10 THINGS IN TECH

Welcome to the working week. This is Matt Weinberger, deputy editor of tech analysis, filling in once again for Jordan Erb. By the time you read this, I'll have spent my weekend playing a ton of the new "God of War: Ragnarök" for the PlayStation 5.

On Friday, the United States observed the Veterans Day holiday. And if you're just coming back from a three-day weekend — oh man, you missed a lot. The theme of last week was chaos and hubris, amid a massive wave of tech layoffs and the turmoil at Twitter under new owner Elon Musk.

Those themes continued to show themselves as the weekend approached, as Musk has already walked back his strongest rhetoric on remote work at Twitter, Amazon paused the ability for its employees to move across teams, the implosion of crypto exchange FTX continues to unfold, and Salesforce insiders say that they were set up for failure ahead of this week's layoffs.

Let's check out the news.

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1. The method to the Twitter madness emerges. It's been chaos at Twitter in the short reign of Elon Musk. But even as its infamously mercurial new owner has fomented confusion with mass layoffs, new policies, and an unsuccessful launch of a new approach to account verification, the bigger picture is starting to become clear.

Insider's Grace Kay writes that Musk's plans to bring longer video uploads and payments to Twitter is just the first step towards his vision of building a super-app that can do almost anything. Social media expert Matt Navarra says that while the takeover may seem haphazard to outsiders, Musk definitely has a master plan.
Meanwhile, Musk is renewing his outreach to Twitter employees, telling them that remote work may be okay in some cases after all, softening his previous remarks. He also pledged that he's only ever an email away if anyone at the company has concerns.
At the same time, some now-former Twitter employees allege in a new lawsuit that the company "persuaded" them to stick around through Musk's acquisition — and then laid them off without the amount of severance that they were led to believe they would be eligible for. Musk, for his part, has made cost-cutting a big priority at Twitter, telling employees last week that he had "PTSD" from previous recessions.

In other news:

2. The drama at FTX is giving sitcom vibes. A report last week indicated that FTX, the major crypto exchange that filed for bankruptcy, was actually run by a small circle of friends who shared an apartment in the Bahamas and occasionally entered into romantic relationships with each other. Read more about Sam Bankman-Fried's sitcom-style living situation here.

3. Amazon limits internal mobility even as it slashes jobs. As part of a cost-cutting maneuver, Amazon has been slashing jobs even as it freezes hiring. Insider's Katherine Long reports that employees who had their jobs cut have three months to find a new gig at the company — but the freeze means that no other team can take them. Read more about the move, and the employee reaction, here.

4. A surprise tax bill of as much as $30,000. The CEO of tech startup GravyWork told the Wall Street journal that a remote employee who spent time working in California and Austin, where the company isn't registered, led to an unwelcome surprise in the form of major taxes, fees, and headaches.

5. Salesforce insiders say they were set up to fail. Last week, Salesforce laid off thousands of workers who it said were underperforming. Insiders at the cloud computing giant said the company's performance review system set even the top salespeople up to fail. Read more about the inside story on the Salesforce cuts here.

6. How much YouTube creators are actually making. The economic picture may be pretty downbeat, but YouTube creators tell Insider that their earnings are remaining fairly steady. Here's how much YouTube creators say they're actually making per 1,000 views.

7. The heavyweights of venture capital beat a strategic retreat. Firms like Tiger Global and Coatue are famous for cutting humongous checks to startups, one after the other. But after they helped spark a deal frenzy in 2021, they're pulling back and "licking their wounds" this year as their big bets fizzle out, Insider reports. Read more about how their nontraditional approach to tech investing backfired here.

8. Lucid Motors is messing with Texas. Electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid is picking a legal fight with Texas over state laws requiring that cars be sold via dealerships. Insider reports that the battle has high stakes for EV startups, which prefer to follow in Tesla's footsteps and sell straight to customers, but it could also slow down Lucid's ability to deliver vehicles.

Odds and Ends:

9. "Jesus" is verified. The jokester behind the popular Jesus Christ account on Twitter tells Insider how Elon Musk's new Twitter Blue got him verified after 14 years on the platform. The anonymous Twitter-er says that the verification was the icing on the cake of the long-running bit, which has seen people send him both death threats and prayer requests.

10. $400,000-plus homes, straight from the 3D printer. Construction giant Lennar and 3D printing startup Icon have taken the lid off their plan to build what they say will be the largest community to date of 3D-printed homes. Those homes, starting in the mid-$400,000s, will start being move-in ready as soon as next year. Take a look at their plans for the community here.

Keep updated with the latest tech news throughout your day by checking out The Refresh from Insider, a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. Listen here.

Curated by Matt Weinberger in San Francisco. (Feedback or tips? Email mweinberger@insider.com or tweet @gamoid.) Edited by Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.