Twitter’s Frankenstein Moment

Twitter finally proved its cultural influence was more valuable than the market thought. But perhaps not as planned.

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Twitter is in disarray. The company’s top executives are leaving. Its share price is unstable. Its reputation is hurting. And its employees are frustrated. “It should not be possible,’ said one employee recently, “for individuals to toy with the world in quite this way, and yet…”

Elon Musk, that individual, has thrown Twitter into chaos, but ironically he’s done so after becoming hooked to the product. Through using it, he’s grown to believe in its bull case, and agreed to buy it at an above-market premium. It’s a rare scenario: A large public company on the business end of its own productive design choices. But for Twitter, it’s reality.

For years, Twitter insiders argued Wall Street underappreciated its cultural value. Twitter might’ve been smaller than Snapchat and earned less in a year than Facebook did in two weeks. But no other service brought politicians, journalists, celebrities, and athletes together as Twitter did. For those who used it, the service often felt like the center…