Starred review from October 1, 2024
Engrossing, precise account of Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter (now X).New York Times reporters Conger and Mac collaborate successfully on an ambitious narrative capturing how Musk engineered Twitter's downfall, set against the vast financial stakes and dehumanizing aspects of the tech economy. The authors assert, "What he owns is no longer Twitter--not in name, but also neither in substance nor in spirit." Their approach is sprawling, yet comprehensible, encompassing the role of Silicon Valley culture, political convulsions provoked by Trumpism and Covid-19, and the roles of many luckless Twitter veterans. They initially contrast the trajectories of Musk and Twitter's enigmatic founder, Jack Dorsey, whose two tenures as CEO left him disillusioned following a prior takeover attempt. His replacement, Parag Agrawal, planned deep layoffs in response to Twitter's delayed profitability but was sidetracked when mercurial Twitter addict Musk first teased a desire to join the company's board, then engineered a buyout. For many employees, "Musk represented the ideal leader: a visionary technocrat guided by science and engineering who listened to his own instincts above all else." But then Musk attempted to call off the deal, and the board filed a lawsuit holding him to his original offer, by which point "any optimism that Musk might be a good steward of the platform had long been erased." Indeed, Musk engaged in mass layoffs, so that by 2023, "the company had become so lean that everything was on the verge of falling apart." The authors conclude, "Musk had not bought Twitter to be a responsible steward [but] as an object of personal obsession." Musk is portrayed as a complex, fragile, ultimately chaotic and malicious figure: "This was a man who chewed through people, using their loyalty to work them into the ground." Compelling fusion of business history and worrisome social narrative.
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