Max Kennerly

Amusing to compare Musk's grandiose "everything app" and "Product X" with the practical effect of nuking the free API, e.g., sites dropping the ability to login with Twitter.

Google understands how to weave itself into the web's fabric. Musk does not.

Feb 2, 2023 at 4:04pmWeb
Show threadAlan TwigzFeb 2, 2023
@maxkennerly he simply doesn't understand systems he can't get directly paid from, which is weird for a guy with enormous numbers of fans who can't afford to be his customers
Show threadkwhFeb 2, 2023

@maxkennerly @Quisley he doesn’t understand shit.

It is becoming obvious that he’s a parodic figurehead, and that the Tesla/SpaceX is a deep right wing grift to get rich off government grants and contracts that he was chosen to head. See his odd relationship with NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.

Consider also how the right wing went ballistic over “Solyndra” and Fisker a few years ago (“picking winners and losers”) but never had an issue with Tesla.

Show threadAlan TwigzFeb 2, 2023
@kwh561 @maxkennerly I feel like the tech press and tech industry are pretty good at propping up useless figureheads without anyone needing to pull the strings. 100% on Musk owing his success to government programs, though
Show threadkwhFeb 2, 2023
@Quisley @maxkennerly well I think that the .com boom was rife with those who cashed out and disappeared, those who became VCs, but Elon was never a Wunderkind ala Jobs/Wozniak/Gates. He was just a guy who stumbled into the PayPal and the eBay IPO at the right time, but he has never been responsible for shepherding any consumer technology or service through startup to success without massive government subsidy.
Show threadkwhFeb 2, 2023
@Quisley @maxkennerly I even remember at the time seeing that the X.com bank business model and execution was pathetic and unworkable. There are millions of people who think he “invented” PayPal in his garage and nobody really corrects that record.
Show threadAlan TwigzFeb 2, 2023
@kwh561 @maxkennerly Absolutely, he's been a liar since the beginning of his career and his only proven skill set is as a pitchman
Show threadKanaMaunaFeb 2, 2023
@maxkennerly Apartheid thinking?
Show threadJason KuznickiFeb 2, 2023
@maxkennerly An "everything app" almost necessarily implies a single control nexus. An API usually makes distributing control easier. The two are at war with each other.
Show threadAnn LiptonFeb 2, 2023
@JKuznicki @maxkennerly One of the ways WeChat works in China is by encouraging microdevelopers to make add-ons that work with the platform. Musk is nuking that.
Show threadJason KuznickiFeb 2, 2023
@annmlipton @maxkennerly Maybe what we need isn't an everything app--it's an everywhere app, one that aims to distribute control as widely as possible. Bitcoin seems to have aimed at being that, though its failures are pretty obvious by now.
Show threadf*cking b*tch clubFeb 2, 2023

@maxkennerly
“Google understands how to weave itself into the web’s fabric. Musk does not”

It appears to me that Musk doesn’t want free access or easy access, he wants control. Why let us little people band together for justice, repro rights, whateverwhatever, when he can dominate the conversation with his views having preference above all?

Show threadBrendan WFeb 2, 2023

@maxkennerly Brain Genius Musk stuck in his 1990s monolithic software mentality.

One app to rule them all, all running as one codebase.

Screw microservices! What the hell is a Kubernetes???

Show threadSatelliteOfLoveFeb 2, 2023

@maxkennerly

hes not trying to succeed, he's trying to fail

emiratis and white supremecists have goals

Show threadTodd SmithFeb 2, 2023

@maxkennerly Musk: "I will have more than 100 million users by 2025!!!"

Everyone else: "Not if you don't violently eject the Nazis, you won't."

(That includes Ngo and Cheong, BTW)

Show threadDr James J TeethFeb 2, 2023

@maxkennerly

Musk is a fraud surrounded by sycophantic frauds.

Show threadMark vWFeb 2, 2023
@maxkennerly Musk goes straight to extinguish, eschewing embracing, extending, and expanding. Good luck with that strategy!
Show threadRDS (shawphd on Twitter)Feb 2, 2023
@maxkennerly I have to say “X” is giving off strong Segway vibes.