Sean Kelly Profile picture
Jun 10, 2024 12 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Elon Musk fired 80% of Twitter (6500 people) and everyone thought that Twitter was doomed.

He was right. Everyone was wrong.

It’s the management masterclass of the decade and every entrepreneur must understand why it worked 🧵: Image
Disclaimer: The intention of this thread is not to support layoffs. They suck for everyone involved, especially those who are let go.

Rather, my objective is to show that often it's best to zig when everyone else is zagging.

And that smaller teams often perform best.
After the right-sizing, Twitter has rolled out more features than they ever could before.

Andrej Karpathy, who worked directly under Elon, explains 4 ways Elon runs his companies differently 👇
1. Small, strong, and highly technical teams

Elon is against large teams. To give you a context, look at the people he has fired over time.

Why? Because he understands Parkinson's Law pretty well.

Let me explain: Image
Parkinson's law states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

So no matter how many people you allocate to a task, they will feel busy.

Due to the excess of time, they'll start focusing on less important tasks.

Small teams help you avoid that. Image
2. Wants the workplace to be vibrant

Elon wants to nurture activity and people doing their best work.

So people are always pacing around, coding, and prioritizing getting real work done.

There's not much pampering - you're simply expected to do great technical work.
There are also NO large meetings.

Anyone can walk out of a meeting if they're not contributing or don't feel they need to be there.

According to Elon, small teams make quick and independent decisions.

Look at the email he wrote to employees 👇 Image
3. Skip layers and stay ultra-connected to the teams

Companies have different layers you need to cross to get in touch w/ the CEO.

But Elon knows that only the person working on the project knows it best.

So he spends 99% of the time talking to them. Not to VPs/Directors.
4. Remove bottlenecks wherever possible

Elon is so involved that he removes bottlenecks as soon as he learns about them.

A company usually goes through tons of exercises and documented procedures to solve an issue.

But when Elon learns of them, he tries to solve immediately.
RT the first tweet if you found this thread valuable.

Follow me @seanpk for more threads on entrepreneurship, investing and human performance.
A bit about me:

20 years ago, I was a broke biomedical engineering college student trying to get my first biz off the ground.

Since then, I’ve grown six 7-figure businesses, three 8-figure businesses & raised $50M+ in VC. I'm also a General Partner at The Family Fund.
And I do all of this while prioritizing my health, traveling for fun every month & not grinding 247.

I go deeper into everything I’ve learned about building businesses, investing & founder performance in my newsletter.

Join thousands of founders here: get.founderiv.com

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More from @seanpk

Apr 15
In 1879, one man made an invention that shaped the modern world.

But accidentally sabotaged our health...

It disrupts sleep, triggers disease, and increases death risk by 34%—yet we can't live without it.

Here's what scientists discovered about its impact on human longevity:🧵 Image
Thomas Edison invested $40,000 (about $850,000 today) to create the first practical light bulb.

That investment was astronomical...

But it led to his breakthrough:

In October 1879, his lamp burned for 2 days, which was incredible at the time, and that paved the way...
By 1940, 90% of urban homes had electric lighting.

For the first time in human history, we broke free from nature's rhythms.

We could work, play, and live whenever we wanted.

It seemed like progress...but our biology tells a different story:
Read 16 tweets
Apr 9
The world's most powerful people are impossible to reach.

No email, no SMS, no Instagram.

Meanwhile, the average person loses 40% of their workday to interruptions.

Here's the solution that might be your most valuable career move (it's so simple you'll laugh): Image
Warren Buffett's calendar is basically empty.

Elon Musk structures his day in 5-minute blocks.

Jeff Bezos only handles decisions requiring significant judgment.

This isn't a coincidence; it's a deliberate strategy that separates extraordinary achievers from everyone else...
The cost of constant availability is staggering.

Each time you check a notification, your brain experiences "switching costs" – delays from shifting attention.

After an interruption, it takes 23 mins to regain concentration.

No wonder we feel mentally drained by the day's end. Image
Read 16 tweets
Apr 3
This is the hidden curse of successful people.

It destroys motivation, crashes dopamine, and breaks high performers—right when they're winning.

Recently, I've analyzed this achievement paradox.

What I found is shocking 🧵 Image
Success feels amazing at first.

Each win floods your brain with dopamine—the "motivation molecule" that drives motivation and reward.

But there's a dark side to this rush that nobody talks about.

A hidden trap that ensnares high performers when they least expect it...
Your brain's reward system gets overwhelmed.

Like a muscle, it needs time to recover between "workouts."

But most high achievers never let up.

They chase win after win, milestone after milestone.

And that's where things start to unravel:
Read 14 tweets
Mar 28
Meet Steve Job's arch-enemy:

Money.

His $7 billion fortune couldn't save him from one fatal medical mistake.

Here's how having unlimited resources can impact your lifespan: 🧵 Image
Jobs revolutionized technology, building Apple into the world's most valuable company.

He amassed a $7 billion fortune and became Disney's largest shareholder through Pixar.

Yet in October 2003, he received news that would change everything:
A rare pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor.

Despite unlimited resources and access to the world's best doctors, Steve rejected conventional medicine for 9 months.

Instead, he pursued alternative treatments:
Read 16 tweets
Mar 20
Singapore will jail you for 15 years if you use chemicals in food.

But most of America probably ate it for breakfast.

It's found in yoga mats, shoe soles, and...our BREAD.

Here's the disturbing reason why the FDA allows this banned substance in your sandwich:🧵 Image
It's called azodicarbonamide (ADA).

And it's not just in your breakfast bread.

It's in bagels, pizza dough, pastries & more. It's EVERYWHERE.

Singapore banned it for good reason, here's what I mean:
When heated during baking, it breaks down into compounds linked to:

• Respiratory issues
• Immune system damage
• Cancer in animal studies

And yet, the FDA says it's "Generally Recognized as Safe."

Here's where it gets disturbing:
Read 17 tweets
Mar 18
Looking at your phone is adding 600+ pounds of pressure to your neck every day.

Causing chronic nerd neck...

It's destroying your spine, making you tired, bald and dumber.

Here's ONE exercise you can do to reverse years of damage (takes 15 seconds):🧵 Image
Your head weighs about 12 pounds when perfectly aligned.

But tilt it forward 60 degrees to look at your phone?

That weight multiplies to 60 pounds of pressure on your spine.

And if you happen to be a normal human you're probably f*cked... Image
The average person spends 5+ hours daily on their phone.

That's not 60 pounds of pressure—it's 60 pounds multiplied by hundreds of movements.

It adds up to 600+ pounds of strain on your neck and spine each day.

It destroys your neck...and every other part of your body...
Read 17 tweets

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