It’s official: Elon Musk sent out an email to the remaining staff at Twitter, offering them this choice…
If you’re a regular reader of this blog and a fan of Star Wars: Andor, you already know which choice I recommend.
The whole mess started with this Tweet:
This should have been something like “We’re working on Android performance issues, and you should see improvements in the coming weeks/months,” but that’s not Elon’s style. This was a combination of management by shame and a little red meat for his fanboys.
I myself have delivered working software that was later know-nothingly criticized by a pointy-haired boss, so I understand former Twitter developer Eric Frohnhoefer’s response…
…which led to this Twitter exchange, where Eric defends the team and points out the work they’ve done to improve the Android client. It’s an even-tempered response…
One of Elon’s fanboys — or at least a fanboy-adjacent person — decided to re-ask a question that Elon asked earlier and which wasn’t answered in Eric’s series of tweets, and again, Eric responded matter-of-factly:
Adn that’s when we got our fanboy moment:
On the urging of users, without any apparent managerial or HR review, Eric Frohnhoefer was fired.
We’ve gone from this…
…to this:
You’ve probably already guessed that @Langdon’s Twitter account now looks like this:
Reporter Cyrus Farivar (an online friend) talked to Eric, and the firing had all the characteristics of current Twitter:
In fact, Eric’s confirmation of his dismissal came in the form of being locked out of his company laptop:
Under normal circumstances, contradicting the boss in a public forum is a bad idea. But these are not normal circumstances.
This is a boss who’s happy to grind his employees with overwork (I have friends who’ve worked at his companies), treat them like 19th century factory workers, and fire people for working from home during the 2020 pandemic. He’s taken over Twitter without a real plan, slashed the workforce with more thought about cost-cutting than actually running the place, and is telling people close to the code that he knows more than them.
We’ve seen this kind of unearned intellectual overconfidence before:
This is not a workplace you want to be in. It is toxic. And it’s not worth the effort. As a Twitter employee, you really have just two options:
Under normal circumstances, option 1 is the preferable one. But these are not normal circumstances.
Getting fired by Elon under these circumstances, given what is publicly known (and who know what we don’t know yet, but the smart money says it’s much worse) is a badge of honor. You get:
Someone from the Reddit team has already reached out to Eric about a senior Android development position, and I’m certain that it’s just one of many communications about an open position that he’s received.
Godspeed and good luck in your job search, Eric.
In the meantime…
Brilliant.
The inspirational speech that Kino Loy (played by Andy Serkis) at the end of episode 10 of Star Wars: Andor was meant to inspire the prisoners to break out of the Narkina 5 prison labor camp. However, with only a few changes, it could easily be an inspirational message that someone could send on the Twitter company Slack to the remaining employees.
With the news that Twitter has slashed its contractor workforce by about 80% to 1,000 people, there are now about 5,000 people working at Twitter, which is the same as the number prisoners on Narkina 5. This additional coincidence should make the speech even more applicable.
🚨 Spoiler warning for those of you who haven’t yet seen episode 10 of Star Wars: Andor!
“My name is Kino Loy. I’m the day shift manager on Level Five. I’m speaking to you from the command center on Level Eight. We are, at this moment, in control of the facility.”
“How long we hang on, how far we get, how many of us make it out, all of that is now up to us. We have deactivated every floor in the facility. All floors are cold.”
“Wherever you are right now, get up, stop the work. Get out of your cells, take charge, and start climbing. They don’t have enough guards and they know it. If we wait until they figure that out, it’ll be too late. We will never have a better chance than this and I would rather die trying to take them down than giving them what they want.”
“We know they fried a hundred men on Level Two. We know that they are making up our sentences as we go along. We know that no one outside here knows what’s happening. And now we know, that when they say we are being released, we are being transferred to some other prison to go and die…and that ends today! There is one way out. Right now, the building is ours. You need to run, climb, kill!”
“You need to help each other. You see someone who’s confused, someone who is lost, you get them moving and you keep them moving until we put this place behind us. There are 5,000 of us. If we can fight half as hard as we’ve been working, we will be home in no time. One way out! One way out! One way out!”
On Saturday, November 12th, a number of Twitter contractors found out that they were let go. Many of them didn’t find out by being told so; they found out by trying to log into their systems and seeing something like this:
I found out about this via someone on Mastodon, which led me to this tweet from Casey Newton of Platformer, who’s been providing some of the best coverage of Twitter under Elon Musk’s disastrous “leadership”:
Getting word that a large number of number of Twitter contractors were just laid off this afternoon with no notice, both in the US and abroad. Functions affected appear to include content moderation, real estate, and marketing, among others— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) November 13, 2022
At least one contractor learned the news from Casey’s tweet:
Even more worrisome was the importance of the work that some of these contractors were doing:
This just happened to me. I work(ed) in content moderation in political misinformation. — Melissa Ingle (@mingle74) November 13, 2022
It’s hard to find out why Twitter did such a thing because among the people who got laid off in last week’s 50% staff reduction were almost all of Twitter’s communications staff. There simply isn’t anyone to talk to.
Laying off contractors sounds like a fairly painless cost-cutting move, but it’s not necessarily so. The key part of “contractor” is its root word — contract. Ending a contract suddenly and early is often expensive, because contracts typically have an end date and usually list financial penalties for cancelling the contract before that end date.
As Ina Fried points out in her article on Axios, Twitter contractors have been “in limbo” thanks to the massive cuts in full-time staff:
There’s no reason to treat people this way, but this is the way Musk does things, and his fans are lapping this up, since they see this as some kind of revenge-by-proxy against people they see as “undeserving”. As Adam Serwer put it in his article about Trump fans, whose circle in the Venn diagram overlaps a lot with the one for Musk fans, The Cruelty is the Point.
Even from the most coldly pragmatic, Machiavellian angle, it’s time to get ready to ditch Twitter. Never mind the ethical stance of not supporting a Musk endeavor; every day is bringing some new action of Musk’s that further undermines the company, either financially or technologically. They’ve let go of a lot of key people, and those who “dodged the axe” are making their own plans to leave. Twitter is imploding, and if you like have a microblogging home, it’s time to find a new one.
Given the available options, Mastodon’s your best bet.
Don’t forget that there’s a Coders, Creatives, and Craft Beer meetup this Wednesday, where you can talk to me about Mastodon!
The Coders, Creatives, and Craft Beer meetup returns this Wednesday, November 16th, and it’ll happen at The Corner Club in Tampa’s Seminole Heights neighborhood. They’ve got beverages, both alcoholic and non- (including some very good coffee), and great food!
Want to join us? Once again, we’re meeting at The Corner Club in Seminole Heights (1502 E Sligh Ave., 3 lights east of I-275’s Sligh exit) at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 16th. Register on the event’s Meetup page.
By now, you’re probably aware of the complete dumpster fire that Twitter has become. In fact, there’s a good chance that it may have even become worse by the time you read this.
You’ve probably been hearing about an alternative social network called Mastodon, which exists in something called the Fediverse, and you might be wondering what it’s all about. We’ll show you!
We’ll also be talking about The Great Resignation in both its forms — leaving a current tech job, and landing a new one. Are you looking for a job? Are you looking to get out of a job? Are you looking to “upskill” for the job you want? We’re here to talk about that, and we’re connected — we might even be able to help you!
We’ll be at The Corner Club, one of Seminole Heights’ many hidden gems. They’re a neighborhood café with lots of great food prepared from scratch (we recommend the papas bravas potatoes), an interesting drinks selection — with and without alcohol, including some really good coffee — and even local artists’ works on the wall for sale. They’ve got a great outdoor space in the back, which is where we’ll be.
In case you’re curious:
Coders, Creatives, and Craft Beer is Tampa Bay’s “No presentations, just conversations” meetup for coders and creatives who want to hang out, make friends, and talk over great food and drink. It’s just people getting together at an interesting Tampa Bay venue, tasting what comes out of the taps and kitchen, talking about what interests us, what we’re working on, and what we’d like to work on.
Do you write or manage code, prose, or poetry? You belong in this group. Do you make art for the eyes, ears, or other senses? Join us. Is your creativity more about business and “the hustle”? You should be here. The goal of this meetup is to bring together all sorts of people from Tampa Bay and making it an even better, interesting, and more creative place in which to live, work, and play.
Here’s the list of tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events for Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for the week of Monday, November 14 through Sunday, November 20, 2022.
Every week, with the assistance of a couple of Jupyter Notebooks that I put together, I compile this list for the Tampa Bay tech community.
As far as event types go, this list casts a rather wide net. It includes events that would be of interest to techies, nerds, and entrepreneurs. It includes (but isn’t limited to) events that fall under the category of:
By “Tampa Bay and surrounding areas”, this list covers events that originate or are aimed at the area within 100 miles of the Port of Tampa. At the very least, that includes the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater, but as far north as Ocala, as far south as Fort Myers, and includes Orlando and its surrounding cities.
| Group | Event Name | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Tampa / St Pete Business Connections | Downtown St Pete Business Professionals Lunch | 11:00 AM |
| Young Professionals Networking JOIN in and Connect! | In person at Fords Garage St Pete | 11:00 AM |
| Professional Business Networking with RGAnetwork.net | St. Pete Networking Lunch! Fords Garage! Monday’s | 11:30 AM |
| North Tampa Networking Group | Business networking | 11:30 AM |
| Christian Professionals Network Tampa Bay | Live Online Connection Meeting- Monday | 11:30 AM |
| Florida Startup: Idea to IPO | How to Protect Your Intellectual Property | 12:00 PM |
| Orlando Power BI User Group | Power BI vs Qlik Sense | Artsem Zharkou | 1:00 PM |
| SCIPS, a 50+ Tampa Bay Singles Club | EUCHRE, Rummy Q and other Board Games for ENTHUSIASTIC GAME PLAYERS | 4:00 PM |
| Tampa St Pete Stocks and Options Trading Group | Success in Stagflation: Learn to Protect Your Wealth | 4:00 PM |
| Tampa Bay Tabletoppers | Monday Feast & Game Night | 6:00 PM |
| Brews N Board Games | Board Game Night at Persimmon Hollow Flamingo Crossings | 6:00 PM |
| Critical Hit Games | MTG: Commander Night | 6:00 PM |
| Board Game Meetup: Board Game Boxcar | Monday Weekly Board Game Night! (Lazy Moon Colonial Location) | 6:00 PM |
| Toastmasters District 48 | Wesley Chapel Speaks Toastmasters | 6:30 PM |
| Bradenton Photo Group | A Complete Guide to Photogrpahy | 6:30 PM |
| Tampa – Sarasota – Venice Trivia & Quiz Meetup | Trivia Night – Off the Wagon Kitchen & Brewery Smartphone Trivia Game Show | 6:30 PM |
| Toastmasters District 48 | North Port Toastmasters Meets Online!! | 6:30 PM |
| Library Book Clubs – OCLS | Virtual Event: Southeast Book Club | 7:00 PM |
| Learn-To-Trade Forex – Online (As seen on Orlando Sentinel) | Learn-To-Trade Q&A (ONLINE) | 7:00 PM |
| Learn-To-Trade Crypto – Online (As seen on Orlando Sentinel) | Learn-To-Trade Q&A (0NLINE) | 7:00 PM |
| Tampa Bay Gaming: RPG’s, Board Games & more! | Board Game Night at Armada Games | 7:00 PM |
| Meet New People As Adults – Which is Harder Than Expected | Trivia Night to Meet New People | 7:00 PM |
| Orlando Stoics | ONLINE: “Stoicism and CBT” (Part 2) | 7:00 PM |
| Light Study PRO – A Photography Workshop for Emerging Pros | Members as far back as 2008 can access their photos | 7:00 PM |
| Central Florida AD&D (1st ed.) Grognards Guild | World of Greyhawk: 1E One-Shots | 7:30 PM |
| Group | Event Name | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Business Strategy Meetup Group | Business Networking | 7:15 AM |
| Network Professionals Inc. of South Pinellas (NPI) | NPI St. Pete Business Builders Chapter – Exchange Qualified Business Referrals | 7:30 AM |
| Suncoast Credit Union Micro Enterprise Development Meetup | SBDC Hillsborough County: Bookkeeping Basics | 10:00 AM |
| Orlando Melrose Makers | In-Person: Makerspace Open Lab | 10:30 AM |
| Professional Business Networking with RGAnetwork.net | Oldsmar/Westchase Networking Lunch – Wild Rover Brewing Company | 11:00 AM |
| Tampa / St Pete Business Connections | Westchase/Oldsmar Business Networking Lunch ~ All Welcome | 11:00 AM |
| Tampa Bay Business Networking Meetings & Mixers | Upper Pinellas,Oldsmar,Westchase Networking Lunch -Wild Rover Brewing Company | 11:00 AM |
| SWAT Networking – Successful Women Aligning Together | SWAT Networking Bradenton Luncheon | 11:00 AM |
| Wesley Chapel, Trinity, New Tampa, Business Professionals | New Tampa Networking Lunch at Glory Day’s Grill New Tampa | 11:30 AM |
| Pasco County Young Entrepreneurs/Business Owners All Welcome | Professional Business Networking Lunch Glory Day’s New Tampa | 11:30 AM |
| Manatee River Business Exchange Club | Great group for referrals – Several new members – WE are growing!!! | 12:00 PM |
| Global Networking Summit | Networking Brunch | 12:00 PM |
| Block Co-op – Bitcoin Crypto Blockchain Orlando | Bitcoin/Crypto. Buying, Selling and sharing ideas. Small group atmosphere. | 1:00 PM |
| Free Video Production Classes – TV/Internet | Social Video Marketing Tips(ONLINE CLASS)-FREE for Hillsborough County Residents | 4:15 PM |
| Bradenton Photo Group | Photoshop – Editing and Creative Sessions | 5:00 PM |
| Orlando Adventurer’s Guild | [IN PERSON] CCC-TRI-23 Sub Rosa (Tier 3, FR, historic) | 6:00 PM |
| St. Petersburg Business Networking Pick-up Basketball | Weekly pickup networking basketball | 6:00 PM |
| Orlando Digital Media Design Meetup | Virtual Event: Adobe Illustrator Level 1 | 6:00 PM |
| Tampa Bay SQL Server User Group (TBSSUG) | TBSSUG Monthly Meeting | 6:00 PM |
| Adventures On Tap DnD and Board Games | Nerd Night at Deadwords Brewing | 6:00 PM |
| Tampa Hackerspace | Weekly Open Make Night | 6:00 PM |
| Florida Center for Creative Photography | Meet & Greet at O’Keefe’s Family Restaurant | 6:00 PM |
| Women, Words and Wine | Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo | 6:00 PM |
| Toastmasters District 48 | Seminole SPC Toastmasters | 6:15 PM |
| WordPress St. Petersburg | Ask Us Anything: WordPress Support Crowdsourcing Meetup | 6:30 PM |
| GDG SunCoast | Compose Camp Session 5 | 6:30 PM |
| Christian Women Entrepreneurs | Women Entrepreneurs Networking – Orlando, FL | 6:30 PM |
| Shut Up & Write!® Orlando | Shut Up and Write near Howell Branch | 6:30 PM |
| Pinellas Writers | Weekly Group Meetings – All Writers Welcome! | 6:30 PM |
| The Sarasota Creative Writers Meetup Group | The Sarasota Creative Writers | 6:30 PM |
| Tampa – Sarasota – Venice Trivia & Quiz Meetup | Trivia Night – Moose Lodge 2117 Smartphone Trivia Game Show | 6:30 PM |
| Saint Petersburg Book Club Meetup Group | Nov Book Club | 6:30 PM |
| Tampa Investor/Training Meetup | Tampa Bay Investor Training | 6:30 PM |
| West Pasco Toastmasters Club #2824 | Weekly Meeting | 6:30 PM |
| Ironhack Orlando – Tech Careers, Learning and Networking | The basics of Data Analytics 📈 | 7:00 PM |
| Tampa Bay Coalition of Reason | Online: Tampa Bay Technology Center (TBTC) Monthly Meeting | 7:00 PM |
| St. Pete Beers ‘n Board Games for Young Adults | St. Pete Beers ‘n Board Games Meetup for Young Adults | 7:00 PM |
| Tampa Bay Gaming: RPG’s, Board Games & more! | D&D Adventurers League at Armada Games | 7:00 PM |
| Critical Hit Games | MTG: The Brothers’ War Draft Prerelease Event | 7:00 PM |
| MetaversePreneurs | Become A MetaversePreneur! | 7:30 PM |
| Orlando Horror Movie Fans 20s-30s | Post Halloween Dinner | 7:30 PM |
| TB Chess – Tampa Bay – St. Petersburg Chess Meetup Group | Let’s play chess at 54th Ave Kava House! | 7:30 PM |
| Shut Up & Write!® Tampa | Online Event: Shut Up & Write on Zoom | 7:45 PM |
Coders, Creatives, and Craft Beer, the meetup that I run with Anitra, returns this Wednesday, November 16th at The Corner Club in Tampa’s Seminole Heights! Join us as we bring the meetup back, talk about switching, finding, or staying in our jobs, and I’ll even help people get signed onto Mastodon! It’s casual, fun, and all conversations, no presentations!
Find out more and register on the Meetup page!
| Group | Event Name | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Central Florida Philosophy Meetup | Wake Up and Think Clearly Saturday morning share and discuss. | 7:00 AM |
| Toastmasters Division G | Early Bird Ocala | 8:00 AM |
| Florida Center for Creative Photography | FCCP – Introduction to Night Photography & Fireworks | 9:00 AM |
| Suncoast Cruisers | Let’s ride to St. Pete Bikefest | 9:30 AM |
| Toastmasters Division E | Hunters Creek Toastmasters | 9:30 AM |
| Writers Group at the Haunted Antique Shop | Writers Group at the Haunted Antique Shop | 9:30 AM |
| Chess Republic | Coffee & Chess: Tampa Midtown | 9:30 AM |
| Orlando Young Sharks | Lux Young Professionals Business & Networking Event Brunch @ Citrus Club | 10:00 AM |
| Critical Hit Games | Flames of War Korsun Pocket Tournament | 10:00 AM |
| North Florida Stock Investing Education | South Florida Model Investment Club Meeting | 10:00 AM |
| Orlando Lady Developers Meetup | Code with me – learning sessions weekly on Saturdays | 10:00 AM |
| The Art Of Photography – Tampa/Gulf Coast Chapter | SAT 11/19 at 10 AM FREE ONLINE PHOTOGRAPHY CRITIQUE PROGRAM | 10:00 AM |
| West Coast Photo Group | SARASOTA MEDIEVAL FAIR 2022! | 10:00 AM |
| Orlando Melrose Makers | In-Person: Makerspace Open Lab | 10:30 AM |
| Oviedo Middle Aged Gamers (OMAG) | Bravo Group Campaign Continues | 11:00 AM |
| Web3Collab St. Petersburg | Web3Collab: Introduction to Cryptocurrency | 11:00 AM |
| Tampa Bay Women’s Book Club Meetup Group | November Book Club | 1:00 PM |
| Suncoast Makers | FREE Fab Lab Orientation | 1:00 PM |
| Tampa Hackerspace | Laser Cutter Orientation (Members Only) | 2:00 PM |
| Tampa Bay Gaming: RPG’s, Board Games & more! | Saturday MTG Draft at Hammerfall Games and Collectibles | 3:00 PM |
| Esports Players Club Tampa | Valorant 5v5 Tournament | 3:00 PM |
| Tampa Book Club – Award-Winning Books | The Onion Field by Joseph Wambaugh | 3:00 PM |
| Tampa Games Developer Guild | Game Project Therapy (Virtual) | 4:00 PM |
| ITADAKIMASU Tampa Japanese Food Meetup | Dinner at Izakaya Tori | 5:00 PM |
| Kitchen Table Book Club: Year of Short Stories | Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros | 6:00 PM |
| Nerdbrew Events | Community Hang-out Night | 7:00 PM |
| Group | Event Name | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Florida Center for Creative Photography | Visit ZooTampa while the Weather is Cooler | 9:00 AM |
| Toastmasters District 48 | Clearwater Sunday Speakers Toastmasters Club | 9:30 AM |
| There’s A Book For That: Self-Improvement Book Club | Weekly meeting | 10:00 AM |
| The Art Of Photography – Tampa/Gulf Coast Chapter | SUN 11/20 at 10 AM FREE ONLINE PHOTOGRAPHY CRITIQUE PROGRAM | 10:00 AM |
| Suncoast Critical Thinking Discussion Group | CRITICAL THINKERS SUNDAY BRUNCH AT ROSEMARY & THYME | 10:00 AM |
| Board Games and Card Games in Sarasota & Bradenton | Games at Descent Into Gaming | 12:00 PM |
| Drunk’n Meeples West Pasco (Boardgames) | Weekend Game Day | 1:00 PM |
| Beginners Guide to D & D (Tampa Bay area) | D&D Adventurers League | 1:00 PM |
| Software Engineers IRL | Why doesn’t this stupid tutorial/project/etc work? | 1:00 PM |
| Orlando Digital Media Design Meetup | Virtual Event: 3D Design with Adobe Dimension – Level 1 | 1:00 PM |
| Tampa Hackerspace | Advanced Laser Cutter Skills (Members Only) | 2:00 PM |
| Critical Hit Games | D&D Adventurers League | 2:00 PM |
| Tampa Bay Gaming: RPG’s, Board Games & more! | D&D Adventurers League at Critical Hit Games | 2:00 PM |
| Geekocracy! | Game Day at Southern Brewing | 2:00 PM |
| Toastmasters, Division D | Weekend Toastmasters | 3:00 PM |
| Brandon and Seffner area AD&D and Rifts (Palladium) Group | Rifts | 5:00 PM |
| Spellbound Bookstore Events | Read Like Reese Book Club: Our Missing Hearts | 5:00 PM |
| Nerdbrew Events | Hidden Gems Night, Presented by A Duck! | 7:00 PM |
| Nerd Night Out | A Duck Presents NB Movie Night | 7:00 PM |
| Learn-To-Trade Forex – Online (As seen on Orlando Sentinel) | Learn-To-Trade Forex, Crypto & Futures (ONLINE) | 7:00 PM |
| Learn-To-Trade Stocks – Online (As seen on Orlando Sentinel) | Learn-To-Trade Crypto, Forex & Futures (Online) | 7:00 PM |
| Learn-To-Trade Crypto – Online (As seen on Orlando Sentinel) | Learn-To-Trade Cryptos, Forex & Futures (ONLINE) | 7:00 PM |
| Solana – Tampa | Office Hours | 8:00 PM |
Let me know at joey@joeydevilla.com!
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