HACKER Q&A
📣 nothrowaways

Bare minimum to keep Twitter running


People are saying that many people left Twitter today.

Which brings the question, what is the bare minimum number of humans needed to keep the website running?

No customer acquisition, no new features etc.


  👤 ggeorgovassilis Accepted Answer ✓
As they do have paid services, they also need to run a customer service department, although that can be outsourced. Serving data requests by authorities probably also requires a few people.

👤 pdw
Looks like payroll is going to be a problem. https://twitter.com/HaysKali/status/1593425305464541186

👤 BarryMilo
I wonder if there's some precedent for an app of this scale? I can't think of one.

One thing to think about is you're talking in technical terms. 100 dudes could "do the job" maybe. But an equally interesting question arises: of all the people who left, how many were managers?

If there are more strategists than "doers", you got a top-heavy organization. Those usually can't sustain themselves because no matter how good the plan is, things actually need to get done.

A fascinating case for future business classes in any case.


👤 drones
At this point? A carrier pidgeon with a couple USB sticks.

👤 nothrowaways
I will go first. A sys admin to keep network running, a person in server room to change disks, power guy, a DBA.