After a long weekend away, let's talk about the reception that Musk is getting from tech CEOs, and whether those views are likely to change if the fight with Apple erodes even more value from his $44 billion purchase.
Musk mocked the t-shirts last week. The shirts, which the company produced in response to the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, were considered suspect at the time. It was the left that was rolling its eyes after then-CEO Jack Dorsey wore a shirt during a Code Conference interview that implied that the phrase "Black Lives Matter" had been co-opted by white corporate marketers.
It was the right thing to do with laughter at the shirts Musk found in the closet. The signifier of liberalism is a zeal for diversity and inclusion that results in censorship and oppression for those who don't play along. It was something of a smoking gun that Musk found a closet full of t-shirts that encouraged people to stay awake at his company.
It's a good way of doing business to ignore everything but Musk's principles and his path to profitability.
To frame it as a kind of retroactive admission of guilt erases a lot of relevant cultural history, including the historic importance of Black Twitter to making the service culturally relevant.
One reason the right has found so much joy in Musk's takeover is that it is a fantasy that you can easily forget. To them, it was a bad way of doing business to drop everything to go to protest in his home state and link his businesses to the fight for justice and equality. It's a good way of doing business to ignore everything but Musk's principles and his path to profitability.
This vision of Musk, clear-headed, focused, stable, is largely at odds with the man who has been running the micro-blogging site for the last few weeks. The consequences of Musk's leadership could be felt across the tech industry for some time to come.
David Heinemeier Hansson is the creator of the Ruby on Rails framework. A year ago, Platformer reported on how Hansson and Fried banned political discussions on the company's internal forums after employees formed a diversity, equity, and inclusion council and began to complain about some of its practices.
The waning days of DEI's dominance were the subject of a post published last week. The post was written to honor Musk. Heinemeier Hansson wrote a letter.
The DEI movement has lost control of Twitter, which served as the main instrument to run ideological enforcement in the corporate sphere. The threat of Twitter mobs ensured quick compliance from corporate executives, and other figures of power, lest the pitchforks be aimed at their necks.
But now Twitter is owned by Elon Musk. A fact that has fundamentally altered the balance of power on the platform.
Musk seems to be giving inspiration to executives who have been pretending to care about diversity issues.
Musk is inspiring CEOs who think their employees have grown too lazy, coddled, and opinionated about their workplace. On November 16th, the same day Musk asked the remaining employees to sign an oath promising to work long hours or resign, David Marcus, the former CEO of PayPal, wrote on his verified account.
I guess the times of complaining to the CEO of a large tech company at an all hands in front of thousands of people about the quality of toilet paper have come to an end. (True story. This really happened.)
Many rank-and-file tech workers have told us stories about one outrageous request or another that one of their peers made at an all- company meeting, and Marcus has plenty of company in being annoyed at the entitlement of some tech employees.
In a world in which all of these issues can be dismissed out of hand, some executives are happy.
Over the past 10 years, workers have felt free to ask questions like this. The company where Marcus worked generated an estimated $1.6 million in revenue last year. Engineers were able to choose companies to work for. They were given the power to demand better toilet paper, to protest payouts to executives accused of sexual misconduct, or to fund transphobia comedy.
Some executives are positively giddy as they imagine a world in which all of these issues can be dismissed out of hand and the employees responsible can be dismissed as well.
George Hotz, a legendary iPhonejailbreaker who founded an autonomously driving company and is now an intern at the social networking site, has recently commented on these topics.
Every tech product you use came out between 2000-2010. Nothing was built from 2010-2020. The culture was so broken. PMs, MBAs, SJWs, and entitlement. But the culture is changing. Wild things will be built in the next 10 years. Are you in or out?
If you are an executive who has grown frustrated by the work culture of the past half-decade or so, and of the often skeptical tone of the journalism that has chronicled the tech industry, Musk's sledgehammer tactics must feel like a balm. The leaders fantasized about firing their most vocal critics, but Musk did it. Without even knowing what those workers did, often.
Musk's tactics won't be adopted by most CEOs. Smaller-scale versions of it will be implemented by others. Musk has made it easier for them to see what might be possible.
If Musk succeeds in eliminating most of his workforce, this will be true. On Monday, Ben Thompson mentioned it at Stratechery. If Twitter can cut their workforce by two thirds (or even more, if you include contractors), then investors will start raising a lot of questions about how many employees other tech companies have. PE firms are confident they can cut costs to pay off the debt necessary to acquire companies.
If it doesn't work. The management style of Musk is likely to be influential. Tech executives have been trying to get an excuse to get rid of some of the leverage that their workforce has. Musk embraced austerity measures as the economy weakened.
Is Musk able to succeed?
The billionaire seems to be making it harder on himself every day, from his project to picking a fight with Apple.
With his decision to restore the account of Donald Trump, Musk put the question of "a general amnesty" to a poll. The day before Thanksgiving, he asked if there should be a general pardon for suspended accounts if they have not broken the law. More than 70% of respondents said yes. Musk said the people had spoken. Next weekAmnesty begins. They call it vox populi.
The chain of events started when the poll was internal. As they read Musk's message, employees tried to understand what he was saying. He immediately started carrying out his orders. Employees scrambled to get Trump back after Musk conducted a similar poll. They would need to revive many more people.
The project could cause problems at the micro-blogging site.
One account that has over 5 million followers is one of 75 accounts that have over 1 million followers. Before press time, the identities of the accounts were not known. Employees refer to this event as the Big bang.
Current employees say that the project could cause more instability at the company. The data on who the account follows and who follows the account need to be activated when reinstated. Millions of lists have to be updated and maintained for large accounts like Trump's.
It's the same week that Musk plans to launch a new service called Twitter Blue, which will allow anyone to purchase a verified badges for $8 a month. Despite all evidence to the contrary, an internal document states that impersonations have been extremely rare.
The document states that they are adapting to prevent and detect bad actors. There are large scale misinformation attacks funded by wealthy organizations or governments. Credit card numbers and mobile phones are required by large-scale bad actors, according to the document. Logistical hurdles to re-offend at scale become impossible as we detect and suspend these.
Advertisers are deeply skeptical between the Big bang and the remaining potential for brand imitation. The Financial Times reported that Musk called several CEOs to berate them for abandoning the platform.
Musk has been antagonizing his own engineers with late night emails.
The betrayal by Apple appears to have hurt Musk the most. According to the Washington Post, Apple spent $48 million in the first quarter alone.
Musk said on Monday that Apple had stopped advertising on the social networking site. He wondered if they hated free speech in America. Tim Cook was asked to explain himself.
The chances that the even-keeled Cook would respond to a drive-by assault from Musk on social media seem vanishing. Musk accused Apple of threatening to removeTwitter from the App Store and of charging app developers too much for their services.
Musk has been antagonizing his own engineers. Employees should be prepared for another round of code reviews this week according to an email from the CEO. Last week's "code reviews" served as a pretext to lay off more engineering talent.
Managers are expected to write a lot of their own software. Being unable to do so is like being unable to ride a horse.
Current employees say that Musk is going to lay off most of the engineering managers this week.
It is easy to see why some of Musk's peers would admire his approach to human resources. It is clear that the person in need of a late night performance review is Musk himself.
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