Regarding Musk’s new Tesla pay package: How much is your ADHD worth?
Tesla’s board is giving Elon Musk $29 billion (a record compensation for a CEO) to “keep him focused” on Tesla. I have questions:
AI for teaching writing; Elon’s Kamala risks; crappy books in bookstores: Newsletter 30 October 2024
Newsletter 68. Banning student AI is stupid. Plus, how print-on-demand books get on shelves, the spreadsheet blooper reel, why Elon Musk loves Trump, three people to follow, three books to read, and my interview with Jane Friedman. A five-paragraph essay reveals how to revolutionize the teaching of writing It’s time to retire the venerable five-paragraph…
Hey Elon: cursing out your customers never works
Elon Musk says he is sorry he amplified an antisemitic post on X. But at a New York Times event, here’s what he said about advertisers like Disney, who have since left the platform (the “Bob” in this quote is Disney Chairman Bob Iger): If somebody’s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me…
Comparing the Twitter “X” rebrand to other rebranding efforts
Twitter rebranded itself as “X.” That isn’t going to accomplish its goals. Why do companies rebrand? Usually, to escape the box they’ve put themselves into. It doesn’t always work, but it’s always expensive. The Twitter rebrand Here’s what Twitter’s home page looks like now. No more cute blue bird. Why? While Elon Musk did his…
How many ways can Twitter be stupid?
Yesterday (Saturday), Twitter users found themselves unable to see Tweets for extended periods of time. There was no explanation for many hour until Twitter executive (and former CEO, and owner) Elon Musk tweeted that the social network was throttling users because, apparently, some organizations or users were “scraping” lots of tweets and causing excess traffic….
Leadership lessons from Elon Musk
Since taking over Twitter, Elon Musk has done nearly everything wrong, destroying tens of billions of dollars in value in a few short weeks. Last night he conducted a binding Twitter poll to see if he should step down, and received a resounding vote of no confidence. What can leaders learn from Musk’s short and…
Disruption wins — except when it loses
Disruptive innovation requires viewing the world differently from conventional wisdom. Disruptors who succeed manage to change the conventional wisdom. Disruptors who fail end up victims of the conventional wisdom. And that includes the conventional wisdom inherent in government regulation Disruptors who ignored the rules YouTube was built on pirated, copyrighted content. It violated rules and…
The promise of social media
I’ve been studying social media for 16 years. I think what Charlene Li and I observed back then is still true. People want to connect with friends. People want to connect with strangers with whom they share an interest. People want to engage intellectually with strangers. Or at least, they used to. Back when blogs…
The Twitter endgame
We’re not paying enough attention to the financing of Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase. It explains why he’s flailing now, and points to a shocking future for the social network. Where did Musk get the money to buy Twitter, and why does it matter? Of the $44 billion it took to buy Twitter, about $24 billion…