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> (beyond "it needs to be pointy") Here's a few very consequential decisions that were taken under Musk: liquid methane instead of liquid hydrogen, same engine

> (beyond "it needs to be pointy") Here's a few very consequential decisions that were taken under Musk: liquid methane instead of liquid hydrogen, same engines for first and second stage, full cycle combustion engine, usage of steel for Starship, and of course, reusable rockets. None of these decisions were close to being obvious. When you have hundreds of very passionate and talented engineers working for you, you'll be bombarded with lots of options. If you don't become a mini-expert yourself, you will start delegating lots of decisions, and the final result may or may not be optimal. Just look at Boeing.

achow 4y ago
These exact things are something Mr. Musk should not have any opinion on.
- inawarminister 4y ago
  Sometimes dictators are able to choose optimal policies, even with all the costs. And yes, most firms are command economies, after all. As CEO...
- origin_path 4y ago
  Those decisions aren't minor trifles which Musk inexplicably micro-manages. They are core to the entire differentiation between SpaceX and its rivals. He's an engineer, of course he's going to be involved in such decisions. Claiming otherwise is like saying that Steve Jobs shouldn't have had any opinion on switching from MacOS Classic to NeXTStep as a base for macOS.
pritambaral 4y ago
> If you don't become a mini-expert yourself, you will start delegating lots of decisions, and the final result may or may not be optimal. Just look at Boeing. I'm assuming you're talking about Boeing's screw-ups with 737 MAX. If so, you've got it backwards. The 737 MAX's design issues were precisely because the leadership (i.e., non-engineering management) wouldn't delegate to the authority of the experts (i.e., the engineers) and forced their own decisions on the project. They did not become "mini-experts" themselves, sure, since they didn't actually put in the effort to understand what the consequences would be, but they did treat themselves as "mini-experts", as evidenced by their "we know better than the engineers" attitude to the concerns that were raised by engineering during the development of the MAX.

achow 4y ago

These exact things are something Mr. Musk should not have any opinion on.

inawarminister 4y ago
Sometimes dictators are able to choose optimal policies, even with all the costs. And yes, most firms are command economies, after all. As CEO...
origin_path 4y ago
Those decisions aren't minor trifles which Musk inexplicably micro-manages. They are core to the entire differentiation between SpaceX and its rivals. He's an engineer, of course he's going to be involved in such decisions. Claiming otherwise is like saying that Steve Jobs shouldn't have had any opinion on switching from MacOS Classic to NeXTStep as a base for macOS.

pritambaral 4y ago

> If you don't become a mini-expert yourself, you will start delegating lots of decisions, and the final result may or may not be optimal. Just look at Boeing. I'm assuming you're talking about Boeing's screw-ups with 737 MAX. If so, you've got it backwards. The 737 MAX's design issues were precisely because the leadership (i.e., non-engineering management) wouldn't delegate to the authority of the experts (i.e., the engineers) and forced their own decisions on the project. They did not become "mini-experts" themselves, sure, since they didn't actually put in the effort to understand what the consequences would be, but they did treat themselves as "mini-experts", as evidenced by their "we know better than the engineers" attitude to the concerns that were raised by engineering during the development of the MAX.