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Musk’s Twitter reign magnified his brutal management style

• mlindner 4y ago
  It's interesting that these news media people are already writing in the past tense. Twitter's alive and working well.
• superchroma 4y ago
  It would seem to me that it simply revealed his bad behavior when he's angry and/or doesn't respect somebody. He had until now largely successfully hidden this.
  • user_named 4y ago
    For those who've been watching its been obvious for years. But this episode is more insane than what's come before.
  • kranke155 4y ago
    He’s pretty crazy low empathy when he doesn’t respect people, and unfortunate my impression is he thought all (or most) the twitter engineers were not worthy of his respect so he nuked them.
  • rsynnott 4y ago
    … Really? I mean, see the cave diver incident.
• 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
  Musk realizes that his entire wealth and image is propped up by social media and hype so he buys Twitter. I wouldn't be surprised if he himself was funding bots and influencers to hype him and his companies.
  • davidgerard 4y ago
    He is indeed doing precisely that https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-04-12/musk-is-off-the-twitter-board-of-directors-the-tesla-twitter-bot-army-marches-on https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-04-12/musk-is-of...
• memish 4y ago
  Here's the best explanation I've seen. It's from https://twitter.com/oliverbcampbell/status/1593434329153245185 https://twitter.com/oliverbcampbell/status/15934343291532451... I'm going to explain what Elon Musk is likely doing over there at Twitter. This is not a discussion on whether it's RIGHT OR WRONG; just what's happening. If I'm wrong, I'm sure he'll pop up and say so. What Elon is engaged in is something called "Whaling and Culling." First, the "Whaling": It's a common refrain that you've probably heard at some point or another "10% of people do 90% of the work." That's what that tight 2 week deadline for Twitter Blue was for; he was perfectly aware that it was an unrealistic time frame. It was a test. By pushing for such an extremely tight deadline, Elon got to see who is actually doing work and who is resting on their laurels. Furthermore, it proved who could actually perform under extreme pressure. You know, the whole "get this done or you're fired" level of pressure. Hence, Elon was looking for the whales at the company. The heavy hitting, actually producing and hard people who have been there for a while. When the whales don't have to carry dead weight, they perform like the equivalent of 10 people. Second is the "Culling." When you've got 90% of the people not performing, they're actually negatively impacting the 10% who ARE performing above and beyond. And that's why the layoffs happened. Paraphrased, 'shit is gonna change around here, get on board or get out' So by culling unproductive staff, he actually untied the hands of the PRODUCTIVE staff. Fewer obstacles to getting in the way of getting things done. It also revealed to him who was there to make Twitter a better product, versus who was there to be 'activists'. So now you've chopped your workforce down to people who actually perform, but they're not enough to run everything. This is why after all those people are let go, there's going to be a surprise hiring of a new bunch of people. Why? Because the productive people actually know WHAT THEY NEED to get things done. Don't be surprised if the people that are left get to be part of the interviewing process for the new people. They'll be looking for efficiency and people who don't make THEIR jobs more difficult. So, when you continually slice away the bad portions of something, all that you're left with is 1 of 2 potential outcomes: 1) Nothing usable. It was rotten at the core. 2) Some substantially good bits you can salvage and build on. Elon is gambling on 2. This is what he was talking about with 'Twitter 2.0.' It's likely not a 'new twitter.' Not for us. It's a new Twitter INTERNALLY. How things get done, how things get rolled out, rebuilding the company with productive and more efficient people. What I'm saying is, take a look at the reactions: The people that are staying at twitter are hunkering down and working. The people he let go are the ones calling doom and gloom. And they're not wrong. The way "things were done" is OVER at Twitter. So, from the outside, this looks like a giant cluster. But it what's going to surprise you is that a great number of businesses are run exactly like this. There's a reason layoffs happens every single year across the world. Whaling and culling. Elon is just being VERY VOCAL. And like I said at the START OF THIS POST. I didn't say this is RIGHT OR WRONG. Just what is likely happening. But if you never thought about it before, now you have something to think about.
• preommr 4y ago
  Every situation is unique and real-life is flexible - elements of his "style" can probably work. What's questionable is the objectively bad lead up to the current situation. It's one thing to overhaul a company - it's another to massively over pay for a company, be under immense pressure from added debt, and then fire a whole bunch of people in a very short amount of time. There's no question here that he would've been better off starting his own company, building up experience while burning a few hundred million, and then buying out twitter at 20bn. He was on the board, he knew what the company was like, he had direct connections with important figures like Dorsey, he had all the information necessary to know that he wanted to make such sweeping changes.
  • dclusin 4y ago
    Your suggestion at the end assumes he can predict the future wrt to the collapse of twitters market cap at the time he made the acquisition offer. The reality is he made a binding decision that he was stuck with that looks terrible in hindsight. I do agree that he could have handled the situation a lot better. But some things are outside his control.
    • amanaplanacanal 4y ago
      Since the company is privately held, I'm not sure what market cap has to do with it. This is entirely about debt and profitability.
      • dclusin 4y ago
        Market cap of pre-acquisition twitter is why the company is drowning in so much debt. Had he timed his acquisition better perhaps it would have been more sustainable. Its market value collapsed a few months after he made his acquisition offer. Ergo less debt.
• nobodyandproud 4y ago
  His approach works for a mission driven products like Tesla or Space-X. Both were started at the right times yet it’s not obvious whether the engineering would’ve happened without his at-all-costs method and the vision/mission driving it. Even then everyone understood the enormous pressures the workers were under but one could admire what was being acheived as the trailblazer. I just don’t see any vision or mission to admire for Twitter especially with Musk at the helm.
  • theptip 4y ago
    I think this is the right take. If you assemble a team around the vision to colonize Mars, you will get a bunch of amazing people that are (for a while) willing to put up with crazy work. Trying to force this on an existing culture will be hard, and doing the “extreme pressure” bit with no vision beyond “more free speech” seems impossible. Maybe he will get there and in a few months the remainder will have coalesced around the joy of shipping good features fast. But things like labor laws and the FCC consent decree will provide a strong legacy drag.
    • deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    • capitalsigma 4y ago
      Also, like, it's plausible that working long hours and pushing hard for progress kind of makes sense when you're doing cutting edge stuff, pushing the boundary of what's possible, etc. It's unclear why you would need that attitude to run a mature social media site.
    • EMIRELADERO 4y ago
      > But things like labor laws and the FCC consent decree will provide a strong legacy drag. You know you're on the "bad side" when labor laws are computed as a nuisance.
  • memish 4y ago
    He's definitely not communicating the vision as well as he did with Tesla or SpaceX. That's a serious problem. But he has said the plan is to turn it into X, the everything app. Like WeChat.
• Zigurd 4y ago
  Before y'all say "his style works at Tesla and SpaceX" just take a look under the shiny image. There are reasons $TSLA is down by half and is still over-valued: Look at the bulls like ARK. Their short-medium term projections for Tesla are 60% based on the value of robotaxis, which is currently a $0B business at Tesla. The majority of mass SpaceX has lifted to orbit is Starlink sats. They have saturated the market of outside customers and they have to generate their own demand. To value SpaceX at $150B, you have to believe that, unlike every other attempt ever, this time LEO internet will make money.
  • s1artibartfast 4y ago
    Those are questions of total market demand for the product. In those companies, it still seems that his ownership and management style got products built that dominated their respective markets. Falcon ate the competition and teslas are like 70% of EVs Overvalued market caps are good for the company, bad for late investors. It means the company received much more funds than they otherwise would have. A huge win for the CEO, and early investors. If you have a startup with a true value of 1B, but sell shares at a 100B valuation, this is a huge win for you and the company
    • SilverBirch 4y ago
      The obvious point is it’s not exactly impressive to dominate a market that everyone else realises is uneconomical. The key is his PR managed to produce massive overvaluation in a ZIRP environment. But then what we’re really saying is we’re impressed by the PR not the engineering.
      • s1artibartfast 4y ago
        Neither cars or EVs are uneconomical markets. There is money to be made, just not as much as the hype
        • SilverBirch 4y ago
          Cars aren't uneconomical, but take a look at other car companies. You don't become the richest man on earth by running a car company. They're very efficient, and basically, not that profitable. The innovation of Tesla is they manufacture cars with a share price of a tech company.
• renewiltord 4y ago
  Prediction: we'll see a lot of small issues that don't matter. Copy writing will go to shit, notification numbers won't show up, website may even go down for an hour. Everyone will claim that this is because the best engineers left. The company will stay up and the app will work fine ultimately. Everyone will claim this is because the best engineers who left wrote unbreakable code.
  • s1artibartfast 4y ago
    Even if they Did write unbreakable code, that doesn't mean they were still necessary. It just means they did a good job.
  • skinnymuch 4y ago
    The last sentence wouldn’t happen. As if nothing else happens until then and workers aren’t worked so much harder than is sane. Good luck with your prediction.
• tracerbulletx 4y ago
  In the united states people need jobs to have health care and exist without living on the streets. Not every job can be a maximally efficient non-stop grind, that sounds like a hell scape. There needs to be a bench, back fills, slack. Places where people show up, put in their work, go home, and the company makes money. Granted that only works for profitable places that can both pay back their equity holders, and provide an environment for employees. However it's sad to see people act like creating "nice" places to work is a bad thing or a weakness. You can do both.
  • deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  • scarecrowbob 4y ago
    There are important reasons why slack is a main goal of the Church of the Subgenius.
• nxmnxm99 4y ago
  Lazy people are the loudest. The ambitious hard workers remain at Twitter.
  • rybosome 4y ago
    This narrative that all the lazy whiners have been ousted and only the good, hard workers remain is ignorant. A lot of hardworking, smart people are gone.
    • nxmnxm99 4y ago
      Sure, that doesn't disqualify the fact that mostly the lazy people left.
  • Woeps 4y ago
    This seems like a pretty loud statement to make ;)
• djitz 4y ago
  It has been really interesting to see just how emotional people are about this purchase, and seemingly Musk in general.
  • papito 4y ago
    People calling out an objectively clear dumpster fire are not the ones being "emotional". Words like that and also "hysterical" can only be applied to the new CEO.
• ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago
  I don't think his management style is brutal. I think it is quite surprising how little people work at a job. In most companies, you can get rid of 50% of the company and things will still keep running and even improve. He just wants people to do a good job. Is that too much to ask? Add in the general leftist messaging which are popular in tech companies about mental health and taking time off, it is quite easy for those who want to take advantage of it to not work really hard and hide and keep getting a fat paycheque for a really long time. The amount of money tech workers get paid is ridiculous. Compared to a librarian let's say. Do you think a tech worker is working as hard as a librarian? Hell no. So I think its time to make sure that the work matches up to the hundreds of thousands of dollars they are taking home every year. Aside: I really hate how news has become opinion pieces. "Brutal management style" is an opinion. The news should report the news. "X happened at Y". I have seen a lot of this lately. "X happened. This should make you angry." Don't tell me how to feel or second derivatives of events. Just present the event.
  • snoot 4y ago
  • usednet 4y ago
    I think its very funny how you note that you can get rid of half the employees at most companies with no effect and then attack “leftist messaging.” One would imagine that market competition would immediately eliminate such inefficiencies. I suggest you read some Graeber.
  • atoav 4y ago
    > In most companies, you can get rid of 50% of the company and things will still keep running and even improve. Maybe. But you have to take a few months to figure out which 50% if you have half a braincell. Especially if it is a complicated company in field outside your expertise, which for Elon this is (although he might have seen this different when taking over). By this point you could have picked up a random person on the street and they easily would have done a better job than mister impulsive over there. I mean the guy accidentally bought a company — a company to whose product he is addicted to. My speculation how that happened: his right leaning followers got constantly banned, so he wanted to proof to then, that the liberal snowflakes at Twitter HQ will not take his generous offer because they are against free speech and have political motives. So his prediction was that they would say no, because in his mind that is who they are and he could then take this No as ammunition to his followers. But the twitter people were not lefty liberals but mostly business people and so they said yes and from that point onwards everything mister impulsive did was pure and utter panic. What we have observed here is not how someone in control looks like, even if we generously assume he is pretending not to be in control for stupid 12-dimensional chess reasons us mere mortals are just too simple to understand. He is giving orders people will not follow, that makes him look weak. He makes impulsive decisions he has to wheel back hours later. He wants screenshots of source code to make hiring ad firing decisions. You could literally make a wet towel the CEO of Twitter and it would be running better than under him. And even if we generously assumed that this is part of an painful restructuring the company might have needed, nobody remotly in control would plan to do it that way in a company that relies on money it gets from advertising and has workers who are heavily sought after and can literally pick a new job hours later if they choose to do so.
• pieresqi 4y ago
  The amount of musky ass lickers here is staggering.
  • rybosome 4y ago
    He’s an alpha nerd among beta nerds. The same people who think Rick of Rick and Morty is a hero worship Musk, for the same reason - because his intelligence is (supposedly) so astronomical that he is no longer bound by decency or morality.
  • papito 4y ago
    This is HackerNews for you. Call out any of these magnates for their lack of moral compass or incompetence, and get downvoted. Somehow being rich and "successful" automatically makes your shit not stink, even though usually the opposite is true. This is how they make their money - by being assholes and walking over people. You can acknowledge it but I don't get the admiration of this sociopathy.
• entropicgravity 4y ago
  Musk was abused by his father and so he feels entitled to abuse others. Or it's just genetic, hard to say.
• ml_more 4y ago
  It is ironic that the guy who wanted to build a free speech platform cannot tolerate criticism.