5 ms·

Musk takes heat from Twitter employees at town hall

30 points by samizdis 4y ago

badwolf 4y ago
"Remote work harms morale" ... "employees said they had a hard time hearing Musk, who appeared to be videoconferencing on his phone from a hotel room"
- throw457 4y ago
  Just get your managers Lavalier microphones they are cheap every idiot can use them and you will be actually able to her them without going deaf.
- AzzieElbab 4y ago
  They didn’t say the employees were physically present at the office either
- whateveracct 4y ago
  My favorite thing is remote work exec hypocrisy. So easy to hate. Like that Google guy who moved to New Zealand.
NickRandom 4y ago
On why Twitter employees should trust him: "Trust is as trust does." ... says the man that repeatedly promises F.S.D. is 'Coming soon/Next year' etc... Truer words were never spoken I guess.
- memish 4y ago
  Did he ever promise a date? AFAIK he only ever gave estimates. As any engineer knows, estimates are hard and tend to be too optimistic, especially with new tech.
  - dont__panic 4y ago
    Musk has repeatedly supplied dates a year or two in the future for self driving, robotaxi, etc. capabilities: https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a35350331/checking-in-on-all-the-promises-elon-musk-and-tesla-have-made/ https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a35350331/checking-in-on-a... Sure, you can chalk that up as an estimate. But he says these things with such specific confidence, and supplies an exact year, to a point where he's not really "estimating" how long something will take -- he's making a promise, and breaking it. Because Elon fans will make up excuse after excuse for him.
- electrondood 4y ago
  Has he ever made promises? To my recollection, FSD dates have only ever been estimates. Considering autonomy is such a difficult problem to solve, I think this is entirely reasonable.
  - strathmeyer 4y ago
    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=elon+musk+promises https://duckduckgo.com/?q=elon+musk+promises
twtrgrunt 4y ago
I hope people get a chance to watched the video if/when(already?) is leaked. It was embarrassing for him. That was so weird, he is incompetent. He has no ability to explain himself or share his thoughts in a way that makes any sense. Showing up 10minutes late to start with a weird 15min ramble... how is that a good idea?
- mountainriver 4y ago
  Are you projecting? And how would you know?
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - occamrazor 4y ago
    The username suggests GP works for Twitter.
    - wut42 4y ago
      And their post history says: "still speculation without being an employee"
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
- ditonal 4y ago
  I watched the whole thing by (friend leaked it to me). Was pretty unremarkable, mostly softball questions, and to extent he took controversial opinions he expressed them in very soft ambiguous ways. Remote work being a good example, he’s saying someone can be remote if they do great work which raises the question of what great work is. But if anything he downplayed his insisted on RTO by saying he pushed for it at Tesla since you can’t make cars remotely unlike software. If you hate Elon , that’s your opinion , clearly many Twitter employees don’t want him. But if you think that if these videos are leaked people will agree that it was embarrassing, you will be disappointed. It was an extreme dry and boring interview and if there was any aspect that stood out it was how low energy the whole thing was.
ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago
"Advancing civilization or consciousness." I think he plays a character. Larping a world saver.
- throwaway879080 4y ago
TrapLord_Rhodo 4y ago
>If Musk had anything new to tell the world about his plans, he didn't choose to share it with his future employees, and rather than wooing them, he threw down a gauntlet: "If someone is getting useful things done, great. if not, why are they at the company? I disagree with the conclusion of this article. The vibe i got from this presentation is that musk will abolish the CEO title, Call himself some whaky name related to product, fire around 20% of the company and turn Twitter into a American WeChat. Making no judgements on whether thats a good thing, but Twitter will become a 'Musk Company". And like other Musk company's, he will cut costs until the company is 'break-even'.
- 999900000999 4y ago
  >Making no judgements on whether thats a good thing, but Twitter will become a 'Musk Company". And like other Musk company's, he will cut costs until the company is 'break-even Isn't that how purchasing companies works?
  - TrapLord_Rhodo 4y ago
    No, not usually. When a company is acquired it is rolled up into the company purchasing it, brings in some fresh funding to start in another direction, with a dedicated 'team' going forward to run the org, etc. etc. Sometimes this is done for strategic reasons, or plain and simple acquihires. Deals are not usually done by a single individual pooling capital from various places to take a public entity private. There are obvious examples where this has happened in the past, but no - this is not a normal acquisition by any means.
- hazyc 4y ago
  The fact that anyone still thinks American consumers are analogous to Chinese consumers is surprising to me. An American version of WeChat, although it sounds cool (maybe?) at a very high level, is incredibly unlikely to happen. Spending so much time on Twitter must have warped his perception on this one.
  - TrapLord_Rhodo 4y ago
TheCoelacanth 4y ago
> On aliens: "I have seen no actual evidence for aliens," he said, although that does not seem to have been one of the questions employees were asking. Suspiciously specific denial...
Imnimo 4y ago
It's like giving a presentation for a class that you know you're going to drop anyway.
RobertWHurst 4y ago
Oh look another Elon musk hit piece. Can we stop posting five of these a day please. I understand that a lot of people feel like it's their religious goal to attack him, amd we all get he's not perfect, but this is just getting tedious. It's extremely transparent why these articles are being written and why.

30 points by samizdis 4y ago

"Remote work harms morale" ... "employees said they had a hard time hearing Musk, who appeared to be videoconferencing on his phone from a hotel room"

throw457 4y ago
Just get your managers Lavalier microphones they are cheap every idiot can use them and you will be actually able to her them without going deaf.
AzzieElbab 4y ago
They didn’t say the employees were physically present at the office either
whateveracct 4y ago
My favorite thing is remote work exec hypocrisy. So easy to hate. Like that Google guy who moved to New Zealand.

NickRandom 4y ago

On why Twitter employees should trust him: "Trust is as trust does." ... says the man that repeatedly promises F.S.D. is 'Coming soon/Next year' etc... Truer words were never spoken I guess.

memish 4y ago
Did he ever promise a date? AFAIK he only ever gave estimates. As any engineer knows, estimates are hard and tend to be too optimistic, especially with new tech.
- dont__panic 4y ago
  Musk has repeatedly supplied dates a year or two in the future for self driving, robotaxi, etc. capabilities: https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a35350331/checking-in-on-all-the-promises-elon-musk-and-tesla-have-made/ https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a35350331/checking-in-on-a... Sure, you can chalk that up as an estimate. But he says these things with such specific confidence, and supplies an exact year, to a point where he's not really "estimating" how long something will take -- he's making a promise, and breaking it. Because Elon fans will make up excuse after excuse for him.
electrondood 4y ago
Has he ever made promises? To my recollection, FSD dates have only ever been estimates. Considering autonomy is such a difficult problem to solve, I think this is entirely reasonable.
- strathmeyer 4y ago
  https://duckduckgo.com/?q=elon+musk+promises https://duckduckgo.com/?q=elon+musk+promises

twtrgrunt 4y ago

I hope people get a chance to watched the video if/when(already?) is leaked. It was embarrassing for him. That was so weird, he is incompetent. He has no ability to explain himself or share his thoughts in a way that makes any sense. Showing up 10minutes late to start with a weird 15min ramble... how is that a good idea?

mountainriver 4y ago
Are you projecting? And how would you know?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- occamrazor 4y ago
  The username suggests GP works for Twitter.
  - wut42 4y ago
    And their post history says: "still speculation without being an employee"
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
ditonal 4y ago
I watched the whole thing by (friend leaked it to me). Was pretty unremarkable, mostly softball questions, and to extent he took controversial opinions he expressed them in very soft ambiguous ways. Remote work being a good example, he’s saying someone can be remote if they do great work which raises the question of what great work is. But if anything he downplayed his insisted on RTO by saying he pushed for it at Tesla since you can’t make cars remotely unlike software. If you hate Elon , that’s your opinion , clearly many Twitter employees don’t want him. But if you think that if these videos are leaked people will agree that it was embarrassing, you will be disappointed. It was an extreme dry and boring interview and if there was any aspect that stood out it was how low energy the whole thing was.

ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago

"Advancing civilization or consciousness." I think he plays a character. Larping a world saver.

throwaway879080 4y ago

TrapLord_Rhodo 4y ago

>If Musk had anything new to tell the world about his plans, he didn't choose to share it with his future employees, and rather than wooing them, he threw down a gauntlet: "If someone is getting useful things done, great. if not, why are they at the company? I disagree with the conclusion of this article. The vibe i got from this presentation is that musk will abolish the CEO title, Call himself some whaky name related to product, fire around 20% of the company and turn Twitter into a American WeChat. Making no judgements on whether thats a good thing, but Twitter will become a 'Musk Company". And like other Musk company's, he will cut costs until the company is 'break-even'.

999900000999 4y ago
>Making no judgements on whether thats a good thing, but Twitter will become a 'Musk Company". And like other Musk company's, he will cut costs until the company is 'break-even Isn't that how purchasing companies works?
- TrapLord_Rhodo 4y ago
  No, not usually. When a company is acquired it is rolled up into the company purchasing it, brings in some fresh funding to start in another direction, with a dedicated 'team' going forward to run the org, etc. etc. Sometimes this is done for strategic reasons, or plain and simple acquihires. Deals are not usually done by a single individual pooling capital from various places to take a public entity private. There are obvious examples where this has happened in the past, but no - this is not a normal acquisition by any means.
hazyc 4y ago
The fact that anyone still thinks American consumers are analogous to Chinese consumers is surprising to me. An American version of WeChat, although it sounds cool (maybe?) at a very high level, is incredibly unlikely to happen. Spending so much time on Twitter must have warped his perception on this one.
- TrapLord_Rhodo 4y ago

TheCoelacanth 4y ago

> On aliens: "I have seen no actual evidence for aliens," he said, although that does not seem to have been one of the questions employees were asking. Suspiciously specific denial...

Imnimo 4y ago

It's like giving a presentation for a class that you know you're going to drop anyway.

RobertWHurst 4y ago

Oh look another Elon musk hit piece. Can we stop posting five of these a day please. I understand that a lot of people feel like it's their religious goal to attack him, amd we all get he's not perfect, but this is just getting tedious. It's extremely transparent why these articles are being written and why.