The limits of startup culture

Elon Musk has only owned Twitter for two weeks. Given his spectacular success at Tesla and SpaceX, I'd be a fool to count him or Twitter out over the long haul. I loathe his public persona and what I know of his management methods but he has made both work for him at a business level.

Nevertheless, what he has done to and with Twitter in his two-week ownership stint is kind of sublimely moronic.

Anybody can have an idea to whose shortcomings he's blind. That's why most of us chew over the idea for a while, and/or discuss it with others, before we throw ourselves into making it happen.

When you're the world's richest man, though, and you own a business outright, you can put your pet uncooked idea into effect with a snap of your fingers. Constantly being hailed online as a genius also apparently dulls your sense of caution, the hard-won knowledge the rest of us have that we can and will make mistakes when we move too fast and don't think clearly enough.

"Move fast and break things" is a motto credited to Mark Zuckerberg. It's a natural follow-on to another risk-taking motto, "It's better to seek forgiveness than to ask permission". I've worked in bureaucracies and I get the appeal of both ideas.

I can also say, I've worked in bureaucracies and I've had to clean up after brash idiots who broke things they didn't understand and therefore weren't competent to fix when the breakage caused others to suffer.

Musk, like so many tech bros, is infatuated with himself and the "obvious" correctness of his own vision. What's worse, he has a proven track record of achievements and a cheering section that I can only call terrifyingly loyal. (His online supporters act like a bully's henchmen.)

Tech bro-dom is way, way, way overestimated as an expression of genius, especially by the bros. What's far worse, though, is that its culture elevates not giving a shit about other people to practically a holy commandment.

What Musk has demonstrated in his brief stint as Twitter's sole proprietor is the limit of startup culture, of tech bro-dom, as an operating philosophy. He can move fast and break things but he can't force everyone to stay in the building while he whacks at the foundations.

He has tried, to be sure, threatening to "name and shame" advertisers who have "paused" their advertising on Twitter until the long-term picture becomes clearer. That doesn't mean he'll get them all back on board, though. His pettiness isn't charming and it isn't a desirable trait in a CEO or business owner. Arrogance, which he also has in immeasurable quantity, isn't well-tolerated either, unless it's crowned with success.

If Twitter doesn't regain its footing under Musk, it will be because of his shortcomings as a manager and as a human being.