Character Limit

What Hacker News says

1. devindotcomJul 2026
   I know what you mean, but there is a reasonable distinction to be made especially for living persons. An "authorized" biography would be something like what Isaacson does, where they get exclusive access, anecdotes, and importantly confirmation or denial of certain facts or stories.

   An "unauthorized" biography is not necessarily suspect but it is kind of a subgenre. Consider the difference between Isaacson's Musk biography and the work done by Kate and Ryan for Character Limit (https://www.amazon.com/Character-Limit-Elon-Destroyed-Twitte...) - not exactly a biography but the legwork is fundamentally different, reportorial or even adversarial where the narrative gets challenged, as opposed to accepted by the "authorized" Isaacson.

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2. zellynJan 2025
   To be fair (and I'm a big fan of Drew), it seems unlikely that Jack could have prevented the sale of Twitter to Musk.

   I'm part-way through the book “Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter” by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, and so far I can recommend it. It's not necessarily perfect writing (they do _not_ think highly of Jack, nor really any other tech-bros), but definitely informative.

   [Disclaimer: I have been an employee at Square/Block for nine years now, so I technically work for Jack. Luckily, we have the kind of work culture where my openly bemoaning his blockchain obsession has not (yet) had any (obvious) negative consequences… although tbh I would be _extremely_ surprised if he even recognized my name or face.]

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3. sethops1Dec 2024
   Character Limit by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac
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4. reddaloJan 2026
   I also feel like nobody uses Twitter anymore, after Musk bought it. Now it's just random scammers and "tech bros".

   It doesn't surprise me at all, after reading "Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter" by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac. Interesting behind the scenes of what happened to Twitter.

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