That’s could become a controversial move since Tesla is a public traded company and Twitter is his private company. So borrowing employees from a public company can get weird.
Not controversial at all. They will likely be paid as independent contractors by Twitter and receive a 1099 next year for tax purposes. One's original employer (Tesla in this case) cannot bar or punish the employee for simply working a second job unless it violates a non-compete or causes issues relating to performance at the original job.
I highlighted the reason it's controversial.
Musk has a huge conflict of interest here. He now has a massive financial interest in Twitter and is abusing his position as CEO of Tesla to divert Tesla resources to help Twitter. That benefits him but almost certainly hurts Tesla shareholders. The only uncertainty is how much it hurts Tesla shareholders.
That's only an issue if he instructs them, as Tesla management, to work on Twitter stuff. If, however, he hires them, as Twitter management, to work on Twitter stuff, the only controversy is if they do, in fact, harm Tesla in so doing. I've been programming professionally for almost 40 years, and lots and lots of programmers moonlight without harm to their "main" employer.
Yeah but, this is likely bad for morale and could create employees churn and turnover in the coming weeks\months. There is no telling how many at Tesla and now twitter are looking to jump ship as fast as they can. Let’s not mention how bad this can be for productivity and health having this “moonlight” work as you call it.
A very many programmers I have known welcome working on different stuff from time to time. My own moonlighting has always been a refreshing change, and even at this stage of my life I work a few side gigs from time to time just to keep my skills fresh. I understand that in some other professions, working a second job is often viewed as a bad thing, and often is a bad thing. Many developers don't think that way with regard to another development job.
And FWIW, "moonlighting" is a fairly standard term, at least in the U.S., for a full time worker who takes on other jobs, whether they are related to one's main employment or not. It's not just what I call it.
Oh yeah this’ll work so well. Because programming self driving cars and a social media site are almost the same thing. /s
Tell me you don't know how to code without telling me.
Exactly.
In my career I’ve worked on mini computers doing inventory and other similar software, on Macs doing word processing, and on Macs doing shipping apps as well as a limited amount of leisure games (developing not playing). I’ve also created classified app systems for the web and done a lot of other web type programming. And for the last 10 years have been mostly doing mobile app development including payments, messaging, and many other genres, both on contract and as a FT employee.
The basics of software engineering are not domain specific.
It can't be said enough that if you are a real software engineer, you are thrown into all sorts of situations to try to make computers do something that the client wants done.
And that requires listening to the client. Apple has exceeded in this where other computer/operating system companies have failed.
Those who engineered Tesla code have brains that think things through about how a consumer/driver wants to interact with a car. I'm sure the same brainstorming happens with what Musk wants his social media site to become. Perhaps integrated into Tesla like a CarPlay that can be used by other manufacturers?
Oh yeah this’ll work so well. Because programming self driving cars and a social media site are almost the same thing. /s
Tell me you don't know how to code without telling me.
He’s not wrong. Sure, engineers are engineers. But we tend to specialize so it’s somewhat dubious that Tesla developers will be in a better position to understand the product, the code, and the ways to make things leaner, than developers already working this problem space. That takes time to on ramp.
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And that requires listening to the client. Apple has exceeded in this where other computer/operating system companies have failed.
Those who engineered Tesla code have brains that think things through about how a consumer/driver wants to interact with a car.
I'm sure the same brainstorming happens with what Musk wants his social media site to become. Perhaps integrated into Tesla like a CarPlay that can be used by other manufacturers?
He didn't buy it just to own the libz.