The title refers to Esther Crawford’s account of working with Elon Musk at Twitter. In a July 28, 2023 report, Victor Tangermann of Futurism said Crawford described Musk’s demeanor as sometimes shifting quickly from excitement to anger and said employees could be afraid to bring him negative news. Those are Crawford’s personal observations as reported by Futurism, not an independently established account of every employee’s experience or a clinical assessment.
Who was Esther Crawford, and what did she describe?
Futurism identified Crawford as a former Twitter product manager and reported that she published a lengthy account on the platform about working with Musk after his acquisition of the company. Her criticism focused on his response to feedback, the atmosphere around communicating bad news, and the lack of process she perceived.
As Tangermann reported it, Crawford said Musk’s “demeanor can turn on a dime going from excited to angry.” She also described people as afraid of being called into meetings or of sharing negative news with him. These statements reflect her account of workplace interactions; the report does not establish that they describe all employees’ experiences.
What did Crawford say about feedback and decision-making?
Crawford wrote that Musk sometimes appeared to trust outside feedback over colleagues who had spent substantial time working on a problem: “At times it seemed he trusted random feedback more than the people in the room who spent their lives dedicated to tackling the problem at hand,” she wrote. “I never figured out why and remain puzzled by it.”
Futurism also reported her criticism that Musk lived in an “echo chamber” and was willing to “burn so much down.” These are Crawford’s characterizations as relayed by the article, rather than findings from an independent workplace investigation.
Was her account entirely negative?
No. Crawford also called Musk “genuinely funny” and recognized his record of tackling difficult, physics-based problems. Her overall assessment included both praise and criticism. As Futurism quoted her: “I learned a ton from watching Elon up close — the good, the bad and the ugly,” she added. “His boldness, passion and storytelling is inspiring, but his lack of process and empathy is painful.”
Rank #2
What the report does—and does not—establish
- It reports a personal account: the descriptions of Musk’s demeanor and employees’ concerns are attributed to Crawford.
- It is not independent corroboration: the Futurism article reports her account; it does not, by itself, verify each event or establish how representative her experience was.
- It is not a clinical assessment: neither the reported observations nor the article establish a diagnosis or a clinical cause for the behavior Crawford described.
- Its quotation context is limited: the full original post was not available in the material supporting this article, so the reported quotations should not be treated as a substitute for the complete account.
Tangermann’s article also refers to separate descriptions attributed to a former Tesla executive and biographer Walter Isaacson. Those references are contextual; they do not independently verify Crawford’s account.
Quick Recap
Best Value
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
