Last October, Tesla founder Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, acquired Twitter (now known as X), a social media platform used by more than 300 million people around the world. Under Musk’s ‘iron-fisted rule’, close to 70% of employees were fired, and the ‘Blue Bird’ logo and company name that had been used for 17 years were abandoned overnight. Why was Musk, who has achieved both money and fame by running Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company, so obsessed with Twitter? The background was a nature that craves constant stimulation, a rebellious temperament, and a twisted family relationship.
Walter Isaacson, the author of Musk’s biography to be published this month, wrote about Musk’s mysterious acquisition of Twitter in an essay titled ‘The Real Story of Musk’s Acquisition of Twitter’ in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 31st (local time). The whole story was told in detail. It also revealed who Musk is and what he thinks.
◇ Musk, why was he obsessed with Twitter?
According to Isaacson, Musk, who achieved enormous success, was ‘a game addict who won the game but couldn’t turn off the game’ early last year. For him, who was intoxicated with the thrill of doing his best to succeed in business, rest felt empty and he desperately needed new stimulation. When Seavon Gillies, director of Musk’s startup Neuralink and mother of two children with Musk, asked him, “Do you feel more comforted when you’re at war?” he responded, “I think I was originally set up this way. “I always want to put the (casino) chips back on the table and take the game to the next level,” he said.
This ‘period of unstable success’ coincided with the period in which he exercised $10 billion worth of expired stock options. “He didn’t want to put that money in the bank,” Musk said. “When he asked himself what he liked, the answer was simple: “It was Twitter,” he said.
For several years now, Musk has expressed his thoughts freely on Twitter and enjoyed engaging in a ‘war of words’ with netizens like a game. “Twitter has the same characteristics as a school playground with teasing and bullying, but it’s a place where smart kids (like Musk) gain followers,” Isaacson said. “You don’t get beaten like you did when you were a kid (for being a study bug). Owning this platform could make him the ‘king of the schoolyard,’” he wrote. It is said that lack of childhood is the reason why Musk became so obsessed with Twitter.
Musk thought that the so-called ‘woke mind virus ‘ was sickening토토사이트 America. He argues that freedom of expression is being suppressed to protect ‘political correctness’ regarding social issues such as people of color and sexual minorities. Isaacson said, “Musk already said in April of last year, when he purchased a 9% stake in Twitter, that he would change Twitter to the more comprehensive ‘ X.com’ and work to protect freedom of expression in the process.”
Isaacson said, “Musk’s idea is to support his eldest son, Xavier.”) was greatly influenced by his decision to change gender to a woman.” Xavier changed her gender to female in April last year, changing her name from ‘Xavier Musk’ to ‘Vivian Jenna Wilson’, after her mother’s last name, saying, “I don’t want to be associated with my biological father in any way.” “No,” he said. Musk confessed to Isaacson, “My child has gone beyond socialism and has become a complete communist, and he has come to think that all rich people are evil.” She said she was in pain because left-wing ideology had separated her and her children.
◇The more I look into Twitter, the more messed up it becomes… “You have to do it yourself.”
Musk, who participated as an investor by purchasing a stake in Twitter, met Farah Agra Wal, the former CEO of Twitter, at the end of March last year, and she decided to take over Twitter altogether . He called Agrawal a “really good person,” but added, “What Twitter needs is a fire-breathing dragon, and he’s not that.” “If you ask Musk what qualities a CEO needs, he will never include ‘a good person,’” Isaacson said. “One of his maxims is, ‘Managers should not aim to be loved. ’ “It is,” he said.
Twitter was a company that did not fit in with Musk. At the time, a sign saying ‘Gender diversity is welcome’ was posted in the bathroom of Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco, a mental ‘day of rest’ was held every month, and ‘psychological safety’ that was considerate of everyone was a core operating policy. “Musk’s preferred term is ‘hardcore,’ a person who believes that discomfort is a good thing,” Isaacson said. “Vacation and work-life balance are not his thing.” He expressed disgust at Twitter’s iconic blue bird and said, “All these damn birds should disappear.” Twitter was destined to change to ‘ X’ from this point on.