Epilogue of my time working at Twitter
esthercrawford.medium.com
Epilogue of my time working at Twitter
1–10 of 149 posts
Re: Epilogue of my time working at Twitter
#2Awesome post with a lot of hard-earned wisdom. It reads like a moment where a lot of "taking a step back to examine things" was done.
> Most people were good at their jobs but it was nearly impossible to fire poor performers — instead they got shuffled around to other teams because few managers had the will or resources to figure out how to get them out.
> Often it was a small cross-functional team of intrinsically motivated people who made the biggest impact by challenging some core assumption.
> I learned a ton from watching Elon up close – the good, the bad and the ugly. His boldness, passion and storytelling is inspiring, but his lack of process and empathy is painful.
And many, many more. Really spoken like someone clever, someone with a lot of understanding, someone observant, and someone very, very smart.
Re: Epilogue of my time working at Twitter
#3Every section about the CEO just makes me think of Gavin Belson from the Silicon Valley series, surrounding himself with "yes men" and firing people who make him feel like he might be a little wrong.
https://youtu.be/XAeEpbtHDPw?t=15
Re: Epilogue of my time working at Twitter
#4[flagged]
Re: Epilogue of my time working at Twitter
#5[flagged]
Re: Epilogue of my time working at Twitter
#6I know we're not supposed to comment on the mechanics of the website or whatever, but did anyone else reach to click the X to make the login banner go away?
Re: Epilogue of my time working at Twitter
#7There's a lot of good stuff in this post. You should read it for yourself before commenting here. (Word count is 2413 in case you're wondering.) I do want to call out one very questionable aspect:
> I’ve pulled many all-nighters in my career
> Sometimes I get asked about how I felt when I got laid off, and the truth is it was the best gift I’ve ever received.
> Going on a sabbatical afterward has been exactly what I needed to decompress and I’m finally feeling rested and relaxed.
In my long career, I've never pulled an all-nighter, and I don't think that we should ever allow capitalists to deprive us of the essentials, such as sleep. Musk doesn't give a damn about you or your sacrifices, and obviously he fired Crawford anyway, despite the all-nighters. Always put yourself, your physical and mental health, before your employer's profit. Crawford said, "I think of life as a game", but it's not really a game, which you'll eventually learn the hard way as you get older. You have only one life, and you need to pace yourself, protect yourself. What's the point of working so hard that you render yourself incapable of working anymore, burning yourself out and needing a long period where you cannot generate any income? I've seen this time and again, but it's actually counterproductive. Please don't pull those all-nighters, it only encourages the worst exploitation from management. Certainly don't be proud of your needless sacrifices.
Re: Epilogue of my time working at Twitter
#8There's a lot of good stuff in this post. You should read it for yourself before commenting here. (Word count is 2413 in case you're wondering.) I do want to call out one very questionable aspect: > I’ve pulled many all-nighters in my career > Sometimes I get asked about how I felt when I got laid off, and the truth is it was the best gift I’ve ever received. > Going on a sabbatical afterward has been exactly what I…
> Certainly don't be proud of your needless sacrifices.
Who exactly are you to judge what she should or shouldn't be proud of ?
When she quotes :
> I’ve pulled many all-nighters in my career
She goes as far as adding a full explanation that you - conveniently - redacted:
> I’ve pulled many all-nighters in my career and also when I was a student for something that mattered to me. I don’t regret putting in long hours or being ambitious, and feel proud of how far I’ve come from where I started thanks in part to that type of work ethic.
To me this reads as someone who is perfectly happy with the decisions she took. You do not have to share same work ethics as she does and you don't have to make the same choices. But you have absolutely no right to take it away from her or to dictate what she can be proud of or happy with.
Re: Epilogue of my time working at Twitter
#9There's a lot of good stuff in this post. You should read it for yourself before commenting here. (Word count is 2413 in case you're wondering.) I do want to call out one very questionable aspect: > I’ve pulled many all-nighters in my career > Sometimes I get asked about how I felt when I got laid off, and the truth is it was the best gift I’ve ever received. > Going on a sabbatical afterward has been exactly what I…
> Certainly don't be proud of your needless sacrifices. Who exactly are you to judge what she should or shouldn't be proud of ? When she quotes : > I’ve pulled many all-nighters in my career She goes as far as adding a full explanation that you - conveniently - redacted: > I’ve pulled many all-nighters in my career and also when I was a student for something that mattered to me. I don’t regret putting in long hours o…
> Who exactly are you to judge what she should or shouldn't be proud of ?
It's not about what "she" specifically should be proud of. It's about all of us, employees and our relationship to management.
> She goes as far as adding a full explanation that you - conveniently - redacted
I literally said, "You should read it for yourself before commenting here. (Word count is 2413 in case you're wondering.)" So the comment about conveniently redacting seems a bit absurd.
> You do not have to share same work ethics as she does and you don't have to make the same choices.
Nobody who knows me has ever questioned my work ethic. But speaking of ethics, I feel that it's unethical for management to ask for, encourage, or condone this kind of needless personal sacrifice by employees. Management deadlines are nearly always totally arbitrary and only benefit management, not the employees.
I also noted that it's counterproductive, individually. You can't win a marathon by running a series of sprints.
> But you have absolutely no right to take it away from her or to dictate what she can be proud of or happy with.
You're making this way too personal. It's intended to be general advice, directed not toward Crawford, who isn't here (I don't think?) but rather to the readers of this comment. The problematic aspect of what Crawford said is the public glorification of needless sacrifice, not whether she specifically is (currently) personally happy or proud of it.
By the way, note that the infamous sleeping bag photo was infamous precisely because she posted it publicly for everyone, as some kind of model for work. And she was after all a manager, setting an example for others. It wasn't just a private photo she took for her album at home that she could look back on later and reminisce fondly about "the good old days".
Re: Epilogue of my time working at Twitter
#10[flagged]
Says bad things about their moderation; this is literally the worst video in the world and any other large company would have it autobanned instead of leaving it up for days. Though I expect the mandatory legal reporting still works.