Cult of Personality

It's deeply fascinating to watch the way Elon Musk's escalating public behaviour is a continuation of the Trump influence with a twist. Trump broke a bunch of cultural norms and made it seem ok to say toxic, patently incorrect stuff in public.

Because Elon is perceived as somewhat more legitimate, he's unlocked a second-wave of bullshit. People like DHH and GeoHot have been given tacit permission to air their garbage worldviews, somehow believing that an imagined repression has been lifted.

George Hotz (legendary iPhone and PlayStation hardware hacker) is out here in public saying "nothing good was created in the 2010s because of wokeness". Verifiably absolute bullshit, but Elon's recent missives have triggered George's confirmation bias and he's off to the races.

DHH (creator of Ruby on Rails, Basecamp, and Hey) posted a rant against diversity initiatives and celebrated a new era of tech layoffs, closing out with a sentence that effectively reads "FUCK YEAH BIAS IS COOL!".

Elon's brain virus is spreading everywhere. This chap (screenshot from Cindy's tweet), an investor and board member in dozens of startups, cites Elon as an inspiration to new founders who are aping his approach to pissing off software engineers, while also revealing that they're only just starting to track productivity:

That these dudes' takeaway is "wokeness killed productivity" not "goddamn I'm bad at management" really speaks to the institutional racism & misogyny that has granted the tech leadership class undeserved authority.

On the upside, I look forward to the new wave of productive, inclusive companies that come out as people learn what true toxic culture looks like.