On Thu, Oct 23, 2025 at 1:30 PM John Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > > I haven't yet read the book "Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon > Valley" by Jacob Silverman but after reading the following brief book review > by Brian Harrod I intend to:
Interesting. Downloaded the book, will read. > === > He raged after his tweets flopped... "I have 100 million followers, and only > getting thousands of impressions", ElonMusk axed an X engineer after they > delivered the harsh truth about why his posts were flopping, a new book > claims. Journalist Jacob Silverman revealed in his book Gilded Rage: Elon > Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley that Musk became fixated on how > people interacted with his posts following his $44 billion acquisition of > Twitter. > “Firing more than half of Twitter employees, Musk transformed how the > platform operated,” Silverman writes in an excerpt obtained by Newsweek about > the mass layoffs that occurred after the tech billionaire’s 2022 Twitter > takeover. Silverman then details a 2023 firing reported at the time by the > tech news site Platformer. > “He fired a company engineer who told him that engagement on his tweets was > down because people weren’t as interested in him,” Silverman writes. The > original report described how Musk gathered engineers and advisers at > Twitter’s headquarters in 2023, where multiple sources recalled him saying: > “This is ridiculous... I have more than 100 million followers, and I’m only > getting tens of thousands of impressions.” > > “One of the company’s two remaining principal engineers offered a possible > explanation for Musk’s declining reach,” Platformer reported, withholding the > engineer’s name due to the harassment Musk directed at former employees. > According to the publication, employees presented Musk with internal data and > a Google Trends chart showing his popularity had fallen from a peak score of > 100 to just nine. Musk then reportedly told the engineer, “You’re fired, > you’re fired.” > > In his new book, Silverman cites an example—also reported at the time by > Platformer—recounting the 2023 Super Bowl, when both then-President Joe Biden > and Musk tweeted their support for the Philadelphia Eagles, with Biden’s post > generating nearly 20 million more impressions. “That apparently was > unacceptable to Musk, who deleted his tweet and flew to California after the > game to demand changes to Twitter’s algorithm,” Silverman writes. Silverman > then quotes an alleged 2:36 a.m. Slack message from Musk’s cousin James Musk > after the Super Bowl fiasco, which read: “We are debugging an issue with > engagement across the platform. Any people who can make dashboards and write > software please can you help solve this problem. This is high urgency. If you > are willing to help out please thumbs up this post.” > > “Thanks to the middle-of-the-night participation of 80 company engineers, the > ‘high urgency’ issue was quickly solved,” Silverman writes, detailing the > changes made that ensured “Twitter’s systems to privilege Musk’s posts above > all others. The For You feed became a mirror of Musk’s interests, containing > the right-wing accounts he followed,” . The author of the original Platformer > article, which detailed the operation to change the X (formerly Twitter) > algorithm, had been called out by Musk on X following its publication > > Musk Axed X Engineer After Truth About His Poor-Performing Posts > > John K Clark > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "extropolis" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/extropolis/CAJPayv2M%3DBtKB55PNjaiYVUNvUXG9wPK8e0QB00kmtdsW1Ff0w%40mail.gmail.com. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAKTCJycidyh_NZgFZZPFRzJ_Ksvn2VkxSK1%2BEJmRJVd3-__MYg%40mail.gmail.com.
