Elon Musk formally changed Twitter’s name to the “X” in July, bolting the symbol to the top of the social network’s San Francisco headquarters and replacing Larry the Bird, its mascot since 2012, with a dirty black logo shortly thereafter. strengthened the rebrand with
Linda Yacarino, the new CEO of X, announced At the time of the rebrand: “X is the future state of boundless interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’ve only just begun to imagine.
Mr Musk had already renamed the company X Corp in March, six months after acquiring the company for $44 million, at the time he described the purchase as “X, an Accelerator to Build Everything Apps”His vision for a multipurpose competitor to China’s WeChat.
The decision was the latest example of the entrepreneur’s preoccupation with the 24th letter of the alphabet: his first business venture was X.com, he shortened Space Exploration Technologies Corp. to SpaceX, he launched the Tesla Model X and a new artificial intelligence startup The name of is XAI.
He even calls his son X Æ A-12, X for short.
So what is this obsession about and where did it start?
His first venture, X.com, was an online banking and financial services platform launched in Palo Alto, California in 1999 that eventually merged with Confinity to form PayPal, which was later sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. given. Mr Musk used some of the capital he earned to set up SpaceX as its largest shareholder.
Former PayPal executive Julie Anderson Enkenbrandt explained in a 2016 Quora post how Mr Musk’s platform got its name.
“Elon, the other founder of the company that was on hand as to whether Q, X or Z should be dot com,” he wrote.
“Finally, when the waitress/female server brought out the next round of drinks, Elon asked her what she thought, and she said she liked[d] X.Com. Elon thumped the table and said ‘That’s it!’ And everybody laughed, but that’s almost what was decided in the end.”
Not everyone was happy with the decision, according to Mr. Musk’s biographer Ashley Vance, who told NPR: “Everyone tried to talk him out of naming the company because of the sexual assault, but he really didn’t Loved it and they stuck with it. ,
He liked the name so much that he bought the X.com domain from PayPal back in 2017 and thanked the company in a tweet, stating that it was “great sentimental value” Him. The domain now redirects to the social network which has since taken its old nickname.
Elsewhere, the Tesla Model X – a mid-size luxury crossover SUV with falcon wing doors – was named so that, along with three other models, the range spells out “S3XY”, which gives you an idea of Mr Musk’s weird sense of humor. Information will be available in
As far as her son is concerned, the boy’s mother Grimes explained in one of her tweets that this symbol is used to represent anything in algebra. unknown variablePerhaps suggesting that the child is free to grow up to be whatever they want to be.
Twitter’s rebranding to X sparked much discussion about the letter’s potential significance (or lack thereof) with Lora Kelly. the Atlantic Writing: “The letter is interspersed with references as diverse as Christian symbolism, middle-school-math equations, gender neutrality, pornography, a kiss.”
In psychology todayLeon F. Selzer discussed its “nihilistic” values, noting that it ranged from the Nazi swastika to the skull and crossbones danger warning on the poison bottle, to Roman numerals, voting and Christmas (at least when in short form). ) is concerned with everything until Christmas”) and so can mean both everything and nothing.
meanwhile the new York TimesStella Bugbee suggested that this choice was arguably a bit out-of-date and perhaps represents a case of Mr Musk, appropriately enough, showing his age as a member of Generation X.
He explained, “For marketing purposes in the 1990s, the X had a certain allure.” “It provided a rejection of authority.”
While this observation is true of the cultural collapse of the millennium such as the arrival of Microsoft’s Xbox in 2001 or Vin Diesel’s action film. XXX (2002), it has been used in similar ways before and since: for example, on country star Loretta Lynn’s infamous-lover 1972 single “Rated X” or the 1980s Los Angeles punk band X or the more recent Think Ti. west horror movie X (2022).
As Lora Kelly said: “X both reinforces absence and electrifies objects with meaning. It is holy and profane.
