Happy Tuesday, and I hope you’ve had a great start to the month.
A bit of inspiration from my current read:
“To superficial minds, the vices of the great seem at all times agreeable.”
―Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
A few thoughts this week:
Everything could be securities fraud, so nothing is securities fraud for Musk. Here’s Matt Levine:
The trial was a bit odd because the judge had already decided that Musk’s “funding secured” tweet was false, so the trial was technically about whether it was material to investors, whether they were deceived by the tweet. But Musk did not quite say that he was going to take Tesla private, only that he was considering it, which seems to have been uncontroversially true. (He considers lots of things.)
“He considers lots of things“ is for sure the highlight to me here ahahha
But also, you cannot have already secure funding if you’re still considering it. So I guess its up for the reader of his tweet to iron out the inconsistencies…
He has also been promising fully self-driving Teslas imminently for years, and I guess the SEC is looking into that, but surely by this point no one takes it all that seriously. And yet if another CEO promised a feature for years and never delivered it, people would feel deceived!
I guess he has made things easier for himself. But also, this sounds depressing. If Musk can only find things to play around with at work, you can imagine he doesn’t have many real hobbies.
I guess as long as Elon is able to make himself perpetually the talk of the town, his career is prolonged. But how is this not exhausting? How is he not bored of himself? Does he not want to live an adult life at some point?
This is lols:
Twitter Inc. will start showing ads in the replies to tweets and sharing some of the revenue with the tweet’s writer, according to site owner Elon Musk.
I feel like when the length of a post is practically the same length as an ad, this will be an uncomfortable user experience, but who knows.
The catch: In order to be eligible to receive a share of the revenue, someone has to be a subscriber to the premium version, called Twitter Blue. That costs $8 a month.
This sounds almost like crowdfunding lmao
New Sam stuff:
Early last year, Sam Bankman-Fried told an FTX all-hands meeting about an addition to the company’s staff… it was a psychiatrist who would serve as coach for stressed-out employees at the fast-growing crypto exchange.
Ahahaha like that would solve the problem. The speed of the fix needs to be directly proportional to the size/significance of the problem to sufficiently solve it. But I get it I guess.
The staff of FTX and its sister trading firm, Alameda Research, put in long, intense hours, and work and life were often blurred. Many of the employees, in their 20s and far from home, lived together in high-end company housing, and romantic relationships between executives were common.
lols we all know what that is formal speak for
Reading this is giving me second-hand anxiety.
Doubt much of his advice was adhered to because common sense seems all that was needed to solve these problems. Ah how people always fall into that trap. How we have the intense desire to feel divine and invincible. Very seductive. Actually being strong enough not to be seduced, in turn, is the real superhuman thing to do.
Dr. Lerner said his main goal at FTX was creating “a more sustainable work environment.”
Yeah I can imagine the amount of luck he had with that…
“They were amazing people—driven, brilliant, wanting to make a positive impact on the world,” Dr. Lerner said. “Conflict resolution was the toughest as most of my work has historically been with individuals.”
It’s pretty hard to resolve conflict when everyone’s brains are unwired. lolsies
But yenno this is all tough stuff so honestly I admire what these people went through
In draft testimony for a congressional hearing in December, Mr. Bankman-Fried said he had a decadelong prescription to the antidepressant Emsam. “I am, and for most of my adult life have been, sad,” he said. Mr. Bankman-Fried didn’t testify at the hearing because he was arrested the day before it took place
Um, I’m not making light of this, but I’m also not surprised
I’m honestly struggling with what tone to take on all this. But these are my two cents.
I honestly don’t know how psychiatrists do it. I can imagine you’d have to be insanely emotionally strong yourself to do the job well and keep yourself sane. Sounds like a tough tough job.
Dr. Lerner said one of his goals at FTX was helping employees go out on dates.
“I was very concerned that people’s happiness would be reduced by lack of dating opportunities outside of a big city or that they would feel compelled to leave the company due to this,” he said.
Ahahah I guess you do become everyone’s de facto parents when you’re working with a bunch of 20-somethings.
Dr. Lerner said he tried to organize social mixers with other companies in the Bahamas but that people were too busy.
Reading this really just makes me sad.
When some distressed employees appeared to be at risk of suicide, Dr. Lerner organized efforts to care for them, encouraging them to get outside or urging others to keep an eye on them, these people said. He also helped some employees make travel arrangements to leave the Bahamas and get psychological care at home, the people said.
“People were devastated,” Dr. Lerner said. “They had lost their FTX family.”
I guess my point is brought home.
That’s all for today, thanks for joining in on the fun!
Until next time :)
Angeline