Obsidian Wings

The X-files

by liberal japonicus

Thought I'd crack open a thread on X (i.e. ex-Twitter). This is an old article about what the X might have meant. The hole article is a fun look at what X could mean, but a pull graf

X can symbolize divinity and harmony as a symmetrical letter, but references to death, toxicity and the concept of error (cast yourselves back to your schooldays) are never far. With this in mind, Twitter’s new logo feels oddly perfect when taking into account X as the visual representation of two paths crossing. A pair of souls meet and, having failed to establish respectful dialogue or settle on a middle-ground, continue on their original momentum and go their own separate ways. A failed connection, representing a defeat of dialogue in a splintered digital world that was intended to unite in connection, but only succeeded in fostering division.

A pretty apt encapsulation of the Twitter platform, all things considered.

What has me post about this is the Guardian note

Another line of reasoning is that Musk wants to kill Twitter because his investment was in user accounts rather than a social network. There’s a mysterious method to his madness and he wants to destroy the current business model so he can transform it into something a lot more profitable.

Lou Paskalis, former head of global media at Bank of America, seems to be one of the proponents of this theory. “[Musk] is smart, he knows it’s illegal – although usually hard to prove – to intentionally devalue an asset to manipulate creditors, and he knows how to make money so I have to believe he sees an entirely new revenue model that the rest of us don’t yet recognize,” Paskalis told Business Insider. In other words, everything that looks like self-sabotage to the common man is actually a genius business decision.

It’s possible that there is some substance to these theories. But it’s also possible that the simplest answer is the correct one: Musk is a narcissist who has let his enormous ego get in the way of making sensible business decisions. He’s realized that he can’t actually make X profitable so he’s letting it all burn to the ground while casting himself as some sort of free speech martyr.

Again, I don’t know exactly what’s going on in Musk’s brain (I’m not sure he does either) but I do know this: theories that Musk is playing some sort of four-dimensional chess with his bizarre decisions and unprofessional outbursts demonstrate that an awful lot of people find it hard to believe that a rich white guy might not be as smart as he thinks.

I'd put my money on the latter.

I've never been a big Twitter user. Balloon Juice moves to fast for me to keep up, so Twitter is like that Star Trek episode where the aliens are all sped up. And that's just in English. I made an attempt to follow it in Japanese, but it was like drinking from a firehose. Anyway, a thread about Musk's Bonfire of the Vanities or anything else you want to talk about.

a post Black Friday open thread

by liberal japonicus

This is the year that Japanese started to take to the idea of Black Friday, though, as is usual with the Japanese, they don't quite understand it. This article from 2016 suggested that it was being considered:

We are now approaching the end of the nenmatsu shosen (year-end sales war), arguably Japan’s most tumultuous period of consumer activity. The question arises: Is there room in the calendar for another slice of commerce?

Maybe. An article in the Shukan Shincho magazine of 1 December looks enviously at the popularity of Black Friday in the United States. Taking place the day after Thanksgiving, when the Christmas shopping season begins in earnest, the term “black” is said to refer to the fact that many US retailers operate at a deficit for much of the year, and so count on the frenzy of year-end shopping to move them out of the red and into the black.

The red ink/black ink explanation seems to be a just-so story, Wikipedia has it as actually arising from police complaints about shoppers in Philadelphia.

It has apparently been floating around here in Japan, and primarily for online shopping, but this year, it seems to have become actual rather than virtual. However, as Japanese are wont to do, they haven't really gotten the concept, as my local grocery store had items like chesnuts and mochi (Japanese rice cakes) marked with Black Friday stickers.

Anyway, an open post black Friday thread.

Just an old-fashioned open thread

by liberal japonicus

Been a bit, so here you go. Altman and OpenAI, possible ceasefire in Gaza, right wing rising in the Netherlands and Argentina, Have at it.