7 ms·

Isn't the owner one of the engineers actually working on that rocket? I thought he was very involved in that piece?

by soperj 5y ago

phpnode 5y ago
That seems extremely unlikely, there's only so many hours in the day and while I'm sure that he has a keen eye on what's going on the odds of him being personally involved in the actual engineering are close to zero. If he's spending time doing that it'd actually be a huge failure on his part, there are more important things for him to spend his time on.
- genericone 5y ago
  I lightly disagree, maybe he doesn't do the calculations or write the tests, but he's almost certainly grilling people all the way down to ensure alignment on engineering. His passion being engineering, he's probably not asking 'program management 101' questions, but doing a smell-test on your technical work and your competence level just as a fellow-level senior engineer would.
- quincunx 5y ago
  For Elon Musk, Jim Keller or even Steve Jobs, their value isn't in manually doing the CAD / VHDL / Code, rather, it is being the Eye of Mordor on the critical path and understanding the solution top to bottom. No excuses, only problem solving. I feel the key insight behind both SpaceX and Tesla is that both the napkin engineering from first principle and then having the force of will to personally see it through /are/ the most important thing. Both qualify as engineering. Happy to have my fairy tale hero's journey view of success corrected.
  - nthj 5y ago
    Anyone inclined to argue against this could maybe sink 1,000 hours into Factorio. The game is simple enough to require 1-person-engineer, but complex enough that the player must both solve low-level problems AND be The Eye of Mordor. If you don’t relentlessly pursue both, you get stuck in the tarpit and progress stalls.
- soperj 5y ago
  He's one of the richest people in the world, with a massive interest in space & rockets, and owns the most exciting piece of space technology being built today. Where else would you spend your time in this situation?
  - phpnode 5y ago
    I would probably spend my time focussed on growing and sustaining my companies and hiring very skilled people to do that engineering work for me, I'd be very interested in the engineering work, but I wouldn't be doing that work myself. Similarly I don't expect Mark Zuckerberg writes much code at facebook these days, there's just too much other stuff to do
    - soperj 5y ago
      If you're goal is literally just a successful company, then sure that makes sense. But if you actually have a passion for what you do (and I'm not arguing that Zuckerberg doesn't have a passion for spying on people), and the company is already a huge success, why wouldn't you spend your time doing something that you think is really really cool and hire very skilled people to do the other stuff?
      - mensetmanusman 5y ago
        Exactly this. If your goal is to get rich and play golf and relax, that is one thing. The fact that Elon is one of the wealthiest people in the world and also as passionate as someone working in their garage seems kind of like a crazy situation. I wonder if there is similar historical precedence in terms of an ultra wealthy person being interested and involved like he is.
- DennisP 5y ago
  A while back I saw an interview with a NASA engineer they loaned to SpaceX for six months. He described a meeting in which two engineering proposals were being debated, and at the end Musk said "ok we'll do it this way" and that was the end of it. The guy was kinda blown away, and said at NASA they'd have had a dozen more meetings first. Given that SpaceX lives or dies by how well their rockets work, I don't think there's really anything more important for Musk to be doing.
  - jp42 5y ago
    You are talking about Dan Rasky. Link to this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxIiiwD9C0E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxIiiwD9C0E
IfOnlyYouKnew 5y ago
Elon Musk contains multitudes, including a stellar mind for engineering, a credible claim to be working on products that are good for humanity, excellent business instincts, and the talent to come across as an obnoxious asshole. Seriously: when you have Bond-villain levels of fame and fortune, I expect you to be at least as clever as Peter Thiel in fucking over people who crossed you. Musk just randomly calling people he doesn’t like “pedophiles” on Twitter always feels… I dunno, “small”?
- ethbr0 5y ago
  It's probably for the best that billionaires draw the line at Twitter rants, rather than... other things that money could buy.
- Cipater 5y ago
  He's just a very rich nerd.
- bdamm 5y ago
  If you're going to quote, at least quote correctly. "pedo guy" was the insult.
  - Niglodonicus 5y ago
    Which was pretty funny framing in any case, since Musk's wife Grimes is about 14 years old mentally (just watch any of her recent viral TikTok clips floating around).
  - vimacs2 5y ago
    He also hired a private investigator to target the guy. I'm a huge fan of his work with SpaceX but let's not downplay what a petty asshole he was during that whole thing.
    - bdamm 5y ago
      Absolutely. It is worth noting that Tesla was experiencing "production hell" at the time, so obviously Musk was under a ton of stress. That doesn't excuse the behavior, but does make it easier to understand. Frankly, Musk should have kept out of the whole thing, but staying silent isn't the style that anyone operating at that level is going to have. Asking his team to build a sub is inexcusable. Still love his product, despite the distraction.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
gamegoblin 5y ago
The book "Liftoff" (about the early years of SpaceX) paints a picture of Elon as a very smart person with a mind for engineering, but his true value-add over any other aerospace company at the time was his ability to hire the right people and sniff out bullshit. That is, he knows enough about the engineering to hire people who know a lot about the engineering. That, combined with his relentless drive (to the point of overwork both on himself and his employees) seems to be the key to SpaceX success.
- simonh 5y ago
  He very much reminds me of Steve Jobs in this regard. Steve was actually a competent technician, if not really an engineer at the time of the founding of Apple, and he really cared deeply about the engineering. He understood the language of engineers and the tradeoffs in a design and I think it's the same with Elon. The fact they both ran completely separate very successful and innovative companies at the same time might be a coincidence, but kind of clinches it for me.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - soperj 5y ago
    If you read any of the fokelore stuff, there seems to be some disagreement there. He wanted stuff to look a certain way, but he didn't really understand the engineering trade off. Like asking for a computer with no holes in the case for cooling.
    - healthysurf 5y ago
      Well the current Macbook Airs don't have holes, so it's not like it was impossible.
      - soperj 5y ago
        And they run hot when under load, sometimes to the point where they're too hot to handle. Is there a benefit to not having proper ventilation?
geocrasher 5y ago
He's not necessarily involved in the intimate engineering of rockets. He's deeply involved in the engineering of a rocket company. Talent and Engineering prowess are pointless without direction, and Musk provides strong leadership to move the company in the direction he sees fit. The actual rocket scientists are Woz, and Musk is Jobs.

Isn't the owner one of the engineers actually working on that rocket? I thought he was very involved in that piece?

by soperj 5y ago

Isn't the owner one of the engineers actually working on that rocket? I thought he was very involved in that piece?

That seems extremely unlikely, there's only so many hours in the day and while I'm sure that he has a keen eye on what's going on the odds of him being personally involved in the actual engineering are close to zero. If he's spending time doing that it'd actually be a huge failure on his part, there are more important things for him to spend his time on.

genericone 5y ago
I lightly disagree, maybe he doesn't do the calculations or write the tests, but he's almost certainly grilling people all the way down to ensure alignment on engineering. His passion being engineering, he's probably not asking 'program management 101' questions, but doing a smell-test on your technical work and your competence level just as a fellow-level senior engineer would.
quincunx 5y ago
For Elon Musk, Jim Keller or even Steve Jobs, their value isn't in manually doing the CAD / VHDL / Code, rather, it is being the Eye of Mordor on the critical path and understanding the solution top to bottom. No excuses, only problem solving. I feel the key insight behind both SpaceX and Tesla is that both the napkin engineering from first principle and then having the force of will to personally see it through /are/ the most important thing. Both qualify as engineering. Happy to have my fairy tale hero's journey view of success corrected.
- nthj 5y ago
  Anyone inclined to argue against this could maybe sink 1,000 hours into Factorio. The game is simple enough to require 1-person-engineer, but complex enough that the player must both solve low-level problems AND be The Eye of Mordor. If you don’t relentlessly pursue both, you get stuck in the tarpit and progress stalls.
soperj 5y ago
He's one of the richest people in the world, with a massive interest in space & rockets, and owns the most exciting piece of space technology being built today. Where else would you spend your time in this situation?
- phpnode 5y ago
  I would probably spend my time focussed on growing and sustaining my companies and hiring very skilled people to do that engineering work for me, I'd be very interested in the engineering work, but I wouldn't be doing that work myself. Similarly I don't expect Mark Zuckerberg writes much code at facebook these days, there's just too much other stuff to do
  - soperj 5y ago
    If you're goal is literally just a successful company, then sure that makes sense. But if you actually have a passion for what you do (and I'm not arguing that Zuckerberg doesn't have a passion for spying on people), and the company is already a huge success, why wouldn't you spend your time doing something that you think is really really cool and hire very skilled people to do the other stuff?
    - mensetmanusman 5y ago
      Exactly this. If your goal is to get rich and play golf and relax, that is one thing. The fact that Elon is one of the wealthiest people in the world and also as passionate as someone working in their garage seems kind of like a crazy situation. I wonder if there is similar historical precedence in terms of an ultra wealthy person being interested and involved like he is.
DennisP 5y ago
A while back I saw an interview with a NASA engineer they loaned to SpaceX for six months. He described a meeting in which two engineering proposals were being debated, and at the end Musk said "ok we'll do it this way" and that was the end of it. The guy was kinda blown away, and said at NASA they'd have had a dozen more meetings first. Given that SpaceX lives or dies by how well their rockets work, I don't think there's really anything more important for Musk to be doing.
- jp42 5y ago
  You are talking about Dan Rasky. Link to this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxIiiwD9C0E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxIiiwD9C0E

IfOnlyYouKnew 5y ago

Elon Musk contains multitudes, including a stellar mind for engineering, a credible claim to be working on products that are good for humanity, excellent business instincts, and the talent to come across as an obnoxious asshole. Seriously: when you have Bond-villain levels of fame and fortune, I expect you to be at least as clever as Peter Thiel in fucking over people who crossed you. Musk just randomly calling people he doesn’t like “pedophiles” on Twitter always feels… I dunno, “small”?

ethbr0 5y ago
It's probably for the best that billionaires draw the line at Twitter rants, rather than... other things that money could buy.
Cipater 5y ago
He's just a very rich nerd.
bdamm 5y ago
If you're going to quote, at least quote correctly. "pedo guy" was the insult.
- Niglodonicus 5y ago
  Which was pretty funny framing in any case, since Musk's wife Grimes is about 14 years old mentally (just watch any of her recent viral TikTok clips floating around).
- vimacs2 5y ago
  He also hired a private investigator to target the guy. I'm a huge fan of his work with SpaceX but let's not downplay what a petty asshole he was during that whole thing.
  - bdamm 5y ago
    Absolutely. It is worth noting that Tesla was experiencing "production hell" at the time, so obviously Musk was under a ton of stress. That doesn't excuse the behavior, but does make it easier to understand. Frankly, Musk should have kept out of the whole thing, but staying silent isn't the style that anyone operating at that level is going to have. Asking his team to build a sub is inexcusable. Still love his product, despite the distraction.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

gamegoblin 5y ago

The book "Liftoff" (about the early years of SpaceX) paints a picture of Elon as a very smart person with a mind for engineering, but his true value-add over any other aerospace company at the time was his ability to hire the right people and sniff out bullshit. That is, he knows enough about the engineering to hire people who know a lot about the engineering. That, combined with his relentless drive (to the point of overwork both on himself and his employees) seems to be the key to SpaceX success.

simonh 5y ago
He very much reminds me of Steve Jobs in this regard. Steve was actually a competent technician, if not really an engineer at the time of the founding of Apple, and he really cared deeply about the engineering. He understood the language of engineers and the tradeoffs in a design and I think it's the same with Elon. The fact they both ran completely separate very successful and innovative companies at the same time might be a coincidence, but kind of clinches it for me.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- soperj 5y ago
  If you read any of the fokelore stuff, there seems to be some disagreement there. He wanted stuff to look a certain way, but he didn't really understand the engineering trade off. Like asking for a computer with no holes in the case for cooling.
  - healthysurf 5y ago
    Well the current Macbook Airs don't have holes, so it's not like it was impossible.
    - soperj 5y ago
      And they run hot when under load, sometimes to the point where they're too hot to handle. Is there a benefit to not having proper ventilation?

geocrasher 5y ago

He's not necessarily involved in the intimate engineering of rockets. He's deeply involved in the engineering of a rocket company. Talent and Engineering prowess are pointless without direction, and Musk provides strong leadership to move the company in the direction he sees fit. The actual rocket scientists are Woz, and Musk is Jobs.