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

[Raheem]

.

 

[belboid]

Where do you drink if the post office is closed?

 

[Elpenor]

If you don't engage with post office hours drinks and suchlike, that is frowned on. For all the staff. The amount of young foreigners I've seen over the years looking like they'd rather be anywhere else is depressing.

The whole set up from school to college to the workplace feels regimented.

The trainees who rotated to the Uk for six months regarded it as a bit of a break from all that, according to what the locally hired Japanese staff told me. Incidentally a lot of these local hires, who were Japanese women married to British men, had fairly negative views of the Japanese work culture:

That said I found it was actually a good employer to work for in the UK - the paternalism meant well resourced teams, good pay and benefits but was also surprisingly laid back compared to other corporate places I worked at, and none of this post work drinks stuff (though that was maybe a product of being somewhere where everyone drove to work)

 

[minorcelebrity]

Elon Musk goes ‘absolutely hard core’ in another round of Tesla layoffs​

/

After laying off 10 percent of its global workforce this month, Tesla is reportedly cutting more executives and its Supercharger team.​

Elon Musk goes ‘absolutely hard core’ in another round of Tesla layoffs

Almost the entire Supercharger team is reportedly out.

www.theverge.com

 

[Dogsauce]

Yes, having worked for a huge Japanese company it’s a very paternalistic relationship, with working for one form of the company for your entire career still very likely, and company social events eg picnics and supporting sports teams taking up a lot of life outside the office too.

it used to be like that here to some extent, I used to enjoy going on the annual company picnic at the big place my dad worked at. Companies also used to invest a lot more in staff, who would generally stick around - he spent ten years at night school funded by the company ending up with an HND and a few further qualifications. In our new neo-liberal world employees have to arrive fully trained, paid for out of their own pocket, despite all the ‘investors in people’ plaques in reception.

 

[a_chap]

Elon Musk goes ‘absolutely hard core’ in another round of Tesla layoffs​

After laying off 10 percent of its global workforce this month, Tesla is reportedly cutting more executives and its Supercharger team.​

Elon Musk goes ‘absolutely hard core’ in another round of Tesla layoffs

Almost the entire Supercharger team is reportedly out.

www.theverge.com

Good grief, has the penny just dropped for Apartheid Clyde that superchargers only work on internal combustion engines?

 

[two sheds]

I thought the superchargers were the fast-charging stations for electric vehicles?

 

[two sheds]

I hadn't really connected the $45 billion that Musk wants to pay himself (billion ) with the latest round of heavy redundancies and cuts. This one will save loads in comparison:

Tesla slashes its summer internship program to cut costs, as Elon Musk fights to save his $45 billion pay plan

Some of the internships are unpaid, while others reportedly offer $18 to $28 an hour.

fortune.com

 

[NoXion]

I thought it was $56 billion? A truly absurd sum for one man to receive either way. What's the matter Musk, did buying Twitter for $44 billion not turn out too great for you? The mere fact that such a ludicrous payout was even considered in the first place just goes to show how much the board of Tesla is in Musk's pocket. His brother Kimbal is in both Tesla and SpaceX, the fucking nepo baby.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

His brother Kimbal is in both Tesla and SpaceX, the fucking nepo baby.

Maybe he should change his name to Kerbal. Might help with the rockets.

 

[Storm Fox]

Maybe he should change his name to Kerbal. Might help with the rockets.

They seem to be doing really well. Isn't the point of KSP to get your rockets to explode in the most exciting way possible?
Well, that's what kept happening when I played it

 

[Yossarian]

I hadn't really connected the $45 billion that Musk wants to pay himself (billion ) with the latest round of heavy redundancies and cuts. This one will save loads in comparison:

Tesla slashes its summer internship program to cut costs, as Elon Musk fights to save his $45 billion pay plan

Some of the internships are unpaid, while others reportedly offer $18 to $28 an hour.

fortune.com

Not sure if there's a connection between Musk's pay package and the cost-cutting - the pay deal allows Musk to buy around 300 million Tesla shares at a set price of around $23 per share instead of the current price of around $180, so it's not coming out of company funds

 

[two sheds]

ah ok, ta - mind you isn't that diluting the share pool? Don't really understand these things but lots more shares must mean lower dividends so less attractive to investors perhaps they're sacking people now to save money in the future for Musk to collect?

No I don't see how this would translate to job losses, either

 

[Yossarian]

ah ok, ta - mind you isn't that diluting the share pool? Don't really understand these things but lots more shares must mean lower dividends so less attractive to investors perhaps they're sacking people now to save money in the future for Musk to collect?

No I don't see how this would translate to job losses, either

Not 100% clear on that either but it definitely looks shitty for a company to give its CEO the biggest pay package in history while cutting internships etc

 

[two sheds]

Indeed - and if there was no bad effect on the company of the extra shares then presumably all companies would be paying themselves billions.

Perhaps they are and we're just not noticing it

 

[Chz]

I thought it was $56 billion? A truly absurd sum for one man to receive either way. What's the matter Musk, did buying Twitter for $44 billion not turn out too great for you? The mere fact that such a ludicrous payout was even considered in the first place just goes to show how much the board of Tesla is in Musk's pocket. His brother Kimbal is in both Tesla and SpaceX, the fucking nepo baby.

It was related to share price, and that's taken a dive lately.

 

[kabbes]

Paying someone in shares ultimately costs the same as paying them the cash equivalent of the share price. TANSTAAFL.

 

[two sheds]

Must be, or they'd just sell loads of cheap shares to fund pay rises for the worker plebs. That would be inflationary, sir.

 

[Silas Loom]

Paying someone in shares ultimately costs the same as paying them the cash equivalent of the share price. TANSTAAFL.

Paying people in share options offers plenty of scope for crafty employers to weasel out of their commitments, though.

 

[two sheds]

like tax you'd imagine

 

[kabbes]

like tax you'd imagine

Well also, when I quit my company, I’ll lose a whole load of the money they have told me that they have paid me (in my summary compensation statements) because you lose all unvested shares and options once you quit. So the company gets to pretend that they’re paying more more than actually turns out to be the case.

 

[Silas Loom]

Well also, when I quit my company, I’ll lose a whole load of the money they have told me that they have paid me (in my summary compensation statements) because you lose all unvested shares and options once you quit. So the company gets to pretend that they’re paying more more than actually turns out to be the case.

Yes, that’s the sort of thing I was thinking of. I did the same as you plan to in 2015. If I had stayed and the vesting criteria hadn’t been restated (which was the majority shareholder’s main trick) my options would have been worth over £1m now, in theory, but since all of my peers who left subsequently did so in the context of bitter options disputes, it’s not a loss I take seriously.

 

[Orang Utan]

I have recently noticed that it is impossible to block Temu ads on Twitter. Anyone know why this might be the case?

 

[teqniq]

I have recently noticed that it is impossible to block Temu ads on Twitter. Anyone know why this might be the case?

I have no ads whatsoever using Firefox on both my phone and desktop with various blocking extensions.

 

[Orang Utan]

I have no ads whatsoever using Firefox on both my phone and desktop with various blocking extensions.

How can firefox block ad on the phone app?
I don’t use firefox anyway

 

[teqniq]

Firefox on a phone allows you to install extensions the same as the desktop version.

 

[Orang Utan]

Firefox on a phone allows you to install extensions the same as the desktop version.

Even on the app? For promoted tweets?

 

[teqniq]

Even on the app? For promoted tweets?

No, using the Firefox app on your phone. This is all thanks to Lurdan who also advised that there is a Twitter extension for Firefox which gets rid of lots of nonsense including the X branding and makes Firefox look and behave similar to the Twitter/X app when on the webpage.

 

[NoXion]

Even on the app? For promoted tweets?

Are you using the X/Twitter app? If so then you're shit outta luck. One of the downsides of using mobile apps instead of generic browsers is that you lose control over what the owners of the app want to push onto you. Whether than is fash bullshit or adverts.

 

[NoXion]

No, using the Firefox app on your phone. This is all thanks to Lurdan who also advised that there is a Twitter extension for Firefox which gets rid of lots of nonsense including the X branding and makes Firefox look and behave similar to the Twitter/X app when on the webpage.

I'm amazed at the lengths people will go to continue using Xhitter instead of realising it's a bowl of turds and dumping it. Social media addiction is real.