recommendation: Catcher Was a Spy, movie with Paul Rudd

 Looking for a good movie? Watch The Catcher was a Spy with Paul Rudd. Based on the real exploits of Moe Berg [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moe_Berg] a pro baseball player who spoke 10 languages, and Werner Heisenberg [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Heisenberg] a German Jewish physicist who won the Nobel Prize for hie development of quantum mechanics and, of course, the uncertainty principle. American intelligence was worried Heisenberg was working on an atomic bomb. Berg was sent to Germany to assassinate Heisenberg. It's a fascinating story, well acted by Rudd who had to study 5 languages in order to be able to pull off the conversations he needed to have in those languages in the film. Astonishing performance. Interesting physics, too. Read the Wikipedia articles first to be astonished by these two (three.)

Review: Hatching Twitter_ A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal by Nick Bilton

     I like this kind of book. It’s an irreverent view of the geeks and misfits who created Twitter, perhaps the most used but least necessary software on the planet.  That is, until Elon got a hold of it. 

    This book was first published in 2013 and so much has changed since then. Twitter (now X, in what has to be the silliest of rebrandings) has become perhaps less relevant than it ever was.  Musk has seen the price fall through the floor and see value evaporate.  

    Fun book if you like business origin stories, but he really needs to do a follow-up, perhaps annually. Just started Extremely Hardcore: Inside Elon Musk's Twitter by Zoë Schiffer, that, so far, provides an in-depth view of Musk’s demolition of Twitter.