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Proven track record gives you a really, really long leash. Only Steve Jobs has attained the rarefied air of being able to do whatever the fuck you want that Mus

Proven track record gives you a really, really long leash. Only Steve Jobs has attained the rarefied air of being able to do whatever the fuck you want that Musk has.

dmitriid 4y ago
- notjoemama 4y ago
  I recall Steve Jobs was known to blow up at his staff, sometimes seemingly randomly. He arguably created a hostile work environment. He also denied and estranged his own daughter. Let's not put CEOs on a scale. @kcplate Site isn't allowing me to reply, but I guess I can edit here? What I meant by scale was weighing CEOs or their behavior against each other. It sounded to me, and maybe I read it wrong, from the comment I replied to that Musk's issues were being levied against Musk with the implication (Their first sentence) Jobs didn't have issues like that. A better example of Jobs tanking Apple stock price was the partnership with Microsoft. At the time that was seen as Apple marrying the evil Jobs regularly criticized. So much for thinking different. But my point was the other things carried some form of risk and certainly didn't paint Jobs as not having character flaws. So I'm in agreement with you, he's human, Musk is human, mistakes are allowed to be made without, I don't know, "cancelling" someone I guess. Maybe it's just fashionable to pick on Musk right now? I don't know some people are so judgmental. I mean honestly, what does the average HackerNews user know about the nature of the Tesla engineers reviewing Twitter code? While it could be a problem, it could also be legal and considered above board. No one here seems to know the contractual agreements and why would they? Companies don't publish every thing that runs across executives desks.
  - kcplate 4y ago
    Exactly what is the point here? I’ve seen fast food shift supervisors blow up at their staff and know at least one person who is estranged from a child. Are CEOs (including famous ones) not allowed to be human. I have never met a human that wasn’t to some degree or another a shithead at various points of time.
    - Klinky 4y ago
      I think their point is exactly that, they're human. The whole Twitter acquisition seems impulsive, petty, and obviously was poorly thought out.
    - paulryanrogers 4y ago
      I think personal flaws can taint professional accomplishments. And the worship of these strong/genius people only reinforces bad behavior. Of course there should be some slack given for indiscretions of youth. No one is born perfect. For adults though, let's keep our eyes wide open and praise the good works--not the flawed people who do them.
- noobermin 4y ago
  billionaires aren't smart, they just had an easier spawn point and loadout
  - concordDance 4y ago
    Musk's, Gate's, Zuckerberg, other-tech-billionaires spawn point was about as good as any other upper middle class American kid's. If you exclude genes were they probably got a bit luckier than average.
    - yakubin 4y ago
      I can sort of see how that may be the case with Musk and Zuckerberg, but Gates? Is it normal in US for upper middle class fathers to be partners at multi-national law corporations?
      - acdha 4y ago
        … and specifically to have a company-defining early deal go to someone who shared a board membership with their mother? Microsoft didn’t even have a product when the deal went through (they bought a CP/M knockoff from a smaller company). Gates certainly executed well but most people wouldn’t have had the opportunity to even attempt something like that. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/05/how-bill-gates-mother-influenced-the-success-of-microsoft.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/05/how-bill-gates-mother-influe...
- mrdatawolf 4y ago
  Do you remember why he got kicked? He could miss big too.
- darkwater 4y ago
  Because Jobs spent 70% of his career without any sort of social media or globally interconnected world around.
HyperSane 4y ago
Musk's track record is more hype than substance.
- kcplate 4y ago
  True. Watching him shoot rockets into space from my backyard 3-4x a month and seeing a half dozen Teslas on the road every time I drive a few miles isn’t very substantive at all.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - slaw 4y ago
    I think SpaceX and Tesla succeeds despite Musk actions.
  - root_axis 4y ago
    What about FSD? Boring Company? Robo Taxies? Solar? Cybertruck? Neurolink? Mars colonies? Elon has had some amazing successes, that's just a fact, but judging what he will accomplish based on what he says is almost always a losing bet.
    - Phlarp 4y ago
      You forgot roadster 2.0 and the mannequin robot
      - viraptor 4y ago
        And hyperloop.
    - jlmorton 4y ago
      Boring Company is right up with Tesla and SpaceX on the success trajectory by lots of measures. This is a company that just started from nothing a few years ago, and it’s already building a massive transit project, and is in final bidding in several other major projects. They’re already building their own tunnel boring equipment. The company raised $675 million at a $5.65 billion valuation, putting it ahead of several S&P 500 stocks in market cap, closest to Alaska Airlines. To say this is unusual is an understatement. At this point in SpaceX history, the company had yet to launch Falcon 1. I think a whole lot of people are going to be mightily shocked at how successful this company will turn out. In ten years, when it’s clear how successful it is, everyone will pretend the idea was stunningly obvious and was only successful through public financing, or something like that.

Proven track record gives you a really, really long leash. Only Steve Jobs has attained the rarefied air of being able to do whatever the fuck you want that Musk has.

dmitriid 4y ago

notjoemama 4y ago
I recall Steve Jobs was known to blow up at his staff, sometimes seemingly randomly. He arguably created a hostile work environment. He also denied and estranged his own daughter. Let's not put CEOs on a scale. @kcplate Site isn't allowing me to reply, but I guess I can edit here? What I meant by scale was weighing CEOs or their behavior against each other. It sounded to me, and maybe I read it wrong, from the comment I replied to that Musk's issues were being levied against Musk with the implication (Their first sentence) Jobs didn't have issues like that. A better example of Jobs tanking Apple stock price was the partnership with Microsoft. At the time that was seen as Apple marrying the evil Jobs regularly criticized. So much for thinking different. But my point was the other things carried some form of risk and certainly didn't paint Jobs as not having character flaws. So I'm in agreement with you, he's human, Musk is human, mistakes are allowed to be made without, I don't know, "cancelling" someone I guess. Maybe it's just fashionable to pick on Musk right now? I don't know some people are so judgmental. I mean honestly, what does the average HackerNews user know about the nature of the Tesla engineers reviewing Twitter code? While it could be a problem, it could also be legal and considered above board. No one here seems to know the contractual agreements and why would they? Companies don't publish every thing that runs across executives desks.
- kcplate 4y ago
  Exactly what is the point here? I’ve seen fast food shift supervisors blow up at their staff and know at least one person who is estranged from a child. Are CEOs (including famous ones) not allowed to be human. I have never met a human that wasn’t to some degree or another a shithead at various points of time.
  - Klinky 4y ago
    I think their point is exactly that, they're human. The whole Twitter acquisition seems impulsive, petty, and obviously was poorly thought out.
  - paulryanrogers 4y ago
    I think personal flaws can taint professional accomplishments. And the worship of these strong/genius people only reinforces bad behavior. Of course there should be some slack given for indiscretions of youth. No one is born perfect. For adults though, let's keep our eyes wide open and praise the good works--not the flawed people who do them.
noobermin 4y ago
billionaires aren't smart, they just had an easier spawn point and loadout
- concordDance 4y ago
  Musk's, Gate's, Zuckerberg, other-tech-billionaires spawn point was about as good as any other upper middle class American kid's. If you exclude genes were they probably got a bit luckier than average.
  - yakubin 4y ago
    I can sort of see how that may be the case with Musk and Zuckerberg, but Gates? Is it normal in US for upper middle class fathers to be partners at multi-national law corporations?
    - acdha 4y ago
      … and specifically to have a company-defining early deal go to someone who shared a board membership with their mother? Microsoft didn’t even have a product when the deal went through (they bought a CP/M knockoff from a smaller company). Gates certainly executed well but most people wouldn’t have had the opportunity to even attempt something like that. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/05/how-bill-gates-mother-influenced-the-success-of-microsoft.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/05/how-bill-gates-mother-influe...
mrdatawolf 4y ago
Do you remember why he got kicked? He could miss big too.
darkwater 4y ago
Because Jobs spent 70% of his career without any sort of social media or globally interconnected world around.

HyperSane 4y ago

Musk's track record is more hype than substance.

kcplate 4y ago
True. Watching him shoot rockets into space from my backyard 3-4x a month and seeing a half dozen Teslas on the road every time I drive a few miles isn’t very substantive at all.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- slaw 4y ago
  I think SpaceX and Tesla succeeds despite Musk actions.
- root_axis 4y ago
  What about FSD? Boring Company? Robo Taxies? Solar? Cybertruck? Neurolink? Mars colonies? Elon has had some amazing successes, that's just a fact, but judging what he will accomplish based on what he says is almost always a losing bet.
  - Phlarp 4y ago
    You forgot roadster 2.0 and the mannequin robot
    - viraptor 4y ago
      And hyperloop.
  - jlmorton 4y ago
    Boring Company is right up with Tesla and SpaceX on the success trajectory by lots of measures. This is a company that just started from nothing a few years ago, and it’s already building a massive transit project, and is in final bidding in several other major projects. They’re already building their own tunnel boring equipment. The company raised $675 million at a $5.65 billion valuation, putting it ahead of several S&P 500 stocks in market cap, closest to Alaska Airlines. To say this is unusual is an understatement. At this point in SpaceX history, the company had yet to launch Falcon 1. I think a whole lot of people are going to be mightily shocked at how successful this company will turn out. In ten years, when it’s clear how successful it is, everyone will pretend the idea was stunningly obvious and was only successful through public financing, or something like that.