Elon Musk admits to errors in the handling of Twitter, hypes up future vision
Christopher Hutton
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Elon Musk admitted to making mistakes in his first two months in charge of Twitter as he attempts to mold the social media platform to his vision.
Musk appeared on the All-In podcast with his fellow Silicon Valley investors David Sacks and Jason Calacanis to discuss his business efforts at the company. There, he discussed his mistakes and his predictions of rapid improvement in the company’s operation shortly.
“My error rate in being the Chief Twit will be less over time, but in the beginning, we’ll make, obviously, a lot more mistakes because I’m new to … hey, I just got here, man,” Musk said.
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When asked about “negative feedback about quick action without communication,” Musk diverted and pointed toward his larger goals for Twitter. “I’m a big believer in, you want to look at the net output,” Musk responded. “So it’s sort of like, what’s the batting average?”
“You’re going to swing for the fences, you’re going to strike out a bit more, but we’re going to swing for the fences here at Twitter, and we’re going to do it quickly,” the billionaire added.
Musk admitted that his current power over Twitter created some risk due to his lack of a board of directors or stockholders.
“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.”
Musk’s comments arrived days before Twitter experienced a major outage.
Twitter users reported that they could not access the website’s desktop interface Wednesday evening. “Significant backend server architecture changes rolled out. Twitter should feel faster,” Musk tweeted afterward.
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The changes arrive after Musk has laid off thousands of employees. The billionaire confirmed in his interview that the company has moved from more than 7,000 to only 2,000 staff. This shift in staffing has led some former staff to speculate about the website’s viability.
Musk announced last week that he intended to step down after polling users to see if they wanted him to, although it is unclear when since he needs to find “someone foolish enough to take the job.” Sacks and Calacanis have previously volunteered to lead the company, although it is unclear if Musk will take them up on the offer.