Rework
Twitter is Still Up
Wed Jun 14 2023Description
The episode discusses Twitter's workforce reduction, the benefits of operating leaner organizations, challenges and competition in the social media landscape, and the struggle of starting with zero followers. It explores how Twitter's downsizing led to increased agility and innovation, the impact of 'bullshit jobs' in organizations, and the difficulty of finding solutions for Twitter's problems. The episode also highlights the importance of product-market fit and the challenges faced by new platforms in building an audience.
Insights
Twitter's downsizing resulted in increased speed and experimentation
By reducing its workforce, Twitter was able to make more changes in the past six months than in the previous two years with four times the amount of people. This demonstrates how cutting back on employees can lead to faster movement and innovation.
Competition brings new life to the social media landscape
Competitors emerging in response to Twitter's challenges indicate that competition is healthy and can drive innovation in the stagnant social media industry.
Starting with zero followers can be discouraging for users
Building an audience from scratch is difficult, and switching platforms means starting with zero followers. This can be intimidating and demoralizing for users.
Chapters
- Twitter's Workforce Reduction
- Benefits of Operating Leaner Organizations
- Challenges and Competition in the Social Media Landscape
- The Struggle of Starting with Zero Followers
Twitter's Workforce Reduction
00:00 - 07:00
- Twitter's workforce has been reduced from 8,000 employees to around 1,500.
- Despite the layoffs, Twitter is still functioning.
- The co-founders of 37 Signals believe that companies need fewer employees than they think.
- They argue that Twitter didn't need thousands of employees to operate effectively.
- The lesson is not to lay off the entire staff but rather to realize that you don't need as many people as you think.
- Building a company should involve hiring only when necessary and keeping things tight and small for as long as possible.
- Twitter's transformation into a more agile and innovative company with fewer employees is impressive.
- Having a smaller team allows for faster progress compared to larger companies with excessive bureaucracy.
- The experiment with Twitter's downsizing provides valuable insights into the benefits of operating leaner organizations.
- It is difficult to have discussions about Twitter's staffing needs due to other factors like Elon Musk's involvement and job losses.
- There is a discussion worth having about whether the jobs at Twitter were actually meaningful or if they were considered 'bullshit jobs' with no impact on the company or customers.
Benefits of Operating Leaner Organizations
06:33 - 13:42
- Some people in organizations have what can be defined as 'bullshit jobs' that have no impact on the company or industry.
- Anecdote of a designer who worked at Twitter for two and a half years without shipping anything.
- Twitter made more changes with fewer people in the past six months than in the previous two years with four times the amount of people.
- The more people and management a company has, the harder it is to move quickly.
- Being small allows for speed and agility in business.
- Twitter's recent changes show how cutting back on employees can lead to faster movement and experimentation.
- Twitter's renegotiation of content moderation led to fewer employees needed for that task.
- The dynamics of social media platforms like Twitter optimize for engagement through rage and drama.
- The changes at Twitter provide an interesting business case study in tech history.
- Steve Jobs returning to Apple and firing employees to focus on core products is a similar example of streamlining a company's direction.
Challenges and Competition in the Social Media Landscape
13:21 - 20:09
- Apple had to cut back on products and focus on a few key ones to regain direction.
- Twitter lacked a well-oiled machine and struggled for years.
- Competitors are emerging in response to Twitter's challenges.
- Competition is healthy and brings new life to the stagnant social media landscape.
- Macedon's experiment with distributed content moderation highlights the difficulty of finding a solution for Twitter's problems.
- Creating a marginally better version of Twitter is unlikely to unseat it; radical innovation is needed, as seen with TikTok.
- The hard part of a social media platform is not the features but achieving product-market fit.
- Building an audience is difficult, and switching platforms means starting from zero followers.
- Starting at zero followers can be intimidating and discouraging for users.
The Struggle of Starting with Zero Followers
19:40 - 21:27
- Starting at zero and having numbers of zero all over the place is a bad idea.
- Other platforms should avoid this dead end of not disclosing follower counts.
- Hey doesn't reveal how many people are reading your blog, as it's not real.
- The struggle of starting with zero followers is underappreciated by other networks.
- Metrics like follower count are addictive and create a moat for platforms.
- Losing even a small audience can be demoralizing, going from 200 to zero followers.