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DetlefK

(16,423 posts)
Sat Nov 19, 2022, 04:51 AM Nov 2022

Have you ever noticed the manipulative / abusive / gaslighting language Elon Musk uses?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-demands-sit-down-with-engineers-amid-new-twitter-chaos

Three weeks ago, the world’s richest man bought Twitter for $44 billion.

Since then, the once-inescapable social media platform has been jerked around under Elon Musk’s erratic tutelage as scores of crucial staffers—and advertisers, which account for some 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue—head for the exits.

Through it all, Musk has projected confidence.

“The best people are staying, so I’m not super worried,” he tweeted Thursday night, while simultaneously informing employees the company would be shuttering its offices and deactivating workers’ access cards until next week.

By Friday morning, Musk finally seemed to be worried.

“Anyone who can actually write software, please report to the 10th floor at 2pm today,” he pleaded in an email obtained by Platformer, The New York Times, and others. “Before doing so, please email me a bullet point summary of what your code commits have achieved in the past 6 months.”


Step 1: Belittle the other person: "Anyone who can actually write software"
Step 2: Force them to do you a favor: "please report to the 10th floor at 2pm today"
Step 3: Make them them feel that they will owe you a favor after doing what you forced them to do: "a bullet point summary of what your code commits have achieved in the past 6 months"

"You are nobody. Prove your worth to me."

A few hours later, Musk reportedly fired off another email to remote Twitter engineers, saying he wanted to meet with them by midnight—and requested screenshots of their “most salient lines of code.”

“If possible, I would encourage you to fly to SF to present in person,” Musk reportedly wrote, adding, “[O]nly those who cannot physically get to Twitter HQ are excused.”

He said there would be “short, technical interviews that allow me to better understand the Twitter tech stack,” Reuters reported.


Step 1: Belittle the other person: "If possible, I would encourage you to fly to SF"
Step 2: Force them to do you a favor: "short, technical interviews that allow me to better understand the Twitter tech stack"
Step 3: Make them them feel that they will owe you a favor after doing what you forced them to do: "only those who cannot physically get to Twitter HQ are excused"

"If you actually cared, you would have come in person. Now explain this to me, and don't forget that i'm being gracious here by allowing you to call in."

Twitter’s problems began to mount quickly after Musk lopped off about half its workforce upon assuming command early this month. The 2,900 staff members who remained at Twitter received an ultimatum: Anyone who wanted to stay would need to be “extremely hardcore” about being there.

“Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore,” Musk wrote in a memo sent early Wednesday.

“This will mean working long hours at high intensity,” Musk said in the missive, which was first reported by The Washington Post. “Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”


Step 1: Belittle the other person: "we will need to be extremely hardcore"
Step 2: Force them to do you a favor: "This will mean working long hours at high intensity"
Step 3: Make them them feel that they will owe you a favor after doing what you forced them to do: "Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade"

"You don't work hard enough. If you work harder than ever before, then I might consider judging you as doing the bare minimum."
26 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Have you ever noticed the manipulative / abusive / gaslighting language Elon Musk uses? (Original Post) DetlefK Nov 2022 OP
Learning the hard way yankee87 Nov 2022 #1
This is a good repudiation of "Atlas Shrugged" tikka Nov 2022 #6
Yesterday I had this thought as well. Who does he think he is, John Gault? ms liberty Nov 2022 #12
That's why he is MSB hatchet man JT45242 Nov 2022 #10
He's not doing well in a worker's market. carpetbagger Nov 2022 #2
I like this analysis. I've worked for sons of privilege before. It rings true. Thanks. K&R. NNadir Nov 2022 #3
Egoloon in Wonderland: You have to run twice as fast as your top speed to get anywhere Bernardo de La Paz Nov 2022 #4
It's s deliberate attempt to destroy Twitter or... Joinfortmill Nov 2022 #5
I think both can be true. KarenS Nov 2022 #7
Authoritarians... 2naSalit Nov 2022 #8
I think part of him is angry that he was forced to buy it tinrobot Nov 2022 #24
yes..hes a pig samnsara Nov 2022 #9
For "the smartest man in the world".... SergeStorms Nov 2022 #11
He also seems to have bought into some severe misconceptions Maeve Nov 2022 #13
Re your second paragraph, hasn't that attitude been around Boomerproud Nov 2022 #19
And another fallacy: GopherGal Nov 2022 #23
He's been like this for years. yardwork Nov 2022 #14
+1. Decades dalton99a Nov 2022 #18
It's a shame that anyone believes that he's a genius Orrex Nov 2022 #15
Hard-core like the obsessed gamer binging LuvLoogie Nov 2022 #16
The cult that worships that sadistic con man/corporate welfare queen is just as despicable as he is dalton99a Nov 2022 #17
Flying to SF at the last minute? That might be logistcally difficult. Do they use a Corporate Card? TheBlackAdder Nov 2022 #20
If we could figure out a way to get Dump and Musk in a room together... Blue Owl Nov 2022 #21
He is very Trumpesque in his approach to people and business Peacetrain Nov 2022 #22
Trump went bankrupt a lot. tinrobot Nov 2022 #25
He will probably say something like... Leith Nov 2022 #26

yankee87

(2,175 posts)
1. Learning the hard way
Sat Nov 19, 2022, 05:23 AM
Nov 2022

Elon, son of privilege, is finding out people are necessary to run Twitter. At first I laughed, now I’m sad. Twitter is used to coordinate and inform resistance movements around the world. Hopefully someone with knowledge of how to run the company will buy it for pennies on the dollar and turn it around.

JT45242

(2,286 posts)
10. That's why he is MSB hatchet man
Sat Nov 19, 2022, 09:09 AM
Nov 2022

To prevent resistance to bone saw, Qatar. And all the other authoritarian countries.

Never. Ever forget that the Saudi royal family is really an enemy and not an ally.

They no longer side with us against the Russians. So it isn't even the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

carpetbagger

(4,391 posts)
2. He's not doing well in a worker's market.
Sat Nov 19, 2022, 05:42 AM
Nov 2022

He's not being very effective at gaslighting and manipulating lol. I don't think he's ever had to manage in an environment where he had to view it as a two-way street. Sucks to be him.

Bernardo de La Paz

(49,033 posts)
4. Egoloon in Wonderland: You have to run twice as fast as your top speed to get anywhere
Sat Nov 19, 2022, 06:58 AM
Nov 2022

The Red Queen:

"Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else—if you run very fast for a long time, as we've been doing."

"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!" [1]




2naSalit

(86,767 posts)
8. Authoritarians...
Sat Nov 19, 2022, 07:56 AM
Nov 2022

Want it gone so the loon is willing to oblige with some monetary help. For exactly the reason you mention. Since the Arab Spring leaders took note that the twit machine was their nemesis, you can't hve the serfs communicating and organizing on their phones!

It took a while to find someone to take it down... enter the muskratfucker.

tinrobot

(10,914 posts)
24. I think part of him is angry that he was forced to buy it
Sun Nov 20, 2022, 01:23 AM
Nov 2022

He tried to wiggle out of the deal for months.

Perhaps this is his version of a temper tantrum.

SergeStorms

(19,204 posts)
11. For "the smartest man in the world"....
Sat Nov 19, 2022, 09:10 AM
Nov 2022

he sure is dumb. You'd think someone who's shelling out $44 billion for something would do some research beforehand about his acquisitions tech stack. 🤔

But who am I to question the methods of the smartest man on earth, right?

Maeve

(42,287 posts)
13. He also seems to have bought into some severe misconceptions
Sat Nov 19, 2022, 09:23 AM
Nov 2022

Such as "only the brightest people are doing the REAL work" or "if you don't threaten them, folks won't give you their best" and "anything being done by a large group can actually be done by a few dedicated workers (at much less pay)".

It's almost like he believes anyone who isn't already rich is either lazy or stupid...("Drop everything and fly in to meet with me and I MIGHT let you keep your job" WTAF??)

Boomerproud

(7,963 posts)
19. Re your second paragraph, hasn't that attitude been around
Sat Nov 19, 2022, 11:43 AM
Nov 2022

for decades, especially starting in the Reagan era 80s? If you weren't a millionaire by age 25 you were a LOSER.

GopherGal

(2,009 posts)
23. And another fallacy:
Sat Nov 19, 2022, 10:46 PM
Nov 2022
"if you don't threaten them, folks won't give you their best"


I believe I've read somewhere that the external motivations (threats/rewards) useful to motivate performance on simple tasks tend to be counterproductive when trying to motivate performance in complex problem solving. If so, it's possible that the bullying management style may work in some environments, but fail in others.

LuvLoogie

(7,022 posts)
16. Hard-core like the obsessed gamer binging
Sat Nov 19, 2022, 10:29 AM
Nov 2022

while his bored, hot girlfriend sits on the couch.

I really don't think he gets or would ever get the technical reports he's demanding.

He has no respect for workers.

Ultimately, US tax payers will have paid the 44 billion dollars it took to wreck Twitter. Elon will write it off.

TheBlackAdder

(28,211 posts)
20. Flying to SF at the last minute? That might be logistcally difficult. Do they use a Corporate Card?
Sat Nov 19, 2022, 11:54 AM
Nov 2022

.

Or is he expecting people to front the flight and most probably a hotel booking out of their own expenses?


Or will he do a Trump/Romney and have them fly out on a Corporate Card and then revoke it without notice?

Leaving them stranded in SF and forced to spend their own money to get home.


.

Blue Owl

(50,490 posts)
21. If we could figure out a way to get Dump and Musk in a room together...
Sat Nov 19, 2022, 12:21 PM
Nov 2022

Their energies might create an event horizon that would destroy them both!

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