6 ms·
It's that whole "first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win" thing. Jobs had reached the "laugh" point by then 15 yeas ag
by nkoren 8y ago
It's that whole "first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win" thing. Jobs had reached the "laugh" point by then
15 yeas ago, the default position of the space launch industry was to ignore Elon Musk. He could barely get a laugh. 10 years ago, the industry was starting to laugh. Unfortunately they were still laughing 5 years ago, at his ridiculous self-landing rockets -- as if that would ever be a thing -- And now he has, for all intents and purposes, won. That's just the life-cycle for this kind of thing.
Of course worth nothing that 99% of the time the Status Quo laughs at someone or something, it's because that someone or something will never amount to beans. Ridicule is a universal feature of disruptive innovation -- if nobody is ignoring or ridiculing you, you're definitely not being disruptive -- but it correlates much more strongly to failure than to success.
- nikanj 8y ago"They laughed at Einstein...but they also laughed at Bozo the Clown."
- xkjkls 8y agoYeah, I don't think the solution should be to get all entrepreneurs to take improv classes.
- baxtr 8y agoHow do you compare Elon Musk to Steve Jobs? I’m genuinely interested. In my mind, the first has built the biggest profit machine the world has ever seen. The latter is still experimenting and burning a lot of cash. Sure, both are quite charismatic. (I’m not trying to be judgmental here, just trying to find a common measure)
- GuiA 8y agoElon Musk promises he'll deliver self driving electric cars and reusable spacecraft. It's hard to find things that would get tech enthusiasts more excited. If he were reinventing the shipping or fertilizer industry while burning as much cash and treating his employees as poorly, no one would idolize him the way he is idolized now.
- xkjkls 8y agoTreating your employees pretty terribly unfortunately often comes with the package for alot of "visionary leaders". If you have a single minded focus toward one specific goal, you forget alot of basic decency. Steve Jobs was also famous for being a shitty boss.
- victor106 8y agoI used to be a huge fan of Musk. I still am in some ways. But his recent behaviour is not worthy of his stature. I am specifically referring to: 1. Repeatedly failing to keep promises and coming up with excuses, very unlike Jobs who would not let even his VP's miss a deadline. 2. His rant on the earnings call with a few analysts who were asking genuine questions seemed so immature. You could never imagine Jobs would do such a thing. 3. His challenge with Buffett about moats and starting a candy company. This seemed so utterly silly and childish although you could argue he was joking. But again, I just cannot imagine Jobs talking like a loose character in public. FYI:- I am long Tesla stock and think it could still be a great company although my confidence in that is a bit down at the moment.
- Nomentatus 8y ago1) Jobs wasn't wildly off on every technology deadline NeXT ever set itself? Really? 2) Same "question" - which was actually just an analyst gainsaying the firm's estimate, not a question at all - three times in a row as if it hadn't been answered the first time. It's not childish to refuse incivility. It's childish to pretend incivility is civility. 3) "Moats" - actually Network Effects that are typically leveraged as illegal extensions of market power. (As was the case in question: with Musk refusing to illegally block the interoperability of Tesla's charging stations.) Musk felt maybe staying on the right side of the law (enforced or not) might be cool. You don't. That's nice. This realm of law hasn't been enforced much since the end of the seventies, but it's still there. The fact that it's usually grownups who go to jail, doesn't mean it's childish to obey the law. Why shouldn't Musk start a candy company as his responce to Buffet's chortled taunt if he cares to? Gotta be more fun than production hell. Or even start a tunnel company. (He said he was serious re candy. Maybe he likes candy.)
- Nomentatus 8y agoSpaceX is starting a period when it will be gathering immense profits, since as the low-price leader it won't need to pass on the savings from booster reuse to its customers, and doesn't plan to. Granted, Jobs profits came from a closed system and illegal moats vs interoperability (not that those laws, or many others, are enforced vs corporations very often.) Whereas Musk doesn't admire those who leverage mere Network Efforts.
- greglindahl 8y agoThis is not really correct; SpaceX has lowered their base price from $62mm to $50mm in the past year or so.
- Nomentatus 8y agoTrue but not relevant to reuse savings, since reuse without expensive refurbishing hasn't happened yet, and reuse at all rather rarely; it will be common with the Block 5 Falcons just coming into use now. There's no planned drop in price to reflect that reuse.
- greglindahl 8y agoEr, you have no idea if what you just said is true, the only fact is the price drop.
- Nomentatus 8y agoJust google the news, you'll find the description of Block 5 and what it means there; and previous articles will tell you how many refurbishments have been made and what relaunches have been performed, and whether there are or aren't SpaceX announcements of price drops. FWIW, the first stage (which is the only reusable stage now) “represents close to 60% of the cost" of a launch. If you want more detail, you'll want to find a transcript of Musk's teleconference with reporters on May 10 2018. Now what are your sources, sir, that justify your scorn, certainty and incivility?
- phaus 8y ago>It's that whole "first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win" thing. Jobs had reached the "laugh" point by then. He was flaky and kind of a joke though. His entire life the only times he managed to be a decent contributor was when he was the boss of an entire company and got his way 100% of the time. Even then he was an incredibly toxic leader and was known for throwing tantrums on a regular basis. He was incredibly talented, but he had more than his fair share of personality defects.
- simonh 8y agoEvery single interview I have ever seen with anyone who actually worked for him, they said that was an exaggerated caricature. Not that he couldn’t be demanding or opinionated or had outbursts, but none of them ever used words like toxic.
- phaus 8y agoIf you can't control your temper at work to the point where you become known for doing things that can be accurately described as an "outburst", you are toxic. Especially if you are in a position of leadership. You can be passionate about something without being a jerk.
- trcollinson 8y agoThat’s a really big leap from what is reasonable in this case. The Steve’s at this time were actually just two guys in a garage looking for a deal on printing. If I owned a advertising, marketing, and printing company I doubt I would have looked at those two and said “Ah ha! Geniuses! I shall definitely believe they need a lot layout and marketing work done. I should give them a discount. And he’s not unreasonable he’s just eccentric and excited. How reasonable.” He was young, had a relatively crazy idea, no sales or customers, and no money. And a humongous personality and ego. If anything I can’t imagine describing him any other way to a coworker.
- 11thEarlOfMar 8y agoThe note to Bob says Jobs, "Wants it for nothing." Rose probably thought "you must be joking." hence, the joker epithet.