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When Elon Musk finally closed his $44bn deal to buy Twitter in October 2022, despite months of trying to wriggle out of the plump contract as markets slumped, he displayed no remorse. “Fuck Zuck!” he shouted as he signed the papers with a flourish, in a machismo challenge to the Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, now his direct competitor in the dog-eat-dog world of social media.
當伊隆•馬斯克(Elon Musk)最終在2022年10月完成440億美元收購Twitter的交易時（儘管在市場暴跌的時候，他花了幾個月試圖擺脫這筆大合同），他沒有表現出任何悔意。「去他的扎克(Fuck Zuck)！」他一邊誇張地叫喊，一邊在檔案上籤了字，這是對Meta老闆馬克•祖克柏(Mark Zuckerberg)的大男子主義挑戰。在「狗咬狗」的社群媒體世界中，祖克柏現在是他的直接競爭對手。
It was a provocative — and fitting — start to what would become one of the most dramatic overhauls in corporate culture to date. Within weeks, the mercurial Musk set about sacking or losing more than 80 per cent of Twitter’s staff of 7,500 and replacing its meandering, overly bureaucratic management with his “hardcore”, up-all-night working dogma, all in the hopes of ushering a new era of “free speech”.
這是一個挑釁性的——也是恰如其分的——開端，後來演變爲迄今爲止最具戲劇性的企業文化改革之一。幾周之內，反覆無常的馬斯克就開始解僱或流失7500名Twitter員工中的80%以上，並用他的「硬核」、通宵達夜的工作教條取代迂曲、過於官僚的管理層，希望開啓一個「言論自由」的新時代。
But in doing so, Musk didn’t just “break” Twitter — “Twitter broke Elon Musk”, argues Ben Mezrich. In Breaking Twitter, the bestselling American author chronicles the lead-up to and first chaotic months of the billionaire’s takeover of the social media platform, attempting to get inside Musk’s head as he seemingly unravels at the helm.
但美國暢銷書作家本•麥茲裏奇(Ben Mezrich)認爲，在這樣做的過程中，馬斯克不僅「打破」了Twitter——「Twitter也打破了伊隆•馬斯克」。在《打破Twitter》(Breaking Twitter)一書中，他記錄了這位億萬富翁接管Twitter之前幾個月和接管後最初幾個月的混亂，試圖瞭解馬斯克似乎失去對局面掌控時的想法。
Mezrich — best known for his narrative non-fiction works such as The Accidental Billionaires, about the founding of Facebook — does this by interweaving the first-person narratives of a handful of mid- to high-level staffers, with chapters from Musk’s imagined vantage point. It is a dramatisation, much of which has already been published, rather than a feat of deep access and dogged reporting.
麥茲裏奇——他最著名的是非虛構類敘事作品，如《偶然的億萬富翁》(The Accidental Billionaires)，講述了Facebook的創立過程——的寫作將少數中高層員工的第一人稱敘述，與想像出來的、從馬斯克的領導位置出發的章節交織在一起。這是一種戲劇化寫作，其中大部分基於已出版資料，而不是深入的訪問和堅持不懈的記錄。
It’s unclear how much creative licence Mezrich has taken. In a note to readers, he explains that some scenes have been re-created and dialogue ‘reimagined’
麥茲裏奇獲得了多少創意許可是不清楚的。在給讀者的信中，他解釋說，他重新創造了一些場景，「重新想像了」一些對話。
Early into the acquisition, Musk is impish and gleeful, even when events are not going in his favour. When his grand plan to open “blue tick” verification to all users leads to swaths of impersonations on the platform — some humorous, some malicious — Musk is seen by one of his senior staffers “laughing, sometimes uproariously, as he scrolled from tweet to tweet”.
在收購之初，即使在事情對他不利的時候，馬斯克也表現得嬉皮笑臉。當他向所有用戶開放「藍勾」(blue tick)驗證的宏偉計劃導致平臺上出現大量模仿賬號（有些是幽默的，有些是惡意的）時，馬斯克的一名高級員工看到他「一邊刷Twitter一邊笑，有時是捧腹大笑」。
But we also see flashes of a darker side: Musk as the paranoid, thin-skinned leader who loathes betrayal. He becomes increasingly challenged, begins to spiral and flexes his power in response. When his toddler son is the victim of a stalking incident, Musk lashes out by expelling certain journalists from the platform.
但我們也看到了他黑暗的一面：馬斯克是一個偏執、臉皮薄、厭惡背叛的領導者。他受到越來越多的挑戰，並開始扭曲他的權力作爲回應。當他蹣跚學步的兒子成爲跟蹤事件的受害者時，馬斯克猛烈抨擊，將某些記者趕出了平臺。
When US President Joe Biden gets more engagement than him on a tweet about the Super Bowl, Musk has a spectacular tantrum. When Twitter users vote in favour of him stepping down as chief executive in a poll that he himself posts, a sullen Musk hides away in his office for so long that staffers outside discuss whether to call the police to ask for a wellness check on him. At its heart, Breaking Twitter illustrates the dangers of ego and perpetuating a culture of fear.
一次，美國總統喬•拜登(Joe Biden)的一條超級碗(Super Bowl)相關推文的互動量超過了馬斯克，他爲此大發脾氣。當Twitter用戶在他自己發佈的一項民意調查中投票支援他辭去首席執行長一職時，馬斯克悶悶不樂地在辦公室裏躲了很長時間，以至於外面的員工討論是否要打電話給警察，檢查他的健康。從本質上講，《打破Twitter》說明了自負和持續散播恐懼文化的危險。
By journalistic standards, it is unclear exactly how much creative licence Mezrich has taken. In a note to readers ahead of the prologue, the author explains that some scenes have been re-created, dialogue “reimagined”, satire employed, even composite characters created. Narrative presented in Musk’s voice is “based on my own speculation as well as deep reporting”, Mezrich states.
按照新聞行業的標準，麥茲裏奇究竟獲得了多少創意許可是不清楚的。在給讀者的信中，他解釋說，他重新創造了一些場景，「重新想像了」一些對話，運用了諷刺手法，甚至創造了雜糅人物。麥茲裏奇表示，馬斯克的聲音「基於我自己的猜測和深度報導」。
Either way, the goal is clear. The book reads as though written with a screenplay pitch in mind, rushed out ahead of the half-dozen or so other Twitter/Musk books that are incoming and just after Walter Isaacson’s all-access biography. Overly cinematic and overwritten, it is largely structured around scenes of vivid action, even those only loosely connected to the Twitter tale.
無論哪種方式，目標都很明確。這本書讀起來就像寫劇本一樣，趕在即將出版的大約六本Twitter/馬斯克書籍之前面市，緊隨沃爾特•艾薩克森(Walter Isaacson)的全方位傳記之後。這本書過於電影化，寫作誇張，主要圍繞著生動的動作場景展開，即使是那些場景與Twitter故事只有鬆散的聯繫。
While the pitch clearly worked — news of a limited series based on the book circulated recently — it is unsatisfying for those searching for the bigger picture. There is little consideration of what Twitter (since renamed X) was, could or should be, or the philosophical questions thrown up by the takeover — for example around the merits or challenges of shareholder primacy.
雖然這一賣點顯然奏效了——最近有訊息稱，將根據這本書製作一部限定劇——但對於那些希望看到更大圖景的人來說，它並不令人滿意。它對於Twitter（後來更名爲X）過去是什麼、可能是什麼、應該是什麼，以及此次收購引發的哲學問題——例如，圍繞股東至上的優點或挑戰——幾乎沒有思考。
The closest access, and most compelling narrative, is the tale of one staffer’s attempt to upwardly manage an increasingly unmanageable Musk. Esther Crawford is a product manager who divided opinion as either a symbol of sycophancy or “hustle culture” when she was photographed in a sleeping bag on the floor of the Twitter offices shortly after the deal closed.
最接近、最令人信服的敘述，是一名員工試圖向上管理越來越難以管理的馬斯克的故事。埃絲特•克勞福德(Esther Crawford)是一名產品經理，在收購交易完成後不久，她被人拍到躺在Twitter辦公室地板上的睡袋裏，有人認爲她是阿諛奉承的象徵，也有人認爲她是「搏命文化」(hustle culture)的象徵。
In Mezrich’s telling, she immediately curries Musk’s favour, leapfrogging her colleagues to a senior position by charming him and even offering to share a pre-prepared list of who he should keep close and not fire.
在麥茲裏奇的描寫中，她立刻開始討好馬斯克，透過向他施展魅力得到越級提拔，甚至提出向他分享一份事先準備好的名單，上面列出了他應該保持密切關係、不要解僱的人。
Crawford justifies this opportunism by insisting that it is “her calling” to guide Musk away from impulsive decisions towards sensible ones. Initially she is successful. But by the end of the tale, even her Silicon Valley self-belief cannot compete with Musk’s moods. She, like all Musk staffers, is disposable and eventually fired. But stealing the show, it is Crawford who gets the last word. At the end of the day, Musk is, she concludes, “the saddest, loneliest man she’d ever met”.
克勞福德爲這種機會主義辯護，堅稱引導馬斯克從衝動的決定轉向明智的決定是「她的責任」。最初她是成功的。但在故事的最後，即使是她的矽谷式自信也擰不過馬斯克的情緒。她和馬斯克的所有員工一樣是可拋棄的，最終她被解僱了。但克勞福德出盡了風頭，她說了本書最後一句話。她總結道，歸根結底，馬斯克是「她見過的最悲傷、最孤獨的人」。
Breaking Twitter: Elon Musk and the Most Controversial Corporate Takeover in History, by Ben Mezrich, Pan Macmillan £22/Grand Central Publishing $30, 352 pages
《打破Twitter：伊隆•馬斯克和歷史上最具爭議的企業收購》(Breaking Twitter: Elon Musk and the Most Controversial Corporate Takeover in History)，本•麥茲裏奇著，麥克米倫出版社(Pan Macmillan)22英鎊/大中央出版社(Grand Central Publishing)30美元，352頁
Hannah Murphy is an FT technology correspondent
漢娜•墨菲(Hannah Murphy)是英國《金融時報》科技記者
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