191–200 of 1001 posts
Surely this is partially a calculated move to further reduce headcount/expenses.
It probably is, but it's kind of risky if you end up pissing off employees who are key to your operations and top performers. Those folks can easily find work elsewhere. You end up with the people who can't easily move elsewhere.
What are the chances that Musk composed and sent this email while working remotely? Very high I reckon.
Related, what are the odds that Musk would be cool with any Twitter employee taking multiple other full-time jobs at the same time?
If you bought a company, especially a failing company, it wouldn't be business as usual: you would immediately set policies that make the most sense for your shareholders and increase profits.
And, Musk has a reputation to be a very hard 24x7 worker but also one not bound by a timezone, let alone geographic location, but again it's a lot easier for him to note dedication etc based on who actually shows up to work. This might be an undeserved reputation, but he is clearly "on" texting and tweeting at all hours day-and-night, and he's running multiple successful companies simultaneously, so either he's awesome at delegation or he's working very hard (or both).
(of course, he has other shareholders, but he is clearly the majority shareholder and the one who is completely in control of the board, and thus has the greatest legal responsibility to keep twitter solvent and return value to himself and the other investors.)
I see we're still deep in the "fuck around" stage and have yet to reach "find out."
> That is why the priority over the past ten days has been to develop and launch Twitter Blue Verified subscriptions (huge props to the team!). Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn. We need roughly half of our revenue to be subscription.
Is that even remotely feasible? Based on the commentary I've seen, Twitter Blue is going to be a drop in the bucket compared to their total revenue.
I think that the NYT article has the much better lede from the emails in it: Due to resignations by 3 top execs yesterday, engineers are now likely to have to make sure that their code is compliant with the FTC w.r.t. the 2011 judgement against Twitter. As in, there is a good chance that individual SWEs at Twitter are going to be legally culpable for violations. Even if I am totally misreading that quick lede about d…
> The FTC reached a settlement with Twitter in May after the company was caught using personal user info to target ads. If Twitter doesn’t comply with that agreement, the FTC can issue fines reaching into the billions of dollars, according to the lawyer’s note to employees.
> The note goes on to say that its author, who The Verge knows the identity of but is choosing not to disclose, has “heard Alex Spiro (current head of Legal) say that Elon is willing to take on a huge amount of risk in relation to this company and its users, because ‘Elon puts rockets into space, he’s not afraid of the FTC.’”
> Musk’s new legal department is now asking engineers to “self-certify” compliance with FTC rules and other privacy laws, according to the lawyer’s note and another employee familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to speak without the company’s permission.
> The employee said this week’s launch of the revamped Twitter Blue subscription disregarded the company’s normal privacy and security review, with a “red team” reviewing potential risks the night before the launch. “The people normally tasked with this stuff were given little notice, little time, and unreasonable to think it [the privacy review] was comprehensive.” None of the red team’s recommendations were implemented before Twitter Blue’s relaunch, the employee said.
This is a great way to drive away your best talent and ensure those who stay are more tired, frustrated, and stressed.
Twitter doesn't need "best people" - it's not innovating and hasn't been for a very long time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s fair to critique someone who just upended the lives of all these people.
I’m not sure if I’m comfortable judging the “fairness of critiquing”, but it’s a business under new ownership. Changes are going to happen.
I see we're still deep in the "fuck around" stage and have yet to reach "find out."
What you find out is in proportion to how much you fuck around. You have to fuck around to innovate and do new shit. It took a lot of fucking at Tesla and SpaceX to get to where they are.
(I am being glib, but this is potentially a real problem, see https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/spacexs-starlink-...)