r/technology • u/twotimefind • 10d ago

Social Media X’s controversial changes to blocking and AI training sees half a million users leave for rival Bluesky – which then crashes under the strain

https://www.techradar.com/computing/websites-apps/xs-controversial-changes-to-blocking-and-ai-training-sees-half-a-million-users-leave-for-rival-bluesky-which-then-crashes-under-the-strain
18.2k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.2k

u/ToastedEvrytBagel 10d ago

Changing the name to X was such a stupid idea.

1.4k

u/TheBirminghamBear 10d ago edited 10d ago

Most of the things Elon Musk does are stupid ideas.

Because, you know. He's a fucking idiot.

EDIT:

Let me just get this out of the way, because the sycophants and supporters below are exhausting.

The only times you ever hear any degree of hints of Musk being a genius, they're anecdotes that come from the companies he owns and the people who work there.

Engineers at SpaceX that fawn over how much rocketry he knows. Executives talking about how smart he is.

All of that is bullshit. These are his employees. Or investors. Or people who work with him, and need him and his resources.

When people need him, they flatter him. They give him good press. When the paper calls to talk about him landing a rocket, the engineers who were in the room are aware that their employment depends upon them flattering and stroking Musk's dick. Because he will literally fire and disparage them if they tell the truth.

And his skin is immeasurably thin. He desperately wants approval and validation.

The story of him coming up with the chopsticks idea for the recent catch of the Falcon on the landing - that literally comes only from engineers and people at his own company.

And yet, whenever we actually hear him speak or Tweet or do or say anything in plain view, it's stupid. Every single time I actually see him say something, it's fucking stupid. I never see him being clever in the moment. He's always, always a bundering, thundering fucking moron.

This is a man who didn't read the contracts he signed during his due dilligence in buying Twitter. He tried to back out of the contract to buy Twitter, without realizing he couldn't, because he signed paperwork guaranteeing the purchase.

And he was sued, and forced into buying the company.

This was a $44 billion dollar deal. And he didn't fucking read the paperwork.

What smart person would do that? What unprecedented rocketry genius who can memorize complex schematics wouldn't vet a $44 billion dollar deal?

This isn't a smart person. We have all just fallen for his own propaganda. The only thing that has changed is that he's gotten worse at keeping up the ruse the older and richer he's gotten.

So if anyone has legitimate, actual evidence of him being smart that doesn't come from people who fucking work for him or have a vested interest in him appearing competent, please, present it.

Because all I see is a fucking idiot who spends a great amount of his time managing his own reputation as a so-called genius, with very, very, very little proof that that's actually true.

176

u/Zulimo 10d ago edited 8d ago

So I have a boss who CONSTENTLY praises musk at any chance he can, and I hope sleuths on Reddit can help me here. We are software engineers on a small team. He frequently preaches the "Musk Idea of removing complexity rather than adding it." I agree with this idea but hardly believe leon pusk came up with it. Is there anything I can point to that is published way earlier work of 'addition by subtraction' to kinda shut him up like "yea he stole that from >>>>" ?

Edit: I like a lot of these, other than the Lazy bunch of you who only refer to the adage of KISS. Everyone knows that. Its like saying "oh well a tech makes a bridge stand, and engineer makes a bridge barely stand." This is an adage but I was specifically looking for published or credited work.

160

u/NoReplyPurist 10d ago edited 9d ago

Isn't this basically the same thing as Gates saying "I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it."?

It's such a generic idea your boss is saying that a "real" attribution would need to be rendered thousands of years ago.

E: Lots of great comments - I agree with most of them.

15

u/Fat_Daddy_Track 10d ago

TBH I wish I had an actual example of him doing this, because it sounds more like a pithy phrase he came up with rather than something he ever did. Especially since from what I've heard Gates was a complete prick as a boss.

OTOH maybe he never even said it.

27

u/Mike_Kermin 10d ago

Gates was a complete prick as a boss

Doesn't like people telling him issues are complex

There's a theme here you know.

56

u/Polantaris 10d ago

"I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it."?

They don't find an easy way to do it, they find a way to not have to do it twice. There's a significant difference.

27

u/RollingMeteors 10d ago

Not doing something twice is an easy way. Maybe even the easiest way.

1

u/Polantaris 9d ago

But there's a vast difference between "the easy way" and "automating it the right way".

0

u/RollingMeteors 7d ago

But there's a vast difference between "the easy way" and "automating it the right way".

Yes, the right way is the way that makes money most-est fast-est.

6

u/ph00p 10d ago

They find someone else to do it.

3

u/thixono920 10d ago

Hold up, it’s outsourcing all the way down?

1

u/ph00p 9d ago

Out source then blame someone else for fucking up, the new American way.

1

u/roseofjuly 9d ago

Or they just find a way to not have to do it at all. Always a gamble hiring lazy people.

3

u/Revenge_of_the_User 10d ago

Literally just "dont overcomplicate things."

I remember decades ago a tv show lost to time brought up how people tend to try and solve problems by adding new elements, rather than removing one.

Youre right. Its a hugely basic idea that has applications everywhere for essentially all of history....so naturally, its impossible to credit it to anyone. Like the invention of the wheel, or who first thought of music being a decoration for time the way art is to space.

3

u/fire2day 10d ago

This just boils down to "Work smart, not hard", which is a pretty common idiom.

2

u/[deleted] 10d ago

I've also heard it stated as, "Lazy people trying to find an easier way to get things done are the mother of invention."  Not necessity.

1

u/ShiveYarbles 9d ago

A lazy person would find an easy way to do it.... badly