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I think a big part of it is being stubborn about rejecting things that aren't good enough. Steve Jobs and Elon Musk both also have a reputation of perfectionism
by Taek 6y ago
I think a big part of it is being stubborn about rejecting things that aren't good enough. Steve Jobs and Elon Musk both also have a reputation of perfectionism, and lots of stories of telling their employees to start over because they didn't hit the minimum requirements (or in Musk's case, just firing people outright over seemingly small things).
Especially when one of your employees is pushing you hard for a feature they want or something they spent a lot of time working on, it can be difficult to reject their proposals over and over but by experience I've seen that this can lead to a lot of technical debt or significant compromises on the product.
Over time I'm becoming increasingly in favor of being really stubborn about certain technical choices and product choices, even where it can hurt employee morale.
- pydry 6y agoLinus torvalds is a good example of this where the "asshole behavior" didn't spill over into the rest of his life.
- tinco 6y agoIs Musk really an asshole? The stories I've heard about Jobs show that he was abusive and manipulative. Maybe I'm out of the loop but I haven't heard such stories about Musk. He's said some dumb things that seemed uncalled for on Twitter, but everyone makes mistakes, and if he really believed them when he said them then that doesn't make him an asshole. And firing someone over something seemingly small is not asshole behavior, that's just taking charge, who knows what lays behind a decision like that. Are there any examples of Musk doing something mean for selfish reasons?