The Scoop is a bonus series covering insights, patterns, and trends I observe and hear about within Big Tech and at high growth startups. Have a scoop to share? Send me a message! I treat all such messages as anonymous.

The Scoop sometimes delivers firsthand, original reportage. I’m adding an ‘Exclusive’ label to news that features original reporting direct from my sources, as distinct from analysis, opinion, and reaction to events. Of course, I also analyze what’s happening in the tech industry, citing other media sources and quoting them as I dive into trends I observe. These sections do not carry the ‘Exclusive’ mark.

Today's topics:

Fear, uncertainty and crunch time at Twitter. Two days after Elon Musk acquired the company for $44B following his lengthy failed bid to escape the deal, software engineers were sleeping in the Bay Area office on Saturday night in order to hit a Monday morning demo deadline that was communicated to them at the weekend. What’s the mood inside the company and why is Musk deliberately turning the working environment into an unhealthy place? I’ve talked with current software engineers and also people fired by the world’s richest man, since he took over the company. Exclusive.
Meta delays the starting dates of new hires to February 2023. All new software engineering hires in Europe who were meant to start before February 2023, have had their starting dates pushed back until 14 February, next year. Why has the company made this unexpected move, and what about those who may miss out on up to three months of salary, as a result? Exclusive.
Hiring freeze and expenses to be cut at LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s leadership announced a hiring freeze, no backfills, and will cut down on expenses. I talked with insiders about why this is happening. Unexpected bad news from inside one of the fastest-growing organizations at Microsoft. Exclusive.
The Big Tech hiring slowdown keeps spreading. Apple was the last major tech company which kept hiring. Well, it now expects this will change. Analysis.
A large spike in layoffs. Stripe, Lyft, Chime, MessageBird, Onfido, Opendoor are just some companies that laid off this week. What is happening? Analysis.
The Good Scoop. Positive news stories from across the tech industry. A new experiment.

1. Fear, uncertainty, and crunch time at Twitter

The Pragmatic Engineer

The Scoop #30: Turmoil at Twitter

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