Not even the brightest minds in tech can escape one of Twitter's big faux pas: sending a direct message as a public tweet.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and potential candidate for real-world Tony Stark, sent a tweet out to John Carmack, who works as chief technology officer for VR company Oculus.

"Do you have a sec to talk," the tweet said with Musk's phone number.

There's one problem: it's clear the tweet was meant to be a private message. Instead, it was readily visible to Musk's 16.7 million Twitter followers.

The tweet was immediately deleted, but by then the number had spread.

CNBC called it, and got a greeting from game designer David Jaffe, who created the hit PlayStation series God of War. "By the Gods you've done it," said the message, reports CNBC. "Somehow you've found your way here to me. I offer you my congratulations and my respect."

Both Musk and Carmack have experience in building rockets. Carmack once ran his own aerospace company, Armadillo Aerospace. Also, as Carmack pointed out on Twitter, he and Musk helped found the Commercial Spaceflight Foundation, to promote and pursue safe, commercial space travel.

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.