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Revealed: The secret notes of Blue Origin leaders trying to catch SpaceX

30 points by _Microft 5y ago

belval 5y ago
Reading this, it's really ironic that the first leadership principle of Amazon is customer obsession and after 20 years Blue Origin's leadership is just tapping their forehead saying "maybe we should make a rocket that customers actually want?!". This demonstrate such a staggering lack of leadership it's obvious that they've been relying on cash infusion from Jeff Bezos for far too long.
- bell-cot 5y ago
  If, after 2 decades with deep-pocketed backing, the only rocket that you've actually managed to make is a glorified tourist toy...then maybe customer wishes don't really matter so much. You need to admit that it's a vanity hobby. Or to stop wasting your money, and go back to running warehouses.
loudmax 5y ago
The cost savings from SpaceX's reusable rockets are absolutely revolutionary. If SpaceX manages to get their Starship rocket to follow the path laid by their Falcon rocket, they'll be even further ahead of the competition. So good on Blue Origin for having performed this kind of internal review. I really hope they pull into the same league as SpaceX. Having said that, I do hope Blue Origin does this by emulating SpaceX's positive characteristics: the focus on customer demand, cost constraints, iterative design, etc. Not SpaceX's negative characteristics of pushing employees to work 60+ hour weeks for months on end, periodically culling 10% of their employees, etc. I worry that Musk is running his companies as cults of personality that won't survive his departure. Based on Blue Origin's accomplishments, I'm not holding my breath for for them to catch up any time soon. Fortunately there are several other companies using innovative techniques to get into the market so even if Blue Origin goes bust, SpaceX won't be alone.
- hagbard_c 5y ago
  Even more than that I hope Blue Origin tries to get even with SpaceX by ways of engineering prowess instead of lawfare. Thus far they seem to be more willing to take to the latter than the former. While "no bucks, no Buck Rogers"[1] may be true I've seen more Buck Rogers for far fewer bucks coming from SpaceX than what I've seen from Blue Origin. They have been stuck at the X-prize level for years now, with not much proof of any capability to go beyond that. [1] https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/no+bucks%2C+no+Buck+Rogers https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/no+bucks%2C+no+Buck+Rog...
trenning 5y ago
They're suggesting employees should work 80hrs a week instead of 40 and they should fire the bottom 5-10%. The only note on compensation is maybe give them more stock options. Sounds like a lovely place to work.
cratermoon 5y ago
Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28754422 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28754422
- bell-cot 5y ago
  (Based on the larger "id=..." in the URL and smaller "X hours ago" shown, I believe that one was submitted ~6 hours later.)
rich_sasha 5y ago
SpaceX is clearly doing much better, still I’m not sure just parroting your competitor is the way forward. There are different approaches and just mixing them blindly can’t work. Many of the things sound about right in many ways in Blue Origin. Keeping hours sane. Pay not stock. Careful design. Clearly something doesn’t gel, but just saying “oh maybe Jeff Bezos should be more crazy, and how about we set up an electric car business on the side” is counterproductive IMO.

30 points by _Microft 5y ago

Reading this, it's really ironic that the first leadership principle of Amazon is customer obsession and after 20 years Blue Origin's leadership is just tapping their forehead saying "maybe we should make a rocket that customers actually want?!". This demonstrate such a staggering lack of leadership it's obvious that they've been relying on cash infusion from Jeff Bezos for far too long.

bell-cot 5y ago
If, after 2 decades with deep-pocketed backing, the only rocket that you've actually managed to make is a glorified tourist toy...then maybe customer wishes don't really matter so much. You need to admit that it's a vanity hobby. Or to stop wasting your money, and go back to running warehouses.

loudmax 5y ago

The cost savings from SpaceX's reusable rockets are absolutely revolutionary. If SpaceX manages to get their Starship rocket to follow the path laid by their Falcon rocket, they'll be even further ahead of the competition. So good on Blue Origin for having performed this kind of internal review. I really hope they pull into the same league as SpaceX. Having said that, I do hope Blue Origin does this by emulating SpaceX's positive characteristics: the focus on customer demand, cost constraints, iterative design, etc. Not SpaceX's negative characteristics of pushing employees to work 60+ hour weeks for months on end, periodically culling 10% of their employees, etc. I worry that Musk is running his companies as cults of personality that won't survive his departure. Based on Blue Origin's accomplishments, I'm not holding my breath for for them to catch up any time soon. Fortunately there are several other companies using innovative techniques to get into the market so even if Blue Origin goes bust, SpaceX won't be alone.

hagbard_c 5y ago
Even more than that I hope Blue Origin tries to get even with SpaceX by ways of engineering prowess instead of lawfare. Thus far they seem to be more willing to take to the latter than the former. While "no bucks, no Buck Rogers"[1] may be true I've seen more Buck Rogers for far fewer bucks coming from SpaceX than what I've seen from Blue Origin. They have been stuck at the X-prize level for years now, with not much proof of any capability to go beyond that. [1] https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/no+bucks%2C+no+Buck+Rogers https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/no+bucks%2C+no+Buck+Rog...

trenning 5y ago

They're suggesting employees should work 80hrs a week instead of 40 and they should fire the bottom 5-10%. The only note on compensation is maybe give them more stock options. Sounds like a lovely place to work.

cratermoon 5y ago

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28754422 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28754422

bell-cot 5y ago
(Based on the larger "id=..." in the URL and smaller "X hours ago" shown, I believe that one was submitted ~6 hours later.)

rich_sasha 5y ago

SpaceX is clearly doing much better, still I’m not sure just parroting your competitor is the way forward. There are different approaches and just mixing them blindly can’t work. Many of the things sound about right in many ways in Blue Origin. Keeping hours sane. Pay not stock. Careful design. Clearly something doesn’t gel, but just saying “oh maybe Jeff Bezos should be more crazy, and how about we set up an electric car business on the side” is counterproductive IMO.