4 ms·

I don't quite think it is luck - but a weird second thing. Musk has a reality distortion field. I think he is a bloviating jerk but I know a lot of really real

I don't quite think it is luck - but a weird second thing. Musk has a reality distortion field. I think he is a bloviating jerk but I know a lot of really really smart and dedicated engineers in software and in more traditional fields like mech-e and aerospace who would rather work for Musk than any other person and are willing to take pay cuts to work for him. This means he really can surround himself with very skilled people who can distill his "fuck it, we are doing FOO" commands into real plans. What this tells me is not that Musk is a visionary but that a lot of shitty visions are nevertheless achievable if you've got enough smart people around you.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
pkaye 4y ago
So why is he able to get smart people around him? Its not like he pays them a lot or offer a good work/life balance in their job.
- renewiltord 4y ago
  Elon offers people a chance to operate at a true 100% on a thing that matters. Next to that, work-life balance pales. And comp? Comp follows company glory. Tesla engineers are rich, man.
- robryan 4y ago
  Sells them on the mission. Things like a colony on Mars and full self driving are pretty compelling goals for some people.
  - mecha_ghidorah 4y ago
    Yeah but I feel like "work on twitter" is way less of a .... shall we say noble/socially fulfilling job. I'd value working on sending people to mars (not to live, just to do a walk on it), it'd make me part of something historic. One day people would write books and make documentaries about the work done to make it happen, and even if I weren't featured for the entire rest of my life if I could tell people "I worked on the software for the Mars shuttle" or whatever and have them go "Oh cool!". Hell, even before it succeeds I think it'd have social capital with the right crowd: pushing boundaries to put someone on mars is a cool job.... Twitter on the other hand... "Oh I work at twitter doing software". That's.... nowhere near as exciting or epic a thing to tell people that you do. So he might have a harder time finding smart people willing to work for less than market rates at twitter compared to finding them for SpaceX and Tesla
    - s1artibartfast 4y ago
      I'm sure Elon will have a mission statement that will appeal to some people. Imagine a new form of news and communication that solves all of our social woes, allows people to be informed, and have constructive discourse. That would be world changing. I'm not saying Twitter could ever be that. But maybe someone else could be convinced it is possible.
      - mecha_ghidorah 4y ago
        > Imagine a new form of news and communication that solves all of our social woes, allows people to be informed, and have constructive discourse. I did imagine that happening once - I imagined the internet would lead to that. The state of things now is very different from what the me of 15 years ago imagined, in part because of things like twitter in fact. I now believe that social woes have significant parts that aren't just misunderstandings they are big problems that can't be solved only through dialogue. Further many of the misunderstandings are actually deliberate misrepresentations - how many people who are pro-choice have you seen making the incredibly bad faith argument that pro-lifers just want to control/punish women? (Note I am pro-choice myself, but that particular argument is a really shitty obviously untrue argument and I see it constantly and it really gives me the shits). > I'm sure Elon will have a mission statement that will appeal to some people. This I do agree with, but I think the pool of people that are willing to work crazy hours at sub-standard pay is smaller when the work is making whatever Musk's improved version of twitter looks like than it is for putting someone on mars or making electric cars mainstream.
        s1artibartfast 4y ago
        I don't think the communication problems are inherent to the internet but I'm sympathetic to your greater point. I think the gamification of communication on the Internet is one of the worst inventions, feeding into a lot of very negative neural architecture. Encourages people to seek quick validation from there like-minded peers, and encourages a sense of superiority people can only get from knocking down strawman. This is exacerbated by brief and content without any Nuance or resemblance to reality. In a lot of ways, Twitter incorporates the worst aspects of this. Reddit is arguably worse in terms of gamification, but at least it doesn't have a 144 character limit and tools to curate your consumption.
- awb 4y ago
  What would you rather have on your resume, Tesla or IBM?
  - dwaite 4y ago
    Are those seriously my only two choices?
- rtpg 4y ago
  Mission, and there are a lot of smart people in the world. Also, some people identify with him because he acts completely the same as That One Guy in the university who had studied programming before getting to the CS classes. I think that a lot of people also don't have to directly work with him, and there are a lot of assholes running companies. That being said, Musk's behavior personally turned me off from all of his companies' products, despite maybe 5 years ago thinking "if I ever buy a car, it'll be a Tesla"
  - abledon 4y ago
    >he acts completely the same as That One Guy in the university who had studied programming before getting to the CS classes. I don't get this reference, how does a person like that act in uni?
    - rtpg 4y ago
      Like a certain real gungho-ness and actual knowledge that then turns into their whole personality. Assuming they actually know everything the world has to offer because they figured a bunch of stuff out on their own in this one domain in the past. Someone who ends up getting something done, but in the most chaotic manner possible and with loads of unforced errors because they are not absorbing information from their peers.
carbine 4y ago
this is such a cynical take
CydeWeys 4y ago
The distortion field has been significantly fading over the past couple years. And it might be gone entirely soon enough depending on how poorly the Twitter acquisition turns out to be.
- fundad 4y ago
  I think that's the reason behind the twitter purchase, to control the narrative around him (among other topics)
  - CydeWeys 4y ago
    If that was indeed the goal then it's been going absolutely atrociously so far.
- panick21_ 4y ago
  Tesla is making record profits right now and SpaceX is achieving things no other space company has come close to. Twitter is basically a vanity project.
codq 4y ago
Reminds me of Bill Burr's classic take on Steve Jobs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew6fv9UUlQ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew6fv9UUlQ8

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

pkaye 4y ago

So why is he able to get smart people around him? Its not like he pays them a lot or offer a good work/life balance in their job.

renewiltord 4y ago
Elon offers people a chance to operate at a true 100% on a thing that matters. Next to that, work-life balance pales. And comp? Comp follows company glory. Tesla engineers are rich, man.
robryan 4y ago
Sells them on the mission. Things like a colony on Mars and full self driving are pretty compelling goals for some people.
- mecha_ghidorah 4y ago
  Yeah but I feel like "work on twitter" is way less of a .... shall we say noble/socially fulfilling job. I'd value working on sending people to mars (not to live, just to do a walk on it), it'd make me part of something historic. One day people would write books and make documentaries about the work done to make it happen, and even if I weren't featured for the entire rest of my life if I could tell people "I worked on the software for the Mars shuttle" or whatever and have them go "Oh cool!". Hell, even before it succeeds I think it'd have social capital with the right crowd: pushing boundaries to put someone on mars is a cool job.... Twitter on the other hand... "Oh I work at twitter doing software". That's.... nowhere near as exciting or epic a thing to tell people that you do. So he might have a harder time finding smart people willing to work for less than market rates at twitter compared to finding them for SpaceX and Tesla
  - s1artibartfast 4y ago
    I'm sure Elon will have a mission statement that will appeal to some people. Imagine a new form of news and communication that solves all of our social woes, allows people to be informed, and have constructive discourse. That would be world changing. I'm not saying Twitter could ever be that. But maybe someone else could be convinced it is possible.
    - mecha_ghidorah 4y ago
      > Imagine a new form of news and communication that solves all of our social woes, allows people to be informed, and have constructive discourse. I did imagine that happening once - I imagined the internet would lead to that. The state of things now is very different from what the me of 15 years ago imagined, in part because of things like twitter in fact. I now believe that social woes have significant parts that aren't just misunderstandings they are big problems that can't be solved only through dialogue. Further many of the misunderstandings are actually deliberate misrepresentations - how many people who are pro-choice have you seen making the incredibly bad faith argument that pro-lifers just want to control/punish women? (Note I am pro-choice myself, but that particular argument is a really shitty obviously untrue argument and I see it constantly and it really gives me the shits). > I'm sure Elon will have a mission statement that will appeal to some people. This I do agree with, but I think the pool of people that are willing to work crazy hours at sub-standard pay is smaller when the work is making whatever Musk's improved version of twitter looks like than it is for putting someone on mars or making electric cars mainstream.
      - s1artibartfast 4y ago
        I don't think the communication problems are inherent to the internet but I'm sympathetic to your greater point. I think the gamification of communication on the Internet is one of the worst inventions, feeding into a lot of very negative neural architecture. Encourages people to seek quick validation from there like-minded peers, and encourages a sense of superiority people can only get from knocking down strawman. This is exacerbated by brief and content without any Nuance or resemblance to reality. In a lot of ways, Twitter incorporates the worst aspects of this. Reddit is arguably worse in terms of gamification, but at least it doesn't have a 144 character limit and tools to curate your consumption.
awb 4y ago
What would you rather have on your resume, Tesla or IBM?
- dwaite 4y ago
  Are those seriously my only two choices?
rtpg 4y ago
Mission, and there are a lot of smart people in the world. Also, some people identify with him because he acts completely the same as That One Guy in the university who had studied programming before getting to the CS classes. I think that a lot of people also don't have to directly work with him, and there are a lot of assholes running companies. That being said, Musk's behavior personally turned me off from all of his companies' products, despite maybe 5 years ago thinking "if I ever buy a car, it'll be a Tesla"
- abledon 4y ago
  >he acts completely the same as That One Guy in the university who had studied programming before getting to the CS classes. I don't get this reference, how does a person like that act in uni?
  - rtpg 4y ago
    Like a certain real gungho-ness and actual knowledge that then turns into their whole personality. Assuming they actually know everything the world has to offer because they figured a bunch of stuff out on their own in this one domain in the past. Someone who ends up getting something done, but in the most chaotic manner possible and with loads of unforced errors because they are not absorbing information from their peers.

carbine 4y ago

this is such a cynical take

CydeWeys 4y ago

The distortion field has been significantly fading over the past couple years. And it might be gone entirely soon enough depending on how poorly the Twitter acquisition turns out to be.

fundad 4y ago
I think that's the reason behind the twitter purchase, to control the narrative around him (among other topics)
- CydeWeys 4y ago
  If that was indeed the goal then it's been going absolutely atrociously so far.
panick21_ 4y ago
Tesla is making record profits right now and SpaceX is achieving things no other space company has come close to. Twitter is basically a vanity project.

codq 4y ago

Reminds me of Bill Burr's classic take on Steve Jobs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew6fv9UUlQ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew6fv9UUlQ8