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> Longtime Musk associates David Sacks and Jason Calacanis appeared in a company directory over the weekend, according to photos obtained by The Washington Post

> Longtime Musk associates David Sacks and Jason Calacanis appeared in a company directory over the weekend, according to photos obtained by The Washington Post. Both had official company emails and their titles were "staff software engineer." Do either of these guys even know how to program? Calacanis has been making tech content for decades, and I've never once heard him talk about writing code.

hotpotamus 4y ago
Twitter probably didn't have a pre-existing title for "Member of the Musk Entourage" so they just found what they considered the next closest thing.
- dmix 4y ago
  It's an obvious meaningless formality, not sure why it's news.
  - ethanbond 4y ago
    Because it's kind of odd for someone who makes such a big deal about high performing engineering orgs to hire his non-technical buddies into top tier engineering roles? Why not hire them into "Chief of Staff" or "Chief of Fuck You Parag" roles?
    - dmix 4y ago
      Do you seriously think that these two advisors he brought in for a weekend are now their top engineers? They both have plenty of experience running tech companies and are advising on structuring the team… I know everyone’s trying to jump on the hate bandwagon but this is a stretch.
      - ethanbond 4y ago
        Well, no, because if I thought that was the case then it wouldn't be silly that they have a top engineering title. I'm saying that it is silly. I agree this is a bottom-of-the-list issue, but it does strike me as weird even for Elon.
      - superfrank 4y ago
        I don't work at Twitter, so I don't really care what they call themselves. That being said, at every company I've ever worked at the people who have responsibilities like "running tech companies and [...] advising on strutting the team" usually have manager, director, or VP titles. It is a little odd to give a staff software engineer title to someone who isn't able to write code. Like I said though, I have no horse in this race, so whatever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- georgeg23 4y ago
  Musk thinks everything is software engineering, including the universe.
MentallyRetired 4y ago
Mahalo was such a success, I can see why getting put on as a staff engineer makes sense. Calacanis was already a twit long before twitter was around.
joegahona 4y ago
Sacks knows his stuff. Calacanis is more of a henchman and acknowledged begrudgingly on the All-In Podcast that he's incapable of coding.
boeingUH60 4y ago
Sacks runs a VC firm with over $1 billion under management [1]…Staff Software Engineer is a big demotion for him, lol 1 - https://medium.com/craft-ventures/announcing-craft-iii-1-1-billion-for-saas-and-marketplaces-c3c34448db17 https://medium.com/craft-ventures/announcing-craft-iii-1-1-b...

hotpotamus 4y ago

Twitter probably didn't have a pre-existing title for "Member of the Musk Entourage" so they just found what they considered the next closest thing.

dmix 4y ago
It's an obvious meaningless formality, not sure why it's news.
- ethanbond 4y ago
  Because it's kind of odd for someone who makes such a big deal about high performing engineering orgs to hire his non-technical buddies into top tier engineering roles? Why not hire them into "Chief of Staff" or "Chief of Fuck You Parag" roles?
  - dmix 4y ago
    Do you seriously think that these two advisors he brought in for a weekend are now their top engineers? They both have plenty of experience running tech companies and are advising on structuring the team… I know everyone’s trying to jump on the hate bandwagon but this is a stretch.
    - ethanbond 4y ago
      Well, no, because if I thought that was the case then it wouldn't be silly that they have a top engineering title. I'm saying that it is silly. I agree this is a bottom-of-the-list issue, but it does strike me as weird even for Elon.
    - superfrank 4y ago
      I don't work at Twitter, so I don't really care what they call themselves. That being said, at every company I've ever worked at the people who have responsibilities like "running tech companies and [...] advising on strutting the team" usually have manager, director, or VP titles. It is a little odd to give a staff software engineer title to someone who isn't able to write code. Like I said though, I have no horse in this race, so whatever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
georgeg23 4y ago
Musk thinks everything is software engineering, including the universe.

MentallyRetired 4y ago

Mahalo was such a success, I can see why getting put on as a staff engineer makes sense. Calacanis was already a twit long before twitter was around.

joegahona 4y ago

Sacks knows his stuff. Calacanis is more of a henchman and acknowledged begrudgingly on the All-In Podcast that he's incapable of coding.

boeingUH60 4y ago

Sacks runs a VC firm with over $1 billion under management [1]…Staff Software Engineer is a big demotion for him, lol 1 - https://medium.com/craft-ventures/announcing-craft-iii-1-1-billion-for-saas-and-marketplaces-c3c34448db17 https://medium.com/craft-ventures/announcing-craft-iii-1-1-b...