Explain square.

Seeing and hearing Jack, I think he is good and what he likes to be more like “spiritual” leader. He can makes bets and give guidance but he doesn’t want to manage, or get to the weeds. The way he set up Square is more like individual groups working independently and he just provides the aircover for things he believes in.

He pushed the Square Tidal acquisition because in a weird way it makes sense in his mind. He also pushed for bitcoin because he believes in it, instead of it being part of company strategy.

Twitter needs someone who could reset the current thinking and be the product visionary but also a person make people execute on the vision. Kind of someone like Elon. Unclear if Elon’s ideas are good but at least he doesn’t tolerate bad performance.

I do miss Steve Jobs, or mainly, his leadership style in tech. Every year with SJ was full of surprises and delightful visions coming true. In a way, people in the late 90s and early 2000s experienced the peak of the tech landscape. The smartphones revolution was just one of the visions that came true in that era.

In a way, Musk is like SJ, but greedier and cockier. SJ was about products centered around humans. Musk is about humans centered around technologies.

Greedier and cockier than Jobs? The same Jobs who wouldn't admit paternity for years? The same Jobs who wouldn't acknowledge certain teams that had worked on certain products at Apple? The same Jobs who tried to buy Dropbox by telling them they were an app, not a company? You've got to be kidding me. That is a colossally high bar for both those qualities.

I think he said they were a feature, not a product.

You're right, but unfortunately I can't edit it now.

If you had his kind of golden parachute, you don't think you could see any number of product ideas through to success?

“More like somebody at the right place and time.”

For two companies? Seems like too hand wavy of an explanation.

To argue against myself, and I can't cite this, Zuckerberg allegedly referred to Twitter as a clown car that drove into a diamond mine.

When / where did he say this? At one of Facebook’s weekly townhalls?

I think I heard it on the This Week in Startups podcast this week (pre- takeover offer).

Edit: literally first google result for Zuckerberg clown car

https://www.google.com/search?q=Zuckerberg+clown+car

Oh, I thought it was ungoogleable so I didn’t try.

> According to "Hatching Twitter," a new book dissecting the history of the short-messaging site by the New York Times' Nick Bilton, Facebook's founder once told close friends that "[Twitter is] such a mess, it’s as if they drove a clown car into a gold mine and fell in." Although the comment is not given a specific date, the book notes that Zuckerberg made it "within the last three years." The comment was highlighted by venture capitalist Paul Kedrosky on Bloomberg TV last week. Zuckerberg took the reported jab at Twitter after he was frustrated by the startup not taking one of his acquisition offers. Al Gore had also whiffed on buying the hot startup, despite being emboldened by "copious amounts" of wine and Patron tequlia, and of course, his deep pockets.

Didn’t know Facebook wanted to buy twitter. Or Al Gore for that matter.

Zuck also thinks he is the only smart person in the world.

Certainly he's somebody who took initiative. Did his personal contributions move the needle beyond getting the idea rolling?

I honestly don't know, but I haven't seen any evidence of that. But I also haven't looked that hard.

It seems easy to accidentally stumble upon stories of the other prominent tech founders moving the needle. But maybe it's all propaganda