Yes, I'm deeply aware of the irony of posting a link to twitter here. Particularly this link:

https://twitter.com/IanColdwater/status/1675301524400922624?s=20
Eh, ok, I give up. Here's what the guy said:

"I was an intern at SpaceX years ago, back it when it was
a much smaller company - after Elon got hair plugs,
but before his cult of personality was in full swing. I have
some insight to offer here.

Back when I was at SpaceX, Elon was basically a child €
king. He was an important figurehead who provided the
company with the money, power, and PR, but he didn't
have the knowledge or (frankly) maturity to handle day-
to-day decision making and everyone knew that. He was
surrounded by people whose job was, essentially, to
manipulate him into making good decisions.

Managing Elon was a huge part of the company culture.
Even I, as a lowly intern, would hear people talking about
it openly in meetings. People knew how to present ideas
in a way that would resonate with him, they knew how to
creatively reinterpret (or ignore) his many insane
demands, and they even knew how to "stage manage"
parts of the physical office space so that it would appeal
to Elon.

The funniest example of "stage management" I can
remember is this dude on the IT security team. He had a
script running in a terminal on one of his monitors that
would output random garbage, Matrix-style, so that it
always looked like he was doing Important Computer
Things to anyone who walked by his desk. Second
funniest was all the people I saw playing WoW at their
desks after ~5pm, who did it in the office just to give the
appearance that they were working late.

People were willing to do that at Space because Elon
was giving them the money (and hype) to get into outer
space, a mission people cared deeply about. The
company also grew with and around Elon. There were
layers of management between individual employees
and Elon, and those managers were experienced
managers of Elon. Again, I cannot stress enough how
much of the company culture was oriented around
managing this one guy.

Twitter has neither of those things going for it. There is
no company culture or internal structure around the
problem of managing Elon Musk, and I think for the first
time we're seeing what happens when people actually
take that man seriously and at face value. Worse, they're
doing this little experiment after this man has had
decades of success at companies that dedicate
significant resources to protecting themselves from
him, and he's too narcissistic to realize it."
@woody SNL nailed this 30 years ago https://youtu.be/B81U7Vunhuc
You Mock Me - Saturday Night Live

YouTube
@archstreet @woody THIS IS GOLD!!! And oh, so accurate.
@archstreet @woody hilarious. Those hair plugs musk have really fertilized the narcissism.

@woody The above toot (click through and scroll up 👆👆👆) recounts a story from someone who used to work for Elon Musk in an earlier incarnation. It’s about how they used to try and manipulate him into doing smart things. It reminds me of the behind-the-scenes stories I’ve heard about well-meaning public health officials trying to manipulate conservative politicians during the early days of the pandemic!

I guess both stories went okay sometimes for a while but ended similarly badly? 😬

@IPEdmonton @woody I had been assuming that Gwyn Shotwell is an absolute genius at managing her boss, but this is definitely next level stuff.
@woody This makes so much sense. I imagine the culture at Tesla is similar.
@woody
This makes so much sense! Thank you for sharing this insight into how SpaceX managed to thrive under Musk.

@woody If you've ever had the misfortune to work in an organisation with either a narcissistic or merely incompetent boss, this pattern is all too common. Without it, the org invariably looses business and goes bust eventually.

I'd really love to know how Conway's law get's reflected in system design in those orgs that found a way to manage such a boss like SpaceX & Tesla; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law

Conway's law - Wikipedia

@woody
He is a child who wants to be king, and not a particularly bright or self-aware one.

@woody @woody Thank you.

Sad to see this king that has no clothes.

@woody Ooof, this is something else.

@woody @femme_mal
this:
There were "managers OF Elon" 0__o
(how much of the company culture was oriented around
managing this one guy.)

&:
" I think for the first
time we're seeing what happens when people actually
take that man seriously and at face value. "

eh.. weirdly wild..

@bituur_esztreym Folie totale, oui ?
@femme_mal effectivement. le bal est lancé à fond les ballons, ça ne s'arrêtera plus ^^
@bituur_esztreym @femme_mal il a viré les gens qui auraient pu le contenir...

@Nours_gob @bituur_esztreym Vraiment...et il continue d'aider ceux qui restent dehors.

L'annonce de DeSantis sur Twitter Space a échoué car Musk n'a pas payé la facture des services de logiciels vidéo.
https://www.newsweek.com/twitter-top-engineer-quits-ron-desantis-campaign-1802765

Twitter's Top Engineer Quits a Day After Ron DeSantis Campaign Flop

Foad Dabiri's resignation came one day after Ron DeSantis launched his 2024 campaign on the platform amidst technical difficulties and glitches.

Newsweek

@woody I read this and couldn't stop laughing.

This was *exactly* the same case at my previous company. Everything was about keeping the owner happy, even if it meant not actually doing ones job properly.

I guess I was basically working for a mini Musk. In a company full of yes people.

Which makes me feel even better about ultimately suing them for unfair dismissal.

@woody
I've heard this story multiple times. Truly sad.
@woody @helafella I always wondered about. Even speculated on how incredibly well spaceX must have managed him. Particular to not be destructive.

@woody "He was
surrounded by people whose job was, essentially, to
manipulate him into making good decisions." ----

Sounds like a certain former President I'm aware of.

@woody
MoronMusk MoronMusk MoronMusk

dropped smashed doped
just say no
@woody so, he is basically Donald Trump.
Here’s the answer to Elom Mush!
@woody
SpaceKaren in my mind, pre hair plugs🤪
@woody this is a bit hard to believe.. elon was a coder at paypal, he knows what rabdom garbage in a terminal looks like.. i agree that shit is a bit unreal now.. but.. hard to believe this, i dont buy it
@woody
This is the best definition of "useful idiot" I've seen.
@woody I am so very curious about the detailed insider story of how the talented folks at Tesla managed to, well, manage Musk for this long, while successfully helping the company to grow into its current state.
@woody That sounds about right. I went looking for the source of that
and found it, so if anyone is interested
https://www.tumblr.com/numberonecatwinner/701567544684855296/elon-wyd
oops all spiders

I was an intern at SpaceX years ago, back it when it was a much smaller company — after Elon got hair plugs, but before his cult of personality was in full swing. I have some insight to offer here.…

Tumblr

@woody

In the hope you see this, hi, I we were Following each other on Twitter, I have since left for good.
I am Following you here, any chance of a Follow back?