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Comment by wawayanda | Hacker News Reader

Twitter isn't a startup. The folks in this picture don't have the same risk/reward as their counterparts at a startup would.

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Their risk reward is show up or get kicked out of their homes and country. Real shitty.

Elon has alluded to several times that he thinks software teams should have startup energy and intentionally keeps them small. Both at Tesla and SpaceX the software teams are small and likely assumes he can do the same at Twitter.

They are going "hardcore" with EM at a critical time. You could be looking at the "twitter mafia" of 2030 something.

The PayPal mafia had equity / ownership that paid off when they sold the company. Those people in the photo are employees with essentially 0 upside in terms of real ownership.

For there to be a “Twitter mafia” Elon would need to, out of the kindness of his heart, give them real ownership in Twitter. And then Twitter needs to be a success, much more than it already was.

I’d play the lottery instead and leave fantasy land.

i guess we all have to judge the value of such human connections

Elon, nodding along to your explanation of how authentication works, sees how intelligent, capable, and full of potential you are. He stops you: Wait Bob, do you have a startup idea you’re working on that I can invest in? Can I at least get your personal phone number for late night idea sessions?

Again, it’s time to leave fantasy land.

people who share intense experiences and endure hardship together will tend to be very open to communicating again in the future. This is based on my past experience, not fantasy.

It's a fantasy for you to think this will include Elon Musk. There are legions of SpaceX and Tesla engineers -- did they form this deep human connection with Elon that you're expecting? But you think it'll happen here? Again: Time to leave the fantasy. Senpai won't notice you.

can you share the datapoints you are referencing that lead you to this conclusion? My experience over 30 years spent in many startups as well as other domains such as mountaineering where shared suffering cements strong bonds leads me to a different conclusion. Perhaps we just differ on our assessment of EM's motivations.

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