Elon Musk’s time as “Chief Twit” has been marked by apparent snap-of-a-finger changes and sometimes swift reactions, but the Tesla and SpaceX CEOs are chasing upswings to growing pains.
“In the beginning, we’ll make, obviously, a lot more mistakes, because I’m new to — Hey, I just got here, man,” he said on the “All-In” podcast show posted on Saturday. “I think we’ll have fewer gaffes in the future,” he said.
In addition to mass layoffs (now the subject of ongoing lawsuits), Musk also began halting the implementation of new features such as payment verification and retrenched employees monitoring troubling content on the site.
Most recently, he was criticized for the temporary suspension of the accounts of several journalists.
One of the show’s hosts, investor David Friedberg, alluded to “product iteration” – the controversy surrounding the development of a product or feature – and referred to some of the public’s “negative reaction about prompt action without communication”.
Musk offered a baseball metaphor, telling Friedberg, “We’re going to swing for the fans here on Twitter, and we’re going to do it quickly,” even if it means “strike out a little bit more.”
Musk also defended a new “views” feature that Twitter unveiled this month to show how many people viewed a particular tweet, which many users criticized for cluttering the interface. He added that it was “a much harder feature to implement than you might think.”
Musk also acknowledged that Twitter has a “fair number of bots in the system” — an apparent pet reason he held back from buying the platform — but said he’s since made “a lot of steps to reduce bots and trolls situation.”
Friedberg also raised Musk’s cultural influence among tech peers, who are fascinated by the vision of a solo leadership, unfettered by the restraints of a board, a phenomenon that Insider’s Melia Russell recently covered. Musk acknowledged that absolute power can carry some risks.
“I guess I’m in some ways in a fortunate position, where I don’t have to answer — it’s not public, and we don’t have a board, really,” he said.
“I can take actions that are drastic. And obviously, if I make a bunch of mistakes, then Twitter won’t succeed, and that will be pretty embarrassing and sad.” he added.
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Information Source: BusinessInsider