The thing with this theory is that Twitter (like most web companies) was already working like this - iterative development that’s not merely fast but continuous. And Musk has actually reversed this trend (if we’re to believe insider reports and industry scuttlebutt). CI/CD depends on the ability to rapidly sense problems, diagnose them, and correct them. But these things have broken it:
Twitter (as a whole) is a complex system (a network with feedback loops). Musk’s only expertise is in complicated systems (machines like rockets, cars, etc) and has no skills for dealing with complexity.
Musk has misunderstood Twitter to be a software product rather than a networked social ecosystem. Twitter’s customers are advertisers. Musk thinks his customers are Twitter users, and he’s wasting money trying to please them with “new features” because this is what worked at Tesla.
Musk has fired so many people that the time to diagnose and correct problems has mushroomed, and problems are becoming more frequent.
Musk has a great deal of personal vanity invested in the product, he cannot tolerate making mistakes in public, so he is correcting opposite the direction of iteration - he’s implemented change freezes, meaning that changes are deployed in larger sets, meaning they’re harder to reason about when things break.
He’s lied to Twitter, lied about Twitter, and been abusive to his employees in some ways that are turning out to be quite expensive. This erodes trust in both his intentions and judgment, so employees are less willing to go the extra mile for him.
The irony here is that Musk’s success in rocketry came in no small part from bringing an iterative change approach to a discipline that’s historically been waterfall. Then he dove into an industry (well, painted himself into a corner) that’s already committed to the iterative approach, yet he is regressing toward a waterfall approach.
This ought to be a giant red flag that Musk’s “genius” is limited to some narrow technical domains, and his “success” is due in large part to managing hype. While he’s not a moron per se, his screwups at Twitter are grounds to treat all of his enterprises and public-facing comments with the sort of total skepticism that one would attribute to an actual moron.
Ha! I see through your scheme, you just want a zombie horde to arrive so you can save us all with your horde of kill-bots, become acclaimed as a Savior, and replace Musk as the TechGod to the many bros out there.
Musk wishes he could do this.
[ see I brought the hijack back to the thread topic! ]
It occurs to me that Twitter is subject to regulatory scrutiny in at least three broad areas:
Content moderation requirements, especially in the EU
Labour laws
Finance and tax laws
And Elmo’s attitude to all of these laws is utter contempt. With Elmo’s orange-hued hero and self-declared genius reportedly about to get his first criminal indictment, I have this delightful vision of both of them winding up in jail.
We all understand he’s brazenly self-interested. But it does take a shocking degree of brazenness to advocate for and admit to helping overthrow the legitimate government of a sovereign nation to further business interests.
I’m not sure if this article about a March 7 investor conference interview with Musk was discussed here, as that was when the Halli kerfuffle was foremost, but some interesting info.
So basically he is trying to do what he originally wanted to do at PayPal and for which he was ousted by CEO. The internet landscape has changed a lot since then. Every bank is online now. Interac is a thing now. Plus for a guy who doesn’t seem to pay much heed to regulations and laws, I’m not sure owning a bank is such a great idea. If he thinks he’s under scrutiny now… oh boy, wait until he’s an online bank.
Musk is doing all he can to make the world worse for the lulz. It’s the sort of thing you’d expect from a spoiled rich guy with way too much power and zero immediate consequences.
