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Reading this I ask myself why does one chooses to work in such a work environment? Are people working there doing it because they feel they're part of a bigger

by yoavm 8y ago

Reading this I ask myself why does one chooses to work in such a work environment? Are people working there doing it because they feel they're part of a bigger dream? Seems to me like it's very hard to feel this way when you're so replaceable. At the end of the day I guess the work is similar to working in many other car brands, just harder, more hectic and managed more poorly. Are there any special benefits that I'm missing? (I'm really wondering, not trying to put anyone down)

beaconstudios 8y ago
I would be drawn by a combination of the challenge of high expectations, and the fact that the company works towards a meaningful cause. Of course, there's a huge difference between the challenge being innovating all the time and straining your cognitive and physical abilities, and the challenge of trying to keep your partner and have some semblance of a personal life despite working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. It seems like Tesla PR implies the former, but the reality is the latter. If reports are to be believed, the company structure and management is still very much a Taylorian command-and-control hierarchy which is a huge barrier to real innovation.
montenegrohugo 8y ago
I think fulfillment is a big part of it. Knowing that your work actually means something, that you're not just making people click more of your companies manipulating & intrusive ads and that you're not just implementing a done ad nauseam CRUD app or whatever, but instead contributing to something new & potentially revolutionizing can be a big incentive.
redwood 8y ago
This note honestly made me consider looking at their job board! Folks want to be part of a mission they can really get behind.
ericb 8y ago
I don't work at Tesla. Here is why I would: I'm on team humanity. In spite all our failings, I want humanity to succeed and reach for the stars. Success means having a livable planet. For idealists like me who are also realists, the only way to get everyone working toward this future is to put it in their self-interest. Anything else just. won't. work. To dedicate yourself in a practical way to the future of humanity, Tesla's one of the few games around.
- fulafel 8y ago
  EVs don't solve the CO2 footprint of cars, the improvement is too small. We must drastically reduce the low-occupancy car miles driven and reverse the car growth trend in developing countries.
  - virgilp 8y ago
    Your comment makes A LOT of assumptions - in both ways e.g.: - you are ignoring the benefits that EVs could bring, as well as synergies with future technology improvements. Radically better battery technology coupled with cheap, affordable solar might be a game changer of unprecedented scale. - On the other hand, there's no proof that "drastically reducing the low-occupancy car miles driven" or "reversing the car growth trend" is either feasible or beneficial (how do you achieve the goal? Any measure is likely to have side-effects. I haven't seen any realistic proposal that doesn't have potentially horrible side-effects). Lastly, let me just tell you that I love it when people living in developed countries know what developing countries should do (which is typically "stay poor", but delivered in a more politically-correct way)
    - majewsky 8y ago
      > I haven't seen any realistic proposal that doesn't have potentially horrible side-effects. What are the horrible side effects of car pools?
      - virgilp 8y ago
        Car pools are "desired effects", maybe - for sure they aren't "realistic proposals". There are no horrible side effects to "a healthier population"; however, the prohibition showed us that there may indeed be bad side-effects to banning alcohol consumption & distribution (which could be argued as a measure that leads to a healthier population).
  - alexgmcm 8y ago
    It isn't just CO2 though. As a city dweller I look forward to a future with less air and noise pollution.
MarsAscendant 8y ago
Used to know a guy: brilliant young man, excelling in the fields of physics and mathematics, and not a slouch in many others – at an amateur level driven by curiousity, but with an intelligence base nevertheless. He had an older brother, who was, by the younger brother's own admission, a notch above himself in the intelligence department. The older brother was said to have been bored working at Google. My suspicion is: someone in dire need of intellectual engagement might want to work at Tesla simply because of the opportunity to exercise one's mental capacity in a challenge of equivalent magnitude. (Not Tesla specifically: I suspect any company with similarly-driven heavily-pushed technical production would suffice, for a person with the knowledge of that sphere.) Imagine Einstein or Hawking sorting paper in an office. How do you think their minds would feel in such an uncreative, unproductive environment? I'd wager they'd suffocate soon without an opportunity to express their intellect in a meaningful way. Same story, I suspect, happens with the brilliant engineers and designers at Tesla. (Which isn't to say that the nightmare-ish conditions they're being put through are necessarily worth it, or that they can't find an outlet for their capacities elsewhere. Working for a company is simpler, in that one doesn't need to make as many choices as an independent entrepreneur would have to. It's also prestigious – since the company has a big name – which may or may not play its role.)
- majewsky 8y ago
  > Imagine Einstein or Hawking sorting paper in an office. How do you think their minds would feel in such an uncreative, unproductive environment? Einstein is the perfect counterexample: Had he not worked at a boring paperwork job in the patent office, he wouldn't have had enough mental capacity to devise his theories.
  - ovi256 8y ago
    >Had he not worked at a boring paperwork job in the patent office That job was not as boring as commonly understood. He had to examine patents about time synchronization devices that used light signals between trains. That led him to think about what would later become relativity.
- TarpitCarnivore 8y ago

by yoavm 8y ago

beaconstudios 8y ago

I would be drawn by a combination of the challenge of high expectations, and the fact that the company works towards a meaningful cause. Of course, there's a huge difference between the challenge being innovating all the time and straining your cognitive and physical abilities, and the challenge of trying to keep your partner and have some semblance of a personal life despite working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. It seems like Tesla PR implies the former, but the reality is the latter. If reports are to be believed, the company structure and management is still very much a Taylorian command-and-control hierarchy which is a huge barrier to real innovation.

montenegrohugo 8y ago

I think fulfillment is a big part of it. Knowing that your work actually means something, that you're not just making people click more of your companies manipulating & intrusive ads and that you're not just implementing a done ad nauseam CRUD app or whatever, but instead contributing to something new & potentially revolutionizing can be a big incentive.

redwood 8y ago

This note honestly made me consider looking at their job board! Folks want to be part of a mission they can really get behind.

ericb 8y ago

I don't work at Tesla. Here is why I would: I'm on team humanity. In spite all our failings, I want humanity to succeed and reach for the stars. Success means having a livable planet. For idealists like me who are also realists, the only way to get everyone working toward this future is to put it in their self-interest. Anything else just. won't. work. To dedicate yourself in a practical way to the future of humanity, Tesla's one of the few games around.

fulafel 8y ago
EVs don't solve the CO2 footprint of cars, the improvement is too small. We must drastically reduce the low-occupancy car miles driven and reverse the car growth trend in developing countries.
- virgilp 8y ago
  Your comment makes A LOT of assumptions - in both ways e.g.: - you are ignoring the benefits that EVs could bring, as well as synergies with future technology improvements. Radically better battery technology coupled with cheap, affordable solar might be a game changer of unprecedented scale. - On the other hand, there's no proof that "drastically reducing the low-occupancy car miles driven" or "reversing the car growth trend" is either feasible or beneficial (how do you achieve the goal? Any measure is likely to have side-effects. I haven't seen any realistic proposal that doesn't have potentially horrible side-effects). Lastly, let me just tell you that I love it when people living in developed countries know what developing countries should do (which is typically "stay poor", but delivered in a more politically-correct way)
  - majewsky 8y ago
    > I haven't seen any realistic proposal that doesn't have potentially horrible side-effects. What are the horrible side effects of car pools?
    - virgilp 8y ago
      Car pools are "desired effects", maybe - for sure they aren't "realistic proposals". There are no horrible side effects to "a healthier population"; however, the prohibition showed us that there may indeed be bad side-effects to banning alcohol consumption & distribution (which could be argued as a measure that leads to a healthier population).
- alexgmcm 8y ago
  It isn't just CO2 though. As a city dweller I look forward to a future with less air and noise pollution.

MarsAscendant 8y ago

Used to know a guy: brilliant young man, excelling in the fields of physics and mathematics, and not a slouch in many others – at an amateur level driven by curiousity, but with an intelligence base nevertheless. He had an older brother, who was, by the younger brother's own admission, a notch above himself in the intelligence department. The older brother was said to have been bored working at Google. My suspicion is: someone in dire need of intellectual engagement might want to work at Tesla simply because of the opportunity to exercise one's mental capacity in a challenge of equivalent magnitude. (Not Tesla specifically: I suspect any company with similarly-driven heavily-pushed technical production would suffice, for a person with the knowledge of that sphere.) Imagine Einstein or Hawking sorting paper in an office. How do you think their minds would feel in such an uncreative, unproductive environment? I'd wager they'd suffocate soon without an opportunity to express their intellect in a meaningful way. Same story, I suspect, happens with the brilliant engineers and designers at Tesla. (Which isn't to say that the nightmare-ish conditions they're being put through are necessarily worth it, or that they can't find an outlet for their capacities elsewhere. Working for a company is simpler, in that one doesn't need to make as many choices as an independent entrepreneur would have to. It's also prestigious – since the company has a big name – which may or may not play its role.)

majewsky 8y ago
> Imagine Einstein or Hawking sorting paper in an office. How do you think their minds would feel in such an uncreative, unproductive environment? Einstein is the perfect counterexample: Had he not worked at a boring paperwork job in the patent office, he wouldn't have had enough mental capacity to devise his theories.
- ovi256 8y ago
  >Had he not worked at a boring paperwork job in the patent office That job was not as boring as commonly understood. He had to examine patents about time synchronization devices that used light signals between trains. That led him to think about what would later become relativity.
TarpitCarnivore 8y ago