Elon Musk buys a big chunk of Twitter
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Interesting look at what might be happening.
Alright, 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:- Nothing usable. It was rotten at the core.
- 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.
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Not sure how it works at Twitter, but at my company I can point to entire teams of people with advanced degrees who work on things for years which I would have been able to do in maybe a month. It doesn't matter how smart or educated someone is, if they don't really understand the problem, and there is no rote coursework in how to understand the problem. You understand the problems by having been around for a while, and by being entrepreneurial in your job duties. That sort of stuff doesn't put you on the management track unless you also have the right people skills, but at least you can survive cullings like this one (if you want to), or in my case be essentially self-directed and manager-free in my job duties.
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Sort of related to the post earlier about "engineers," is the observation that, despite all the doom and gloom from late last week, Twitter is still functioning exactly as it has in the past. At least for the end-user.
Some snarky comment was made about how it's working with more than 75% of the people gone, and how that should be applied to the US government.
As an aside, all the people complaining about how they're going to leave Twitter because of the new leadership and new rules...where are they going? Has anyone built a social network platform that comes even close to what Twitter is. Look at how Truth Social, Parler and their ilk have fared.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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Sort of related to the post earlier about "engineers," is the observation that, despite all the doom and gloom from late last week, Twitter is still functioning exactly as it has in the past. At least for the end-user.
Some snarky comment was made about how it's working with more than 75% of the people gone, and how that should be applied to the US government.
As an aside, all the people complaining about how they're going to leave Twitter because of the new leadership and new rules...where are they going? Has anyone built a social network platform that comes even close to what Twitter is. Look at how Truth Social, Parler and their ilk have fared.
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I hear noises of people making backup accounts at Mastadon but that’s just in case Twitter falls down.
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Elon Musk poked fun at CBS for returning to Twitter after less than a 48-hour hiatus due to "uncertainty" with the platform under his management.
Two days after the major news network said it would suspend all Twitter usage, CBS announced that it will resume activity Sunday as it continues to monitor "security concerns" they have with the platform since the billionaire Tesla CEO took over the company.
"After pausing for much of the weekend to assess the security concerns, CBS News and Stations is resuming its activity on Twitter as we continue to monitor the situation," the CBS News Public Relations team wrote on Twitter.
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Sort of related to the post earlier about "engineers," is the observation that, despite all the doom and gloom from late last week, Twitter is still functioning exactly as it has in the past. At least for the end-user.
Some snarky comment was made about how it's working with more than 75% of the people gone, and how that should be applied to the US government.
As an aside, all the people complaining about how they're going to leave Twitter because of the new leadership and new rules...where are they going? Has anyone built a social network platform that comes even close to what Twitter is. Look at how Truth Social, Parler and their ilk have fared.
@George-K said in Elon Musk buys a big chunk of Twitter:
Look at how Truth Social, Parler and their ilk have fared.
Maybe there's a connection between really bad at writing software and being right wing?
Horace, Ax, Klaus - care to comment?
I was only joking
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@George-K said in Elon Musk buys a big chunk of Twitter:
Look at how Truth Social, Parler and their ilk have fared.
Maybe there's a connection between really bad at writing software and being right wing?
Horace, Ax, Klaus - care to comment?
@Doctor-Phibes said in Elon Musk buys a big chunk of Twitter:
@George-K said in Elon Musk buys a big chunk of Twitter:
Look at how Truth Social, Parler and their ilk have fared.
Maybe there's a connection between really bad at writing software and being right wing?
Horace, Ax, Klaus - care to comment?
I'm not sure whether there is any meaningful correlation between political leanings and programmer ability, but I think the more important influence here is that if you are a good programmer, you would hesitate to work at places like Parler because it damages your career.
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@George-K said in Elon Musk buys a big chunk of Twitter:
Look at how Truth Social, Parler and their ilk have fared.
Maybe there's a connection between really bad at writing software and being right wing?
Horace, Ax, Klaus - care to comment?
@Doctor-Phibes said in Elon Musk buys a big chunk of Twitter:
Maybe there's a connection between really bad at writing software and being right wing?
I can assure you that it is exactly the opposite.
No question
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K Stay woke, stay broke...
