Notices by John Bull (garius@mastodon.me.uk), page 5

@Milouchkna yup

@dshan people really don't realise how FAST it was all moving back then. It was a crazy time to be in tech

@wsrphoto well there's no-one to coup him this time.

@avirr @Globaltom I remember selling heat.com for about five grand to a UK magazine.

@regis i've tried to avoid that and make it factual while interesting.

I'm not in the business of making stuff up.

@nebulos The Founders by Jimmy Soni for this particular subject.

@garius As a very casual observer, I’ve always seen the tale spun as Elon being the founder of PayPal, and that’s how he initially made his fortune. The whole Twitter saga has brought a lot to light!

@tsaylor as per other replies:

- Memory (I'm older than I look! Been in webtech since I was 18 in 1998)
- Contemporary articles
- various books

I highly recommend The Founders by Jimmy Soni if the history of PayPal interests you.

@garius

What is extremely odd is how Musk continues to do business and politics with Thiel.

Thiel has demonstrated over and over his utter lack of trustworthiness in any capacity.

Thiel made Facebook into Russia's favorite anti-democracy disinformation vehicle & got Trump into the presidency.

Musk is rapidly converting Twitter into a vehicle for a Coup 2.0.

Larry Ellison, David Sacks, Thiel and Musk are still part of an ongoing seditious conspiracy. Together.

@Npars01 While Thiel and Musk dislike each other, they're also both massive narcissists and capable of separating "personal" from "business".

They recognise each other (or at least Thiel did at the time) as useful shitheads.

Within WEEKS of couping Musk out of X/PayPal, Thiel was one of Musk's main investors in SpaceX.

@Richard_ogilvie a good question! certainly a good deal for them.

They'd have been diluted into B Stock when the merger happened, but if they hung onto them they'd have made an absolute KILLING still when eBay bought PayPal.

@jamieb he's absolutely critical to it's early days, no doubt.

But it gets skipped over that PayPal becomes PayPal DESPITE Musk, not because of him.

He profits from what it became, not what he was determined to make it into.

And if he'd not been couped, chances are PayPal would have been just another DotCom with a grand plan that failed when it stopped being able to raise funding.

@htpcnz Also hates people knowing when he's on a plane now.

@kylecordes both Musk's supporters and haters want him to be doing 4D chess.

Because we LIKE smart heroes/villians.

The reality is Musk is just grasping at ideas from his past that he still thinks are amazing, and is no longer surrounded by people who'll tell him he's wrong.

@LizEllisPhD nah, back then to investors it was as much:

"He SOUNDS like he knows what he's talking about, and his LAST company sold for $300m so..."

Musk is devastated and furious.

"Sneaky Backstabbing Bastards." He describes them as, but to his credit recognises he can't fight it and presents a public image it was a mutual decision.

Thiel becomes interim (and later permanent) CEO, orders the end of V2 and a focus on PayPal /22

Hopefully you can see the roots of this whole X pivot thing now. Musk has decided that the way to save Twitter and regain his genius status is to fall back on his unrealised vision from 1999.

Build "the world's financial nexus" as he described it then. /23

I think it's a TERRIBLE idea. The world's moved on. He's doing the tech equivalent of drunk-DMing his highschool girlfriend to tell her she's still hot.

But you can see the origins now. He thinks this is the genius idea that got away. And that this time nobody can coup him. /24

Anyway, hope that's useful context. None of what's going on is surprising if you lived through it or have studied it. You just have to get past the hagiography Silicon Valley creates around it's "great men"

If this was useful you can buy me a coffee here: ko-fi.com/garius /END

@foresterr @CGM yup. I will admit I love a bit of creative verbing.

It's a fun way to stretch, but not break, the language.