4 ms·

To be honest, I was a fan and explained away every offense he has made to date UNTIL he fired the Twitter Android app engineer publicly on Twitter. I felt that

by bentt 4y ago

To be honest, I was a fan and explained away every offense he has made to date UNTIL he fired the Twitter Android app engineer publicly on Twitter. I felt that this engineer was engaging Elon about the problems at hand in a way that was admirable considering the circumstances. It was like the engineer knew he was falling on the sword, but at the same time was rational in his explanations of the current state of the app. I felt like he was being constructive. When Elon decided that this type of person needed to go, I flipped on him. He might succeed, but I really don't like him any more. To him it's the cost of doing business, but in my opinion that single event will put more of a chill on his future hiring than any of his prior bullshit.

Workaccount2 4y ago
Elon publicly apologized that the android app was terrible, without naming anyone. Then this guy responded publicly calling out Elon. I don't know any CEO that would be cool with that. If Elon named him, sure, rip him apart. But Elon simply referenced the android app, and this guy took it personally in the worst way.
- taylodl 4y ago
  So in other words Elon is just like every other CEO in your estimation? Wasn't the whole point of the image Elon has been building that he's somehow different from everybody else? Then he reveals himself to just be the same old same old crap we've become accustomed to.
- AlexandrB 4y ago
  My read on that thread was that Elon was the one who took being corrected personally. The guy just pointed out that what Elon said about "1000 requests" was not correct nor was it the root cause of the performance issue Elon mentioned. If he had just said "sorry the Android app is slow, we're working on it", I suspect no one would have replied to him.
  - wombat-man 4y ago
    Yeah it was weird that Elon dropped that technical info, I assume he's talking about requests that happen on the backend that have nothing to do with android specifically? He couldn't have really thought 1000 round trips were happening between the phone and twitter. At least I hope not.
- wombat-man 4y ago
  If it were me, I probably wouldn't have replied. I read later this was a Staff engineer working on optimizing the android app iirc. He was more blunt than I'd be comfortable with speaking to my CEO, but Elon seems to be someone who likes to get to the point so I was kind of surprised he reacted this way.
  - bentt 4y ago
    When your CEO is an engineer and wants to have an engineering conversation, you speak engineer together. The risk is that you lose. That's how Musk seems to have taken it, that the guy's answers didn't check out. It bothered me quite a bit that he didn't give the engineer points for trying and keeping it on topic in the hellstorm of a thousand people shouting insults at Elon.
    - wombat-man 4y ago
      I think what I didn't like about it was Elon immediately turned it into this adversarial "what have you done to fix this" conversation. But I guess the guy did open with "this is wrong".
- bentt 4y ago
  Elon should 100% be okay with one of his engineers responding to such a thing publicly if the engineer stays on topic and debates the points. My interpretation of why he fired the guy was that Elon thought the app sucked and this guy had worked on it for 6 years. After a cursory grilling, he thought the guy's answers didn't hold water so he must be part of the problem. This is really bad form and doesn't account for the many externalities that the guy had faced. Most importantly, having the balls to call out the richest man in the world, who is also your boss, in a public form and STILL keep it on topic and professional shows that he has a good head on his shoulders. I really didn't think he was trying to score points or make it personal.
largepeepee 4y ago
Kinda reminds me of the ex-google engineer Damore case back in 2017. Except Damore never did it publicly but it was leaked to the press anyway. And anyone taking public adversarial stances against their bosses rarely last. Corporations on general are ran like dictatorships, with few exceptions.
mcculley 4y ago
You were okay with him calling a stranger a "pedo guy"?
- bentt 4y ago
  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50695593 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50695593
  - mcculley 4y ago
    I know he won. It was still worse behavior than firing an employee.
thr83away 4y ago
Spot on. You explained it perfectly how I feel about this.

by bentt 4y ago

Workaccount2 4y ago

Elon publicly apologized that the android app was terrible, without naming anyone. Then this guy responded publicly calling out Elon. I don't know any CEO that would be cool with that. If Elon named him, sure, rip him apart. But Elon simply referenced the android app, and this guy took it personally in the worst way.

taylodl 4y ago
So in other words Elon is just like every other CEO in your estimation? Wasn't the whole point of the image Elon has been building that he's somehow different from everybody else? Then he reveals himself to just be the same old same old crap we've become accustomed to.
AlexandrB 4y ago
My read on that thread was that Elon was the one who took being corrected personally. The guy just pointed out that what Elon said about "1000 requests" was not correct nor was it the root cause of the performance issue Elon mentioned. If he had just said "sorry the Android app is slow, we're working on it", I suspect no one would have replied to him.
- wombat-man 4y ago
  Yeah it was weird that Elon dropped that technical info, I assume he's talking about requests that happen on the backend that have nothing to do with android specifically? He couldn't have really thought 1000 round trips were happening between the phone and twitter. At least I hope not.
wombat-man 4y ago
If it were me, I probably wouldn't have replied. I read later this was a Staff engineer working on optimizing the android app iirc. He was more blunt than I'd be comfortable with speaking to my CEO, but Elon seems to be someone who likes to get to the point so I was kind of surprised he reacted this way.
- bentt 4y ago
  When your CEO is an engineer and wants to have an engineering conversation, you speak engineer together. The risk is that you lose. That's how Musk seems to have taken it, that the guy's answers didn't check out. It bothered me quite a bit that he didn't give the engineer points for trying and keeping it on topic in the hellstorm of a thousand people shouting insults at Elon.
  - wombat-man 4y ago
    I think what I didn't like about it was Elon immediately turned it into this adversarial "what have you done to fix this" conversation. But I guess the guy did open with "this is wrong".
bentt 4y ago
Elon should 100% be okay with one of his engineers responding to such a thing publicly if the engineer stays on topic and debates the points. My interpretation of why he fired the guy was that Elon thought the app sucked and this guy had worked on it for 6 years. After a cursory grilling, he thought the guy's answers didn't hold water so he must be part of the problem. This is really bad form and doesn't account for the many externalities that the guy had faced. Most importantly, having the balls to call out the richest man in the world, who is also your boss, in a public form and STILL keep it on topic and professional shows that he has a good head on his shoulders. I really didn't think he was trying to score points or make it personal.

largepeepee 4y ago

Kinda reminds me of the ex-google engineer Damore case back in 2017. Except Damore never did it publicly but it was leaked to the press anyway. And anyone taking public adversarial stances against their bosses rarely last. Corporations on general are ran like dictatorships, with few exceptions.

mcculley 4y ago

You were okay with him calling a stranger a "pedo guy"?

bentt 4y ago
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50695593 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50695593
- mcculley 4y ago
  I know he won. It was still worse behavior than firing an employee.

thr83away 4y ago

Spot on. You explained it perfectly how I feel about this.