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How many engineers did Instagram have when it was acquired by FB? (answer: 6 engineers with 30 million users: https://www.fastcompany.com/3047642/do-the-simple
by _hyn3 4y ago
How many engineers did Instagram have when it was acquired by FB? (answer: 6 engineers with 30 million users: https://www.fastcompany.com/3047642/do-the-simple-thing-first-the-engineering-behind-instagram https://www.fastcompany.com/3047642/do-the-simple-thing-firs...)
Obviously, those were highly competent engineers, but perhaps Elon Musk is just trying to get to roughly the same proportion (~60?).
If so, he's still got a long, long way to go, so expect a lot more cutting.
- raydev 4y agoInstagram, at the time, was significantly limited in functionality. IG didn't have Android and web support until 2012, it was iOS only until then. The more features you offer, the more complex your system needs to be, the more people you need to maintain and build on top of the system.
- ctvo 4y agoInstagram, when it was acquired, wasn't too concerned about making money: It was still VC funded, and was looking at raising another round. The founders controlled the small set of features available, and weren't beholden to, say, trying to include targeted ads or adding shopping to the platform. They certainly weren't concerned about bots, child pornography, state sponsored actors, data warehouses to store and analyze data for FCC decrees, the list goes on. It's very easy, looking in, to handwave away complexity that creeps into a business and its technology and assume it's a lack of engineering skill. Do a reality check: Compare Twitter to other similar companies e.g. Facebook, Spotify, Netflix, Bytedance, Snap ... are these companies ran by 6 10x engineers? 60? Do you think EVERYONE is stupid or is unaware of how to do software engineering or is there complexity here you may be ignorant of? It's obvious Elon thinks the former here.