Is Elon Musk the greatest visionary or the greatest snake oil salesman of our age?

[kabbes]

Cid what you describe about how Wechat works is not what Musk said he wants to build. He specifically described it like this:

“X would… serve people's financial needs to such a degree that over time it would become, I don't know, maybe, half of the global financial system.
Or some big number. I'm not sure what the number is, but pretty big.
So it would be by far the biggest sort of financial institution… umm... the most efficient... database for the thing that is money.”

That’s what I’m responding to — that idea that he can build an app that is a financial institution. Not a price aggregator. Not a market place. A bank-equivalent. I don’t know why I would want an app that is half-shitposting and half where I keep my fucking money. I live in the West, where there are ample licensed banks that will do that latter part with transparent governance and controls to protect me. And there’s no way he can do it anyway, on any kind of meaningful timescale and in any kind of way that connects with the way he thinks about the world. Regulators won’t let him.

 

[Cid]

Cid what you describe about how Wechat works is not what Musk said he wants to build. He specifically described it like this:

“X would… serve people's financial needs to such a degree that over time it would become, I don't know, maybe, half of the global financial system.
Or some big number. I'm not sure what the number is, but pretty big.
So it would be by far the biggest sort of financial institution… umm... the most efficient... database for the thing that is money.”

That’s what I’m responding to — that idea that he can build an app that is a financial institution. Not a price aggregator. Not a market place. A bank-equivalent. I don’t know why I would want an app that is half-shitposting and half where I keep my fucking money. And there’s no way he can do it anyway, on any kind of meaningful timescale and in any kind of way that connects with the way he thinks about the world

Oh right lol, not a snowball's then. wtf?

 

[Lurdan]

I can't see the thread because 'X' is a pain in the arse.

There's an app/site called threadreaderapp which can be used to archive eX-twitter threads as a web page (albeit with adverts unless you have an ad blocker). Go to their website and put in the eX-twitter name of the thread starter (in this case @garius) and you can see if someone has already archived the thread. No need to have an eX-twitter account. In this case they have

To archive threads yourself however you need a free twitter account.

 

[Storm Fox]

I can't see the thread because 'X' is a pain in the arse.

Try Thread by @garius on Thread Reader App

 

[Yossarian]

I can't see the thread because 'X' is a pain in the arse.

Oops, forgot that login is now required, will use threadreader or whatever next time

 

[Yossarian]

Ha. The monthly subscription service is now called XBlue. If the sort of people who pay him $8 a month were likely to have partners who look at their bank statements that might be an awkward conversation but they probably don’t so it’s fine.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Cheers all. I'm quite enjoying that they apparently stitched him up and chucked him out of the company when he was on the flight to his honeymoon.

 

[JimW]

Cid what you describe about how Wechat works is not what Musk said he wants to build. He specifically described it like this:

“X would… serve people's financial needs to such a degree that over time it would become, I don't know, maybe, half of the global financial system.
Or some big number. I'm not sure what the number is, but pretty big.
So it would be by far the biggest sort of financial institution… umm... the most efficient... database for the thing that is money.”

That’s what I’m responding to — that idea that he can build an app that is a financial institution. Not a price aggregator. Not a market place. A bank-equivalent. I don’t know why I would want an app that is half-shitposting and half where I keep my fucking money. I live in the West, where there are ample licensed banks that will do that latter part with transparent governance and controls to protect me. And there’s no way he can do it anyway, on any kind of meaningful timescale and in any kind of way that connects with the way he thinks about the world. Regulators won’t let him.

Tencent tried that with Ant Finance which got smacked down hard with massive fines by the regulator here even.

 

[magneze]

And a bank with loads of far-right customers will be a real turn-on to the rest of us

Do Coutt's have a account transfer bonus?

 

[2hats]

Why does he even think I would want to do everything from banking to anonymous shitposting on the same app?

Yum. Security dumpster fire.

 

[magneze]

I can't see the thread because 'X' is a pain in the arse.

I follow the same guy on Mastodon. See if this works:

John Bull (@garius@mastodon.me.uk)

To understand Musk's renewed obsession with X and focus on financial services, you REALLY need to understand the X/Confinity merger that became PayPal. And, particularly, the Peter Thiel-led coup that kicked Musk out as CEO/Chief Strategist. Here's how that happened. 1/🧵 #history #technology

mastodon.me.uk

 

[two sheds]

It takes me ages to find the mastodon password because it's not stored under mastodon but noc.social

 

[magneze]

Luckily you don't need to login to see Mastodon threads though.

 

[two sheds]

Ta, and you read straight down without having to click through all the time

 

[Orang Utan]

He can’t even eat Pop Tarts correctly:

 

[BigMoaner]

Ah, attempts to be a bank by people that have no understanding of banks, have never been involved with banking operations, risk, compliance or any other banking area.

Things always look they should be easy when you conveniently ignore all the complications.

The reason why banking looks “inefficient” is because those inefficiencies are there to protect the consumer as well as prevent things like money laundering. Banks have to comply with regulations around loads of things to this end. For example:

• operational resilience (like, how do you make sure that consumers’ transactions and accounts are protected even if software fails or a third party that the system relies on goes bankrupt)
• conduct (making sure that consumers’ lack of knowledge about complex financial products doesn’t cause them to be taken advantage of)
• capital and liquidity (mitigating damage from bank runs or contagion from elsewhere in the market)
• risk management (making sure they are identifying and monitoring emerging risks)
• communications (making sure they aren’t misleading and are clear)

Etc etc etc.

You can’t be a bank or anything that looks vaguely like a bank without complying with these regulations and being licensed accordingly.

Oh, and did I mention that the regulations vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction? So you’re going to have to have that compliance and the corporate governance that ensure it everywhere you want to be a bank.

TLDR: what Elon wants isn’t possible even in the medium term in the US, Europe, UK etc unless he also buys a bank that is already licensed in those jurisdictions (who will then prevent him from doing a lot of the things he thinks he wants to do).

Whatever, that's just the facts, man

 

[teuchter]

I too have never handled or eaten a pop tart and would not necessarily know the right way to put it in a toaster.

 

[bimble]

I would also probably have done exactly what musk did, and put the rectangular snack thing in the toaster lying on its long side, so it drops right down into the depths of the toaster and then stood there until it was done & burnt my fingers melodramatically trying to extract it, but difference is i don't pretend to be an engineering genius.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Have you considered using a knife to get the molten sugar brick out of the toaster?

 

[mojo pixy]

Have you considered using a knife to get the molten sugar brick out of the toaster?

Of course make sure to switch the toaster on before you start, as heat rises and this helps to counteract the gravity holding the pop tart inside

 

[weltweit]

Musk made a lot of money from what became PayPal, perhaps that influences his future plans for Twitter but I can't see a platform for argument and more being a good platform to hitch a money site to.

 

[bimble]

Have you considered using a knife to get the molten sugar brick out of the toaster?

In some particular ways i kind of relate to him quite a lot. In the doing things on an 'inspired' impulse (and then afterwards understanding why that was unwise but dunno if he does that bit)
But my delusions of grandeur and their embarrassing outcomes are just on a much more domestic scale.

 

[BigMoaner]

In some particular ways i kind of relate to him quite a lot. In the doing things on an 'inspired' impulse (and then afterwards understanding why that was unwise but dunno if he does that bit)
But my delusions of grandeur and their embarrassing outcomes are just on a much more domestic scale.
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Yes there's a human being inside there, that's what makes it compelling. He's not quite full android yet, whilst zuckertwat is at 98% android.

If he showed some humility "Sheesh guys just gotta roll with the punches, I'm making some mistakes"

A fuller human would manifest. But like trump it's probably not in his armoury. Gains bro.

 

[bimble]

Yes there's a human being inside there, that's what makes it compelling. He's not quite full android yet, whilst zuckertwat is at 98% android.

If he showed some humility "Sheesh guys just gotta roll with the punches, I'm making some mistakes"

A fuller human would manifest. But like trump it's probably not in his armoury. Gains bro.

Yeah i think thats true, that's at least part of why i can't stop watching, because there's something uncomfortably relatable in there in the hubris.

 

[AverageJoe]

I think he's hedging on Crypto taking over from FIAT currencies. And that's the aspect that x.com and it's associated app will take.

 

[NoXion]

Of course make sure to switch the toaster on before you start, as heat rises and this helps to counteract the gravity holding the pop tart inside

As a child I once did this. I think they've been engineering toasters for this kind of eventuality for a while now, because all that happened a couple of flying sparks and a permanently non-functional toaster.

 

[bimble]

i've just found this, from last year.
Which puts things in possibly a different light, perhaps not so impulsive as it seemed?
(from here Elon Musk wants Twitter payments system built with crypto in mind )

 

[mojo pixy]

As a child I once did this. I think they've been engineering toasters for this kind of eventuality for a while now, because all that happened a couple of flying sparks and a permanently non-functional toaster.

Fair enough, I have given myself an electric shock this way (not recently) and I don't imagine I'm alone

 

[Yossarian]

I've never stuck my fingers or a metal implement inside a toaster, WTF is wrong with you people

 

[JimW]

It's so astonishingly deluded and we have to live in the world these cunts shape.