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Tesla engineers were on-site to evaluate the Twitter staff’s code, workers said

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Re: Tesla engineers were on-site to evaluate the Twitter staff’s code, workers said

#491

Twitter's core operation is running a massively distributed database, as I understand it, where concurrency issues are pretty important to get right. See Data-Intensive Applications (2017), Part II: Distributed Systems (Replication, Partitioning, Transactions, etc.) for an overview. https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/designing-data-intensiv... Just guessing, you'd think Starlink would be more experienced in that ar…

The suggestion algorithms are more of a technical challenge than concurrency, at Twitter scale. Tesla does a lot more ML than SpaceX.

(and let's be honest, Twitter hasn't solved the concurrency issues, so I'm not sure there's much to review)

Re: Tesla engineers were on-site to evaluate the Twitter staff’s code, workers said

#493
post #154

If someone completely new to my codebase came along and tried to evaluate my code I'd laugh. You can't jump in and "evaluate" without knowing context and being familiar with the features.

I'd argue you've done a bad job if a new person reading the code can't follow it.

Re: Tesla engineers were on-site to evaluate the Twitter staff’s code, workers said

#494

I’m honestly baffled with the obsession with Musk. Many folks here seem to despise him. But we can’t stop obsessing with the guy. At this point, to me it feels like envy. Musk, despite however he is as a person, is wildly successfully across several verticals. Rather than being a suit and tie corporate person, he literally posts memes, and has a IDGAF attitude. Does he owe this crowd anything? Twitter and its board m…

I was hoping for more legitimate discussion on something tangible, but the majority of this thread is righteous indignation. Which, no one is saying you can't feel that way, but generally on HN things have a bit more substance. Seems like just a lot of wasted energy, as none of it is of any real consequence.

Re: Tesla engineers were on-site to evaluate the Twitter staff’s code, workers said

#495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not stupid because he knows and trusts his engineers at Tesla. He knows nobody at Twitter. Hes probably trying to get an understanding of whats going on without relying on a bunch of employees who might not like him. It takes a while to build an employee base you trust, certainly in his situation.

I believe you’re missing the point. Random code reviews performed by people in a whole different sector aren’t the best way to find out “what’s going on”.

In my career I did a few rescue operations when I as external expert was asked to come in and understand why project was failing. Random code review is amazing tool to understand quality of engineering talent and process maturity.

My process was to schedule 2h block and then start with pulling random diff. I checked if engineer can explain diff purpose from both technical and business perspective. Then dive in and assess understanding of code base by asking about random functions/lines. Follow up if I do not understand something. Why was it done this way? Did you consider other options? What are pro cons? How long did it take you to write this? Who reviews it? Any approvals were needed? What was process to ship it?

You will be surprised how often sr/principal engineers are clueless and dev process is full clusterfuck when people copy/paste without understanding what they are doing.

You very quickly understand what’s going on. You do not need to talk to every engineer - random representative sample is good enough. You do not need to have domain understanding too - though it’s obviously very helpful.

Re: Tesla engineers were on-site to evaluate the Twitter staff’s code, workers said

#496
post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a team of 10 good programmers in a month can probably rewrite everything unless you scope-down "everything" to the point of triviality, that is ludicrously underestimating the intrinsic complexity of twitter's product surface, and all the plumbing and necessary tools that lie beneath

Probably not as hard as it seems, Amazon does this regularly with the concept of 2 pizza team. The real challenge is figuring out what is the 20% of Twitter that drives 80% of revenue. Probably basic Twitter posting and ads, and whatever fraud/bot prevention is needed to keep running smoothly.

Amazon has more than 50 employees.

Re: Tesla engineers were on-site to evaluate the Twitter staff’s code, workers said

#498

Musk sounds like a nightmare to work for. Why would any self-respecting developer stick around under these conditions? I expect an exodus of talent from Twitter in short order.

Have you looked at the Tesla share price history, or SpaceX valuation?

Elon makes his equity-compensated employees rich. You don't need complex psychology to explain the appeal.

Re: Tesla engineers were on-site to evaluate the Twitter staff’s code, workers said

#499
post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, there’s nowhere else for cable news to pull hot takes from social media.

This is the true lifeblood of Twitter. I think if someone created Twitter for journalists, pundits, wonks, and politicians -ONLY- maybe it would be a place to go? Like something that requires a journalism credential, or a TV host, or an actually office holder title. Sure there'd be crazies, but at least there'd be a source for hot takes. Twitter could still exist for "citizen journalism", but the two wouldn't mix as…

Twitter isn't just for journos, it's more importantly for all their sources too.

Re: Tesla engineers were on-site to evaluate the Twitter staff’s code, workers said

#500
post #338
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's pretty clear to me that there are elements of the elite media-political complex that are terrified of Elon purchasing Twitter because he's not part of their crowd and they won't be able to control him and through him what is and isn't allowed on Twitter. IMO all articles about this should be read with that in mind. It's pretty clear there are elements of the Hacker News community who are obsessed with "cancel…

If "cancel culture" is no big deal, then why is everybody so terrified of Elon taking over Twitter? What is so bad about this that you feel the need to make weak-man arguments accusing everybody who is moderately pro-Elon of being a mindless shill?

Elon taking over Twitter given his promises to dismantle what meager content moderation policies it has, means it becomes a more amplified platform for political misinformation and hate speech, further radicalizing large portions of the population to partake in even more violent acts, such as the recent assassination attempt on the speaker of the house, armed vigilantes stalking voting locations as we have seen in Arizona looking for supposed "mules", things like that. Lax content and moderation policies will enhance the platform's capability to be used as a tool for online stalking, harassment, death threats, etc. so that non-right-wing voices will probably need to abandon the platform ( a "cancel culture" of sorts indeed, where people who don't silence themselves will be in danger of being literally cancelled).

Beyond that, there is then his massive conflicts of interest and his personal political opinions such as those involving Ukraine, which he would be able to amplify in the same way as any nation-state seeks to spread propaganda regarding their political agendas. The Pentagon literally had to negotiate with him, as though he were his own nation state, regarding his maintanance of the Starlink system that Ukraine depends upon in their current war with Russia. If Musk is essentially rich and powerful enough to be treated as a diplomatic entity, it's pretty scary he'd have full privatized control over the most influential social network in history, not any less frightening than if Twitter were a state controlled entity by the US government, the Saudi government, etc.

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