I love coding. [Narrator: He says, staring at a semicolon that has ruined his life for three hours. ] But I also love my bed. And my family. And eating food that isn't from a vending machine [ Narrator: False. He checked the McDo app 30 minutes ago. He is 20 points away from a 2-pc Chicken with Rice. ]
When Elon took over Twitter, he gave an ultimatum: "Go extremely hardcore or leave."
Thousands left. Thousands were fired. The ones who stayed posted photos of themselves sleeping in sleeping bags in the office.
The Myth of the 10x Engineer
There is a pervasive myth in tech that the best code is written at 3 AM by a guy who hasn't showered in a week and runs on Red Bull (mine ? kopiko 78 - now "Lucky day").
This is false. The best code is written by a well-rested person who thought about the problem before typing.
Sleep-deprived code is just bugs with a "committed at 4:12 AM" timestamp.
The Purge
Elon fired ~80% of the company. Critics said the site would crash immediately. It didn't.
(It got glitchier, suuuure. Spaces broke when heavy traffic hit. But it didn't die.)
This emboldened every toxic manager in Silicon Valley. "See? You don't need all those people! Just whip the remaining ones harder!"
The Cost
The site is still up. But what about the innovation? X is mostly just shipping features that other apps already have (video calls? job postings?).
You can sustain "maintenance mode" with a skeleton crew. But you can't build the future when everyone is too tired to dream.
Conclusion
If your boss asks you to be "hardcore," ask them if they're paying you "hardcore" equity.
If not... go home. Your code will be better in the morning. And your back won't hurt from sleeping on commercial carpet.
[ Narrator: He successfully made it home! ...and successfully opened the compiler before taking his shoes off. ]
