November 2022
Hey all,
I usually write this newsletter in small chunks throughout the month. I'll do a section here and there, when I'm feeling excited about a topic, and then finalize the text and record the podcast the weekend before I send it out to you.
But sometimes news just happens so quickly that mere days after finishing a section it's already out-of-date.
The Twitter story has been the bane of my existence this month. My thoughts have shifted with each new development, and thus I've written and re-written it numerous times.
The latest news is that Elon Musk has re-instated Trump's Twitter account. It's not touched on in the section (and doesn't materially change my opinions expressed), but I do feel it's worth mentioning. What a heel.
Anyway, happy November, all.
-Dann
🚒 Ashes to ashes, Musk to Musk
Regarding Musk's Twitter takeover, I think Professor Scott Galloway has the best take of the moment (starts at 4:57, emphasis mine):
I think we're seeing the unwinding not of a company, but the unwinding of a person.
And I believe it's a larger trend as societies become wealthier and more educated. The reliance on a super being, as church attendance goes down, but they still look for idols. Into that void has stepped technology leaders because technology is the closest thing we have to magic.
And you know, our new Jesus Christ was Steve Jobs. And now Elon Musk has taken on that mantle. And every ridiculously mean, nonsensical, irrational move he makes is somehow seen as chess, not checkers. We're just not privy to his genius yet.
I think this is an individual who has demonstrated a total lack of grace, has no guardrails around him. And is going to see his wealth probably cut in half.
See also Matt Binder:
all the why Elon Musk bought Twitter theories are overthinking it.
it’s simple.
Musk is in a right wing filter bubble. he bought Twitter believing their problems were real & that others felt the same
To support his point, Binder shares Musk's text messages that have been made public through lawsuit discovery processes.
Once you start realizing that Musk is a human just like you or me, and not some infallible being, his actions take on a new light.
Musk's complaints about the platform are hyper-specific to one person's experience: his own. As a "famous person" on Twitter, most of his replies are filled with bots. Thus the opinion that bots are the biggest thing plaguing Twitter. He's (perhaps rightfully so) mad at journalists maligning him on the site, with their all-powerful blue checkmarks, so he might as well democratize the verification system and knock them down a peg.
The priorities at which he's approaching Twitter 2.0 are based on his personal opinion driven by his actual experience. But lacks a larger perspective.
But none of the problems that Twitter faces are black and white — they're all shades of grey. And Twitters solutions, while imperfect, may have already been the best of all possible options.
Thinking about this in terms of content moderation, my brain keeps coming back to this article from Nov 2nd, shortly after the Musk takeover: Hey Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run The Content Moderation Learning Curve.
Every new social media site that wants to be a bastion of "free speech" has a similar journey of discovery. This includes every company, from Parler to Gettr to Truth Social, and others. The article is worth a read, but the moral of the story is that they all end in a similar place to where Twitter was before Musk's takeover.
Originally at 7,500 employees at the end of October (almost certainly more than necessary), it's since dropped to ~2,500 after a 50% Thanos-style snap, followed by mass resignations last Thursday. Entire teams, considered by many internal groups to be essential, are completely gone. There may be only a few hundred people left.
But that's not to say that the company will disappear. It may be a bumpy ride for quite a while, but Twitter won't disappear completely unless Musk decides to pull the plug.
But Galloway is right in that this whole experience has shown a total lack of grace on behalf of Musk. The way that you inspire employees is with a vision (like he did with Tesla). There is no such vision for Twitter. He's asking employees to stay on and "go hard-core" on blind trust, when he's done nothing to build that trust.
My biggest takeaway from this whole debacle is that I'm just happy that Musk is not my boss.
🔬 Separating the science from the scientist
I don't listen to Michael Jackson after watching HBO's Leaving Neverland. Likewise, I’m not really watching any Woody Allen films anymore.
Is it possible to separate the art from the artist? For me, the answer is no. Bad actions taint the art for me, in a very real way.
But what about other fields? Ones where a bad actor's accomplishments are impossible to ignore?
Erwin Schrödinger is pretty much a household name. You probably learned about the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment in school, where a cat in a box is both alive and dead due to a random subatomic event that may or may not occur. His accomplishments are foundational and still widely used today.
I've been learning a lot about Schrödinger thanks to Helgoland by Carlo Rovelli, an absolutely riveting book about Quantum Mechanics. I picked it up after finishing Rovelli's The Order of Time several months ago.
But Schrödinger was a huge piece of shit. He was a textbook pedophile that spent his free time grooming preadolescent young girls, impregnating his students, and generally indulging his "Lolita Complex." He kept a diary of his conquests, and wrote that he had a "predilection for teenage girls on the grounds that their innocence was the ideal match for his natural genius."
So, where do we go from here? To be frank, I have no idea.
For me, I think this information is important to have. And important to share. As I'm exploring deeper into the world of Quantum Mechanics, his is a name that appears frequently, and it feels incomplete to learn the science without also knowing the scientist.
But I also can't answer why I feel that way. All it is is a distraction from his very real contributions to the field. It means that every time I see his name, I think not of his discoveries, but of his atrocities. Which really sucks. But can you ever really separate a person from their accomplishments?
🌷 SBF & FTX are SOL
I was going to write about the big news in the crypto space this month. With Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) stealing from one hand to feed the other, and causing a huge crash in the world of crypto.
But it's been fun for me to follow the day-to-day drama, but way less interesting now that I'm sitting down to possibly write about it myself.
If you've been following along: Make sure you don't miss this fantastic summary on Milky Eggs, which includes some juicy details of possible rampant drug abuse by FTX employees and executives. But then temper your hot takes by reading Scott Alexander's thoughts on said drug use.
If you haven't been following this story: What are your chances of hitting it big with the Powerball? This Powerball simulator let's you throw hundreds of thousands of pretend dollars at the lotto and shows you what you would have won. Have fun.
🕹️ Pocket Nostalgia
I have a new favorite toy. I decided to get myself a Miyoo Mini V2. It's a pocket-sized retro gaming device, which basically means that it has all the old favorite consoles in one little machine. Everything from Arcades to Atari all the way up to PS1.
So far, I've been mostly playing Super Mario World, Warioware Inc, and Pokemon FireRed. I'm planning to dive into Sword of Mana soon, since that was the very first RPG I ever played through to completion, way back in high school.
They're relatively cheap, as far as these types of devices go. The official store is on Aliexpress, where they cost ~$60, with free shipping direct from China. There's also a ton of customization that can be done (like a custom boot logo) and Reddit is going to be your best bet for resources there.
🌞 Gwobal wappa
Let's end this newsletter with a touch of optimism. Remember those apocalyptic climate-change predictions from even just a few years ago? Scientists now have some new predictions (NYT gift article), and they aren't quite as dire as before.
Our planet is still warming, but the crux of the predictions lay in the prediction of the number of degrees our plant will ultimately warm:
At four degrees, the impacts of warming appeared overwhelming, but at two degrees, the impacts would not be the whole of our human fate, only the landscape on which a new future will be built.
So I guess we'll be alive to watch the planet irreparably change, rather than all die out. So that's a plus, right?
End note
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I'll be sending out these emails once per month, and I'm happy you're along for the ride. I'm trying to make it one of the best things that arrives in your inbox each month, so thoughts and feedback are always appreciated. You can just reply to this email.
Also, if you find anything interesting, send it my way.
Thanks for reading. Until next time, Dann
The Dann Chronicles: November 🌬️