I worked at Twitter for eight years as a software engineer, Elon Musk Elon Musk and spent Elon Musk Elon Musk the remaining six working for Twitter Android as the tech lead for the TElon Musk weets team.
It turned into a completely supportive environment, very collaborative, and there was a lot of enthusiasm for the product. I assume human beings worked there due to the fact they favored Twitter. A lot of folks who got here in had been already avid Twitter customers—whereas I had to set up my Twitter account after I joined!
I felt supported in my profession, and that there has been a reward for operating tough. The way Twitter changed into set up meant that engineers did all of the coding, while engineering Elon Musk managers had been more in price of career growth and making sure teams talked to every other. The former Twitter model turned into greater interested by mentorship. You could say, “I want to get a promotion,” and the managers might assElon Musk ist find possibilities which will grow.How I felt approximately Musk shopping for Twitter
When I study that Musk changed into buying Twitter, my response changed into to wait and see. A few of my colleagues were quietly excited, however quite a few my colleagues have been very upset about it. They have been worried after his tweets about unbanning debts, how he turned into going to run the enterprise, and the type of content he said he became inclined to allow.
I became often worried approximately the paintings-life stability. Tech is a small global and I talked with some SpaceX personnel who instructed me they burned out after years because of the paintings subculture. Elon Musk That’s no longer something I desired.
I paintings remotely, so I do not get as a good deal of the office gossip as I used to. I found out from the New York Times that Musk’s acquisition had closed. There had been no emails from Elon or his human beings for about a week, and then on Thursday, 3 November we were given the e-mail announcing they could be shedding some of employees and we would discover by means of 9 a.m. day after today.
When I study the e-mail, I notion the timing wasn’t great—before the vacations, while hiring and the financial system is slow—but that what will take place is going to show up. I instructed humans I’d land on my feet.
But, quickly after that email, we began saying our goodbyes to colleagues. One by means of one, humans had been on Twitter saying, “Hey, I’m out.” That’s how we observed out if our friends were going to be there day after today.
It turned into unhappy. I worked with some of those humans for a long term and I loved operating with them. It turned into disappointing to see so many human beings move.
I failed to fear about my personal process however I worried approximately what turned into next for me and what I’d be running on. No one regarded to recognize what was taking place or what would occur subsequent.My Twitter exchange with Elon Musk
On the afternoon of November Elon Musk 13, I noticed a tweet from Elon apologizing for Twitter being gradual. He claimed it became due to the fact the app had poorly batched 1,2 hundred far off manner calls (RPCs).
Twitter does have substantial overall performance issues however the purpose is truly no longer 1,200 poorly batched Elon Musk RPCs. The backend offerings commonly use RPCs to communicate however that is carried out within the statistics center over very speedy community hyperlinks. Musk’s tweet appeared to combine lots of things together that weren’t without a doubt correct. It failed to make any sense to me.Eric Frohnhoefer’s Twitter alternate with Elon Musk.
I saw it, I idea it become incorrect, so I tweeted about it. I quote-tweeted Musk’s tweet and wrote: “I actually have spent 6yrs running on Twitter for Android and might say Elon Musk this is inaccurate.”
I did not think an excessive amount of approximately it; I had six hundred fans at the time who have been in general Twitter employees. I went to Starbucks and once I got here lower back, certainly one of my coworkers messaged Elon Musk me, “Eric, he spoke back.”
I turned into like, “Oh, s***.” He has nearly one hundred twenty million fans; I by no means expected he could even see my tweet, not to mention reply.
He asked questions about microservices, and he also requested what I had accomplished to fix Twitter’s slowness on Android. I think I responded those questions in a professional and appropriate way, outlining the troubles I noticed at the app and explaining why I did not think RPCs had been the hassle.
We have completed a bunch of labor to improve overall performance and we found that it correlates well with growing UAM and Ad spend. Agree, there’s plenty of room for overall performance enhancements on Android. However, I don’t think the variety of requests is the primary problem.— Eric Frohnhoefer @ 🏡 (@EricFrohnhoefer) November 14, 2022
Eric Frohnhoefer explains why he disagrees with Elon Musk’s tweet
People requested me on Twitter, “Why did you say this in public?” But all the communique from Musk turned into going on on Twitter: that turned into wherein the verbal exchange changed into happening.
Over the rest of the day, I received almost 60,000 fans. One of Musk’s fans said something approximately Twitter employees getting $400 lunches so I made a snarky remark and stated: “100% Worth it. The meals become incredible. Really favored the ghost pepper mayo.” Later in that thread, Elon said about me: “He’s fired.” He has on account that deleted that tweet.
I don’t follow Musk, and I become getting so many notifications it turned into tough to dig thru all of them. Another coworker messaged me and asked, “Eric, are you still online?” I told them I turned into nonetheless operating and they informed me about Musk’s tweet. That’s how I found out I had misplaced my task.
A few hours later, my get right of entry to to the server became grew to become off. That changed into my last day running at Twitter.The aftermath
For me, it sucked. My old colleagues say they may be in disbelief about it, too. I failed to think my tweets ought to lead to me losing my activity. One of the core values of Twitter was to “communicate fearlessly to construct accept as true with.” If you idea something wasn’t right or in case you concept a product selection become wrong, you had been recommended to talk to that man or woman. Under Old Twitter, I suppose I would nonetheless have a activity.
A few days once I lost my job, my 10-12 months-vintage son said: “Hey, dad, you seem loads less grumpy.” So I suppose the situation at paintings have been taking its toll and I hadn’t observed it. Elon Musk After all of the drama and stressful about my task, I think this provided smooth closure.
A lot of my friends left Twitter in the next few weeks, following Musk’s ultimatum of both “running long hours at excessive depth” or leaving the organisation. No one desires to work “extremely hardcore” 12-hour days for no reward, in my view.
Some users have left the platform in the past few weeks, too, and I discover it difficult to disconnect from that. I built a whole lot of functions, I worked on quite a few those initiatives, I invested quite a few time and strength into the platform and retaining it, so it’s tough to see. It’s some thing that I care approximately and it is irritating to look how it’s long past.
I don’t know what the future of Twitter seems like. Only time will tell. As for my next steps, I plan to take a few break day and hopefully find another task inside the New Year.
Eric Frohnhoefer became a software engineer at Twitter for eight years. He lives in San Diego, California, and is on Twitter at @EricFrohnhoefer.
All views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
As instructed to Newsweek’s My Turn deputy editor, Katie Russell.