Comment by samwillis | Hacker News Reader

Comment by samwillis | Hacker News Reader

There was a quite moving exchange between Twitterrific and a customer earlier:

> Customer: This makes me so sad. Your iPhone app allowed me as a blind person to use Twitter so much better than the app that they themselves produce. Sorry for the hostility you are receiving from them, but know that you are appreciated for the hard work you’ve done.

> Twitterrific: Maybe the best thing anyone's ever told us. Thank you for this, truly. It is everything. Please take care.

https://mobile.twitter.com/RustyHilliard77/status/1616174474...

The problem facing Twitter 2.0 is that Musk is personally driving product development and he has essentially no empathy for users.

Can you blame him? He hasn’t needed it until now. His companies either specialize in binary-outcome engineering challenges (rocket flies/explodes) or products where Musk himself is the user, like a kid designing his own toys (and calling them “S/3/X/Y”). Turns out that a lot of people want to drive the car that he wants to drive himself, so he probably thinks this impeccable taste applies to any kind of product.

But Twitter, unlike a car, is used by hundreds of millions of people in thousands of completely different ways. He has no idea of what the experience is like for someone with only a handful of followers, or blind, or trans, or Algerian, or retired, a teenage girl, a suicidal anorexic, etc. etc. — and he doesn’t seem at all interested in trying to understand.

Yes, I can blame him.

It was reasonably obvious to other people - those who have and have not ran a rocket company - that running Twitter is different to running Tesla.

If you’re blindsided by your own ego, it’s your fault and you’re to blame.

> he has essentially no empathy for users

Mindreading much?

More like reading the room.

I don't think he is mindreading, just forming an opinion based on Elon's actions recently.

> Can you blame him?

Yes, chiefly so.

A company with thousands of employees and the CEO is micromanaging developers.

I do not think that the problem is empathy.

It's about not understanding his role in the company. It's about not understanding collaboration, team work or leadership.

He does lack empathy, thou.

I think these things you list, are what empathy is used for. (Among others.)

> A company with thousands of employees

Well to be fair, there's several thousand less employees now.

> The problem facing Twitter 2.0 is that Musk is personally driving product development and he has essentially no empathy for users.

The problem facing Twitter 2.0 is that Musk is personally driving product development and 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘰 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘺.

I fixed that for ya

And for those who might argue that Musk has empathy for the survival of the future of humanity - (a) this isn't empathy by any technical definition, and (b) even if it was, and he was truly committed to it, his specific rash actions at Twitter are far from an optimal execution of any kind of strategy to ensure that survival.

> Can you blame him?

Absolutely. Good business owners know their limits and how to utilize people that have the skills they don't have. It doesn't matter if he "hasn't needed to do it before." He's an adult with multiple companies under his belt. He should absolutely know better and that fact that he doesn't is breaking trust consumers have with his ability to lead efffectively.

"Not everybody is like me" would be the number 1, number 2 and number 3 advice I would give to anyone who's trying to start an online business. Like in a "How about you do that as a mantra for 10 hours a day" kind of way, because it's truly astonishing how many people don't get that.

So if you want to cut costs on sales and marketing in your startup, internalize that, because customer acquisition costs are directly related to your not understanding of that principle.

Good thing such a high profile influencer will hammer that point home!

And somehow I don't think accessibility in the official Twitter app is about to get any better, having fired their accessibility team

https://twitter.com/owswills/status/1588625105101664256

Considering Musk fired all the engineers working on accessibility, I don't expect the official app to improve for the better anytime soon.

If the accessibility team failed at making the app accessible, firing them might actually improve things.

Not unless you replace them

Apps don't magically become accessible by neglect. It takes a deliberate and ongoing effort.

That's heartbreaking

It really is huge for people that need it, we should all try to remember this. When you include accessibility you're opening up a door for people who are constantly walking into doors they can't open.

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