> Shortly before the interview, Mr. Bankman-Fried had posted a cryptic tweet: the word “What.” Then he had tweeted the letter H. Asked to explain, Mr. Bankman-Fried said he planned to post the letter A and then the letter P. “It’s going to be more than one word,” he said. “I’m making it up as I go.”
> So he was planning a series of cryptic tweets? “Something like that.”
> But why? “I don’t know,” he said. “I’m improvising. I think it’s time.”
I think he's still winging it, and that he's taken it in a pretty weird direction. I think he's trying to pull off some sort of hail-mary. In the Tiffany Fong interview [2], it seemed like he was trying to manufacture popular support for a return to FTX. He had a story about how he shouldn't have filed for bankruptcy, how money came in immediately afterwards, and how "they" weren't letting him fix things at the company even though "they" knew he could.
It was an odd yarn, but the only purpose for it I can imagine is trying to drum up a pressure campaign so he could be reinstalled as CEO.
So I don't think he's exactly trying to stay out of jail, I think he's experimenting to try and figure out what might be possible and whether he can somehow come out on top. But that it's desperate and inept so it's just baffling from the outside and almost looks like he's trying to go to jail. But I do think he's doing it out of his own will.
Wasn't that tweet supposed to be cryptic? Right before he announced the stock spilt? I mean, he's surely a smart dude and a master in 140 character public manipulation. We'll never know but it's sure entertaining to watch.
I think he’s definitely trying to look like a cutthroat, willing to strip down the company to its essentials and reintroduce a sort of startup culture. The fact that his efforts have also made Twitter and himself a bit of a laughing stock are an unfortunate side effect to how poorly and clumsily he's executed this plan.
I think one of the Twitter execs is the CEO. This entire exercise is to allow him to distance himself from the dumpster he set on fire.
It's not him kidding. Also his "humor", stolen memes aside, 9/10 times only used to mask unexpected turn of events behind the scenes (such as being sued about something he said, or something turning out really, really wrong).
He was kinda forced to buy twitter in the end. He made a bid, but then the marketed turned red, and then didn’t want to buy it anymore. Now he is stuck with a company which generates less earnings than the interest costs from the buyout credits.
That’s also why he is even firing the kitchen staff and selling their kitchen appliances. He is so desperate for money to keep this company from bankrup.
Which is also probably the reason why he plays with QAnon stuff. I think he is speculating on someone to take twitter away from him. Maybe.
Yeah, it seems like he's always distracted with one outlandish project or another, but maybe since he's imploding Twitter in such a dramatic, public fashion it's finally waking investors up to that fact.
I really thought that the most logical explanation for his behavior was that his plan was always to destroy Twitter due to it being a haven for journalists and activists that pester the rich and powerful.
This seemed especially plausible considering his Saudi government co-investors, and thinking back to the destruction of Gawker as a precedent.
The alternative that he really is trying to make it succeed and is hopelessly incompetent seemed untenable, but I also couldn't believe that his actions would make it succeed.
$44 billion was an unreasonable amount to spend on the face of it, but ever since he capitulated in his court fight, I've been thinking what if it was a charade to manipulate the stock, and he or his associates defrayed a lot of the sticker price by trading on the knowledge that he would go through with the purchase?
But now I admit I am starting to wonder if my theory was incorrect - maybe he really did want to do something with it that isn't working out. Or maybe he's just committed to the bit.
A lot of what he's tweeting and or replying to is completely fabricated trolling everyone stuff.
Maybe he's trying to burn it to thr ground to hide something ... pardon conspiracy theory but it's just weird that someone goes and spends $44 billion and takes negative action after negative action against your new shiny toy.
Though maybe he knows what and who is needed only to run Twitter and all the others were just sitting at home or on the beach working an hour to two a day yet getting paid $150 to 500K a year for a full time job they far from worked.
Those may be more passion projects for him. But he's also violated labor law, safety regulations, committed SEC violations, and so on.
But if you want history of using his money for extreme trolling, just look at the whole Hyperloop thing, where he admitted it was a troll.
He's had a lot of disdain for Twitter in the past. He's laughed at people he's kicked out already. The Twitter story is one giant troll. If, somehow, it manages to get any kind of success, he wins. If it fails, he writes it off and moves on to the next sociopathic experience.
Previous, I thought the "he's trying to destroy Twitter along with a good chunk of his own fortune" idea was ludicrous. I assumed he was trying his best, in his own way, and would take a few months to rediscover how to run things. Eventually end up a good business, somewhat more Free than before.
I'm not sure what he could be criminally charged with - neither he nor anyone else at the company sold stock and profited from his idiotic tweets. I believe you actually need to profit from manipulation in order for it to enter the realm of criminal.
Desperate people do desperate things. He's staring down the barrel of a $1B/year debt service and a collapsing reputation. That reputation is how he convinces investors to keep giving him money while timelines keep getting pushed years into the future. He's the guy who landed two rockets on live TV (oversimplified, but you know reality distortion fields). If he becomes the guy who fumbled Twitter after playing up how good he would be for it, it's over.
This is how "Do No Evil" Google started mining data and buying up the nascent AdTech industry. They weren't mustache-twirling villains, they were desperate to save the company with antsy investors breathing down their necks. They had to do something to justify themselves to investors post-.com bust, and all that data was right there.
Sounds like laying the groundwork for stock manipulation. There is a subtle threat there, that he might dump those shares if people vote that Twitter is not a free speech place.
This article is two days old. Over the past 48 hours, he's managed to get even worse at this by getting the entire remainder of the leadership team to resign.
And now he's under FTC investigation for forcing Twitter to violate it's decrees.
> Shortly before the interview, Mr. Bankman-Fried had posted a cryptic tweet: the word “What.” Then he had tweeted the letter H. Asked to explain, Mr. Bankman-Fried said he planned to post the letter A and then the letter P. “It’s going to be more than one word,” he said. “I’m making it up as I go.”
> So he was planning a series of cryptic tweets? “Something like that.”
> But why? “I don’t know,” he said. “I’m improvising. I think it’s time.”
I think he's still winging it, and that he's taken it in a pretty weird direction. I think he's trying to pull off some sort of hail-mary. In the Tiffany Fong interview [2], it seemed like he was trying to manufacture popular support for a return to FTX. He had a story about how he shouldn't have filed for bankruptcy, how money came in immediately afterwards, and how "they" weren't letting him fix things at the company even though "they" knew he could.
It was an odd yarn, but the only purpose for it I can imagine is trying to drum up a pressure campaign so he could be reinstalled as CEO.
So I don't think he's exactly trying to stay out of jail, I think he's experimenting to try and figure out what might be possible and whether he can somehow come out on top. But that it's desperate and inept so it's just baffling from the outside and almost looks like he's trying to go to jail. But I do think he's doing it out of his own will.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/11/30/business/sam-bankman...
http://web.archive.org/web/20221115024748/https://www.nytime...
[2] https://youtu.be/6DezodR9hNI
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