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What if Twitter actually succeeds after this? I'm not saying that it's likely, but what if? Let's imagine it as a thought exercise. What will this say about the current state of software engineering in startups and big techs?
Imagine thinking you can judge anything about a developer (especially Senior/Staffs) from screenshots of code. Elon has truly lost the plot.
use the opportunity to prove how undervalued you were, and how essential you will be to restructuring.
What if Twitter actually succeeds after this? I'm not saying that it's likely, but what if? Let's imagine it as a thought exercise. What will this say about the current state of software engineering in startups and big techs?
Ben Horowitz write this thing about wartime vs peace time ceos and I think it was particularly salient: https://hbr.org/2011/04/peacetime-ceos-vs-wartime-ceos For a long time tech was eating the world and the more engineers you had the more likely you were to accidentally walk into a massive piece of the pie (the google model). Now things are more mature and there’s probably just less opportunity to do that. But real…
Might be true, just easily might not be. Seems too uncertain to draw conclusions. Like, why didn't this happen ten years ago? Twenty? OK, take those explanations. Why can't they happen again?
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Of course you can? It's basically asking to see what you consider your best work. If you're earning 100k a year and the most important code you show is how you turned a link colour from light blue to blue -- then your $100,000 a year job has now become questionable. It's hardly losing the plot to ask someone "What have you achieved and what do you think your best work is?"
The most important person on my team can probably no longer write idiomatic code for the platform we use at this point, as the platform has moved forward while he's spent the last 6 years mostly working on high level architecture and tying together systems that range from HMI to Automotive to AI... You could probably fit his committed code for the last 6 months on one page, confuse it for a junior dev's output, and y…
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A lot of Seniors/Staff don't write "code". They're architecting/planning/guiding. If I'm a Senior Staff DevOps engineer who maintains our entire Kube infra, am I gonna show Elon some sweet YAML configs? "Oh here's my Go templating for our org wide Helm charts that isn't really novel but is really important?"
In an org with thousands of software engineers, shouldn’t most of them be writing code? Feels like everyone wants to be the exception, and just assumes “someone else” should do actual hands-on work
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It's simple, Elon Musk has no clue what he is doing. Can he code.to save his life? Does he know anything about engineering from Tesla or SpaceX, beyond catchphrases?
He used to be able to code. He created zip2 (predecessor to MapQuest) practically by himself apparently.
The guy has so much capacity to build his own legend (and have others believe it) that people refer to him as the founder of Tesla without even blinking.
Elon is cutting the workforce. The short email doesn't seem out of place.
On HN Elon is some kind of villain. Except he's also incompetent, so he's not a super villain. More of bumbling idiot destroying higher SV ideals which are beyond his comprehension. How gauche of him.
In the RW media he is ocassionally portrayed as a savior, who is going to stick it to the libs, right where they deserve it the most. In their social media oligarchy!
Elsewhere in the media he is an un-PC problematic figure who foretells the rise of fascism, just you wait, this time it is really going to get bad! Did you know he lived in apartheid ZA?
Overall this just seems absurd. I cannot understand the fascination with him. Elon has become more interesting than all of the shit-posting on Twitter itself. I don't believe he's a villain, an incompetent, a savior or the catalyst for totalitarianism.
He's just an above average troll with extraordinary money. He bought Twitter, a messaging and microblogging site. He's trying to clean house, maybe even turn a profit?
Why is the Internet obsessed? Are partisans so emotionally invested in the outcome that they cannot turn away? Will his success or failure validate their tribal identity?
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Even if this is eyewash to flush out leakers... why spend the time doing this as the owner of the company? There seems to be a lot more important work they could be tackling on instead of being a meme lord to a bunch of 14 year olds.
The IT department might have sent the email, not Elon himself...
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People I know at SpaceX are terrified of him. They all secretly track when he comes into the office, and actively hide from him.
It's really noticeable that work on site at spacex really ramps up before an Elon visit, and then pretty much stops when he leaves again. If he doesn't visit for a few weeks, nothing gets done.
Wow, if his leadership results in such a bad situation at SpaceX I can only image how poor the result will be at Twitter with whatever is left.