It may seem obvious, to most people outside Silicon Valley, that Musk's ownership of the social network has been a disaster.
Less than two months after taking over, Mr. Musk has fired more than half of its staff, scared away many of its major advertisers, and made a number of ill-advised changes to its verification program. He was booed at a Dave Chappelle show and his personal fortune has shrunk.
It doesn't go well for him. The bosses are still in Mr. Musk's corner.
In recent weeks, many tech executives, founders and investors have expressed their admiration for Mr. Musk.
Mr. Musk was praised by Reed Hastings at a New York Times DealBook conference.
A private equity investor claimed that a lot of venture-funded chief executives were inspired by the tech billionaire.
Several partners at the influential venture capital firm have taken to the internet to mock Mr. Musk.
Some of the elite cheerleading is probably related to class solidarity. $400 million was invested in Mr. Musk's takeover of the social networking site. Some of it may be a reflection of Mr. Musk's success at the two companies.
I have been surprised by the number of people rooting for Mr. Musk even if they won't admit it publicly.
Despite losing thousands of employees, Mr. Musk hasn't collapsed or gone offline. He will be rewarded for cutting costs and laying down the law as a result of his harsh management style.
Roy Bahat said, "He says the things many C.E.O.s wish they could say, and then he does them."
Mr. Bahat, who has criticized some of Mr. Musk's moves, characterized his tenure as a "living natural experiment."
He said that he is giving people more knowledge.
Tech elites don't support Mr. Musk solely because they like him or agree with his politics. Number do.
They see him as the standard-bearer of a new idea they hope will catch on in Silicon Valley.
There is a belief that the people who build and run important tech companies haveceded too much power to the entitled, lazy, overly woke people who work for them.
Silicon Valley's leading proponents of bossism are seizing an opportunity to tug the tech industry's culture sharply to the right.
Some Musk sympathizers see things in a politicized way. The writer has hailed Mr. Musk's takeover as a revolt by entrepreneurial capital against the "ESG grifters" and "Skittles-hair people".
Many of Mr. Musk's fans adhere to a more straightforward type of bossism. He ruled with an iron fist and made the kinds of moves that tech executives have resisted for fear of alienating workers, such as cutting jobs, stripping away perks, punishing internal dissenters, and forcing employees back to the office.
Many C.E.O.s have made unreasonable concessions due to a booming tech industry and a talent shortage. Workers were spoiled with perks such as lavish meals. Junior workers were given a way to directly challenge their leader with the use of workplace chat apps. They gave in to worker demands in order to keep them happy and prevent them from leaving.
Musk didn't do any of that when he showed up at the social networking site. Mr. Musk fired many of them and told them to quit if they didn't want to stay at the company. At his other companies, he had done this before. He used his account as a cudgel to keep workers in line and did it all out in the open.
One of the company's core values was "communicate fearlessly to build trust" but Mr. Musk replaced that with a culture of absolute fe He fired any employees who criticized him. He made fun of the company's diversity and inclusion efforts by making fun of an old "Stay Woke" T-shirt that was found in a closet.
Many people thought of Mr. Musk as a case study in how not to run a company. They were a long-awaited answer to the question of what if we just treated workers worse.
Many of Mr. Musk's bosses think he's right on the big picture. Tech companies are not productive. The H.R. departments went too far. Workers should focus on doing their jobs.
Mr. Musk isn't the first tech leader to say these things. The results of companies trying to limit employee activism have been questionable. Meta banned workers from discussing abortion and gun rights on workplace forums.
The backdrop is not the same as it used to be. For the first time in nearly two decades, economic pressures have cut into the tech industry's profits and companies that once spared no expense to keep workers happy are downsizing. Executives with sagging stock prices are declaring themselves " wartime C.E.O.s" and workers who could have left their jobs for cushier ones a year ago are now hanging on.
leverage has shifted from workers to bosses
Margaret O'Mara, a history professor at the University, said that when a job market loosens, the attention that management places on employee desires can diminish.
Mr. Musk has decided to start a management revolution. The question is how many bosses will follow him.
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