Twitter needs to cease wasting my browser's time with their goddamn bird and whirling "wait" circle and just put up the goddamn tweet! And they need a javascript-free version.
Why in the holy fuck do any of you give a single shit about Musk's opinions on software engineering? He isn't a software engineer.
It's astounding to me that anyone considers Musk's opinion about software as having any value.
To help stave off the inevitable downvotes you idiots are sure to give me, I'll also address the point itself.
Most mobile devices do not gain a routable public IP address, so some third party server is required to establish a connection between users of a mobile service.
I agree that allowing anyone to run such servers provides more redundancy, but then they would not have control of their own service. Most creators of software want to remain in control of their baby so to speak.
The main reason services go down is not because of lack of computation power but lack of ability to have so many simultaneous network connections.
I think Musk is wrong that the problem is "the servers are doing too much".
He is absolutely a software engineer. The guy used to sleep under his desk after he was exhausted from writing code all day building his first products. I urge you to read any of the biographies written about him if you care but otherwise please save the withering hate (and language).
Sure, but so long as anyone cares to continue this silly debate I'm happy to oblige them. My hate is stronger than whatever silly arguments you all seem to be able to come up with to prove Musk is great.
Hate is a really destructive feeling. It ruled my life for many years. There's no way to indicate this in a way that isn't patronizing over the internet but I urge you to find the root of this hate which you are now projecting on a guy you don't know much about and transform it. Meditation has been a powerful tool in my arsenal and I can recommend it but there's many other things you can do about it. There's far, far too much hate on the internet and in this world as is.
Being a CTO doesn't mean you have any value as a software engineer. Hell I was offered a role as a CTO. I turned that shit down. Babysitting others is not my forte, nor is spending my time running a business instead of learning more tech.
Am I supposed to be impressed by earning money coding at 12? I'm not. At all.
It seems to amount to "he wrote some basic and assembly language a long time ago."
I call nonsense. I've written over 3 million lines of code over my career spread across 8 different languages. If what exists of Musk's code publicly means he is a programming genius then I must be a programming god.
By the way: I also wrote code at the age of 9. I was writing assembly language at 10. Despite this, what I did when I was a kid, or even middle age, doesn't mean squat. What matters is consistently writing high quality code over your entire career. Being a manager is not being a coder. They are very different.
Also, he doesn't have knowledge of what Signal services are doing internally so his comment is simply speculation.
You seem to hate my condemnation of his coding skills, but my condemnation of his twitter comment is no worse than his own mockery of Signal; a free service serving the community.
Elon Musk, afaiac is a rich asshole who doesn't do shit to contribute. If he is so great, where is his free replacement for Signal that is far better hmm? He can certainly afford to hire some people who actually know how to code to write it for him.
You need to relax. Yes his comment is speculation, does that mean he is necessarily wrong? He is giving his first-thought analysis of what might be the problem at Signal. Is that such a crime?
The recent release of the details of Signal stack requirements is rather damning. I actually agree based on it that they are likely doing things badly.
I don't though think that Musk had that information when he made his off the cuff pronouncement. I think he just says whatever he feels like and everyone automatically assumes he is correct because of his success/riches. This is my main objection to him. Respecting someones opinion and assuming they are correct because they are rich is just plain disgusting. Society should be better than this.
I also think that someone in his position should not be mocking a company that provides a free service. It just makes him look like an ass imo. In turn it makes me think that those who upvote that shit here on Hacker News are sheep.
If he gave some reasonable explanation or details, then fine. If he used reasonable capacity planning and some sort of evidence to demonstrate that such an accusation is reasonable, fine. He didn't.
This is what happened: Musk thinks to himself "Signal is better than Whatsapp, I should recommend Signal and people will think I'm awesome." His recommendation of Signal was merely the statement of an attention whore. Signal was obviously better for so long. Anyone worth anything in security / tech knew this a long time ago.
After Musk recommended Signal, it blew up in his face because they couldn't handle the capacity increase immediately due to his recommendation. This makes Musk look bad, because he just recommended them. So what does Musk do? Musk denounces and mocks Signal.
This is why Musk is an asshole and deserves to be mocked and attacked. It is all a fucking publicity stunt to him. He doesn't give a shit about security or helping out Signal. All he cares about is acting like king of the world. Fuck him.
I certainly do see what you're saying. I think at least 40-60% of what Musk says at any given time is pure sci-fi speculation or hype around an upcoming product/company. I also find it obnoxious how his fanboys and fangirls mindlessly clap at any word he says, like some sort of Pavlovian chimps. On this we cannot agree more.
However, whatever his motivation, I think the guy is genuinely intelligent. It's tough to not admit this. His mere intuition is fair match for the experience of many seasoned engineers (if what we read about him is true). Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do think he donated to the Signal foundation. At the very least he has put money where his mouth is.
Elon has been married three times and is working on number four. He's fathered seven children. I think he absolutely knows something about scaling the server side.
Somehow he also found time to invent self-driving cars and send a rocket to Mars, and car into orbit. I only have three children and I could barely manage making breakfast for them, forget about going to Mars.
If he knows so much about scaling he should know that, in most cases, the crappy quality of most server side code is irrelevant because it can be compensated for. If he was the amazing businessman that he pretends to be he would make a convincing criticism as to the lack of funds that led to inability to handle the load, not an immature and idiotic remark like he did.
You know why he has been married so many times? My opinion is because the guy is a fucking dick. I am married and remain married. Zero divorce? Why? I'm not a dick.
Sending a rocket to Mars is useless. Self driving cars haven't improved the world for anyone. I'll agree that the advancement in tech is good over time, and that the change in regulations is positive, but I don't think Musk is the humanitarian he is thought to be.
Paxil is an SSRI. They are ineffective in treating what is wrong with me. They also make me feel suicidal. I can't take them. The doctors who recommended SSRI in my youth have no fucking idea what is wrong with me.
The only thing I've even seen that addresses my issue is benzos but they are extremely dangerous.
I was told by multiple psychiatrists that I should be on a heavy dose of benzos for life but I don't take them because I think they are too dangerous.
A dose of benzos that is enough to knock a normal person on the floor passed out just makes me feel normal.
Hmm. Alright I'll buy that. That is at least a sensible reason why this reached front page.
It still disgusts me that we are elevating random tweets from this guy to being major news. Please can we elevate tiny ideas of people who know wtf they are talking about to an equal level?
Who is “we”? There’s thousands of HNers and someone posted his tweet for discussion.
If you hate him so much, you could’ve easily ignored this amidst the hundreds of daily HN posts. Maybe you need to take a step back and evaluate why you’re posting such long anti-Elon rants?
"Why in the holy fuck do any of you give a single shit about Musk's opinions on software engineering? He isn't a software engineer."
My thoughts exactly. I don't think he's very recent with his programming skills. Sure, he wrote code back in the day, but the industry has moved on quite a bit. Please show me I'm wrong if I am, it's always nice to learn new things.
