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I have no idea if the same is the case in here, but Musk had to purge the senior leadership of both Tesla and SpaceX (and multiple times at that, I believe?) in

I have no idea if the same is the case in here, but Musk had to purge the senior leadership of both Tesla and SpaceX (and multiple times at that, I believe?) in order to achieve the innovation velocity he aimed for. On each occasion the press called a setback what amounted to losing deadweight, people too invested in legacy ways of doing things, and the companies went on to far surpass the most optimistic expectations.

vmception 5y ago
I mostly agree but primarily because departures are inherently non-news. I acknowledge that there is little transparency in the private sector (I'm not suggesting that there should be) and for companies of public interest the public must grasp at straws, such as departures. I can also acknowledge that executive and governance "challenges" can have a high correlation with corporate distress, but it's probably not much different than the general distribution of companies. People's expectations of what other's careers should look like is warped. I think mostly because people wish they were founders or valued personnel for a project they would get married to. But there is little utility in being married to a forever project, they should appreciate the utility that was provided for the time it was relevant.
aero-glide2 5y ago
Can you tell more about the SpaceX purge?
- beyondarmonia 5y ago
  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spacex-starlink-insight-idUKKCN1N50FC https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spacex-starlink-insight-i...
ObserverNeutral 5y ago
> far surpass the most optimistic expectations. Both companies are leechers for government money, that's all they do. The best product from Tesla is the hype they sell to public officials to take government money and the hype they sell to retail investors to take their money to pump the stock. People compare it to Amazon, they are not even in the same league, not the same ballpark
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
> but Musk had to purge the senior leadership of both Tesla and SpaceX (and multiple times at that, I believe?) in order to achieve the innovation velocity he aimed for. From the ex-Tesla people I worked with, I think the public narrative of Musk “purging” staff isn’t entirely true. He desperately needs top talent. It’s more the case that his companies focus on hungry employees who want to get some success and a big company name on their resume. He can pay them mediocre compensation and work them to death with the promise of a big career win. Once they’ve had a few years in the upper ranks of a Musk company, they can use their resume to walk into any number of easier jobs that pay better, so they leave. They are then replaced with a new generation of career climbers who can be worked to death in exchange for the resume building experience.
- reasonabl_human 5y ago
  After having been at KSC and working around Muskrats, almost being one of them myself, this is also the impression I took away. Kind of like IB for the tech industry.
- cma 5y ago
  Feels kind of like he had to purge people that wouldn't go along with embezzlement and fraud like using NASA money at SpaceX to buy his own Solar City bonds as part of a rescue with high conflict of interest or using Tesla to bail out Solar City with a fake demo on the set of Desparate Housewives with non-functional solar shingles.
  - minhazm 5y ago
    Ah yes those 1 million plus cars on the road must also be fake. Those self landing rockets? Clearly CGI.
    - cma 5y ago
      >Still, the company does acknowledge that the demos Musk unveiled at Universal Studios were not functional. https://www.fastcompany.com/40422084/inside-steel-pulse-the-mysterious-project-that-became-elon-musks-solar-roof https://www.fastcompany.com/40422084/inside-steel-pulse-the-... > Musk unveiled the Tesla solar roof in 2016 on the set of Desperate Housewives. At the time, he was trying to acquire Solar City, a solar energy company formed by his cousins. Musk was also chairman of Solar City at the time. > The roofs he showed off at the event weren’t fully working, Fast Company later reported, and Musk allegedly had said prototypes of the tiles were a “piece of shit.” https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/26/22404639/elon-musk-tesla-solar-roof-mistakes-cost-price-increase https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/26/22404639/elon-musk-tesla-... >As SpaceX's chairman, CEO, CTO, and majority stockholder, Musk caused SpaceX to purchase $90 million in SolarCity bonds in March 2015, $75 million in June 2015, and another $90 million in March 2016. These bond purchases violated SpaceX's own internal policy, and SolarCity was the only public company in which SpaceX made any investments. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/09/solarcity-was-insolvent-when-tesla-paid-2-6-billion-to-buy-it-lawsuit-says https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/09/solarcity-was-in...

vmception 5y ago

I mostly agree but primarily because departures are inherently non-news. I acknowledge that there is little transparency in the private sector (I'm not suggesting that there should be) and for companies of public interest the public must grasp at straws, such as departures. I can also acknowledge that executive and governance "challenges" can have a high correlation with corporate distress, but it's probably not much different than the general distribution of companies. People's expectations of what other's careers should look like is warped. I think mostly because people wish they were founders or valued personnel for a project they would get married to. But there is little utility in being married to a forever project, they should appreciate the utility that was provided for the time it was relevant.

aero-glide2 5y ago

Can you tell more about the SpaceX purge?

beyondarmonia 5y ago
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spacex-starlink-insight-idUKKCN1N50FC https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spacex-starlink-insight-i...

ObserverNeutral 5y ago

> far surpass the most optimistic expectations. Both companies are leechers for government money, that's all they do. The best product from Tesla is the hype they sell to public officials to take government money and the hype they sell to retail investors to take their money to pump the stock. People compare it to Amazon, they are not even in the same league, not the same ballpark

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

> but Musk had to purge the senior leadership of both Tesla and SpaceX (and multiple times at that, I believe?) in order to achieve the innovation velocity he aimed for. From the ex-Tesla people I worked with, I think the public narrative of Musk “purging” staff isn’t entirely true. He desperately needs top talent. It’s more the case that his companies focus on hungry employees who want to get some success and a big company name on their resume. He can pay them mediocre compensation and work them to death with the promise of a big career win. Once they’ve had a few years in the upper ranks of a Musk company, they can use their resume to walk into any number of easier jobs that pay better, so they leave. They are then replaced with a new generation of career climbers who can be worked to death in exchange for the resume building experience.

reasonabl_human 5y ago
After having been at KSC and working around Muskrats, almost being one of them myself, this is also the impression I took away. Kind of like IB for the tech industry.
cma 5y ago
Feels kind of like he had to purge people that wouldn't go along with embezzlement and fraud like using NASA money at SpaceX to buy his own Solar City bonds as part of a rescue with high conflict of interest or using Tesla to bail out Solar City with a fake demo on the set of Desparate Housewives with non-functional solar shingles.
- minhazm 5y ago
  Ah yes those 1 million plus cars on the road must also be fake. Those self landing rockets? Clearly CGI.
  - cma 5y ago
    >Still, the company does acknowledge that the demos Musk unveiled at Universal Studios were not functional. https://www.fastcompany.com/40422084/inside-steel-pulse-the-mysterious-project-that-became-elon-musks-solar-roof https://www.fastcompany.com/40422084/inside-steel-pulse-the-... > Musk unveiled the Tesla solar roof in 2016 on the set of Desperate Housewives. At the time, he was trying to acquire Solar City, a solar energy company formed by his cousins. Musk was also chairman of Solar City at the time. > The roofs he showed off at the event weren’t fully working, Fast Company later reported, and Musk allegedly had said prototypes of the tiles were a “piece of shit.” https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/26/22404639/elon-musk-tesla-solar-roof-mistakes-cost-price-increase https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/26/22404639/elon-musk-tesla-... >As SpaceX's chairman, CEO, CTO, and majority stockholder, Musk caused SpaceX to purchase $90 million in SolarCity bonds in March 2015, $75 million in June 2015, and another $90 million in March 2016. These bond purchases violated SpaceX's own internal policy, and SolarCity was the only public company in which SpaceX made any investments. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/09/solarcity-was-insolvent-when-tesla-paid-2-6-billion-to-buy-it-lawsuit-says https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/09/solarcity-was-in...