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Ask HN: How can responsible engineers shape the future of Twitter?

by sindoc on 10/31/22, 3:41 PM with 3 comments

(my first Ask HN attempt failed because I had included a URL, which, I shouldn't have)

These general thoughts came to me as part of a small thread on the Logseq community [1] but a variety of follow-up thoughts came to me, which I thought would share with one of the communities that I connect the most with (I might be wrong but that's how we learn).

I began to ask myself what does a civilised and modern world look like, with this transactions occurring in it. To see, mainly how we can adapt to this new world of Elon leading Twitter with its high potential and many risks as well.

A number of things change, now that Elon is running Twitter. First off, that's horrible news for many. I hope Twitter HR (who should be under a lot of pressure right now) are doing a good job, handling the logistics there.

In terms of Twitter product management teams though, I think they can get inspired by serious conversations in the community as to what features they will now put forward and to what degree, will they allow for communities to speak freely, which would be a way to actually also test a different layer of claims for Elon, in the lines, the bird is free. I mean, at some point, how free are we talking? Free as in Freedom or Free as in for as long as it serves my purposes.

There are so many other topics I could lay out here. For instance, some food for thought, maybe was Elon's claims as to the discrepancy in the number of human users vs. robots. Well, I'd like to understand the process that will go into creating transparency around exactly how we're going to go about handing robots.

So, while he may or may not have been right about those claims, now we need to hold him accountable for how open his approach is going to be, in addressing those very same concerns.

[1] https://discuss.logseq.com/t/hello-from-sina-from-brussels-a-vibrant-new-member-of-your-community/11988/5

Small side note: Mr. Musk also needs to understand to keep his power controlled for he might fall into traps only a few people have survived in history. Nelson Mandela, Cyrus the great, Darius, was it? Absolute power corrupts absolutely has been the rule, except for three so far. You might argue how we can know that to be three. Well, the answer is that when an individual has absolute power, it cannot go unseen. In most cases, it leads to wars and chaos, but it leads to good things when it is controlled like those three individuals built great civilisations, it so happens.

  • by matai_kolila on 10/31/22, 3:51 PM

    Leave Twitter and build a social network not bound to the whims of an egomaniacal narcissist.

    Continuing to provide help to Musk at this point is a waste of energy; he's not going to listen, as he feels most qualified. At least with cars and rockets, people could generally convince him to back off; with Twitter, there's no such hope as he's one of Twitter's most prolific users.

    He will believe no one but himself about how to build that technology, and it is thus a waste of time to even try.

  • by MrMan on 10/31/22, 5:25 PM

    why care about twitter? go somewhere else or build something else. dont worry about twitter its not worth it