4 ms·

I'd say a big part of SpaceX successes can be attributed to Gwynn Shotwell

bpodgursky 4y ago
She's definitely critical for the the commercial success, and probably federal contracts. Elon contributed the "what if we landed the rocket?" moonshot ambition. Definitely need both.
- WalterBright 4y ago
  Elon contributed the company and contributed getting the talent hired and pointed in the right direction.
- LargeWu 4y ago
  Ambition, backed by a lot of money. He's certainly not the first person to say "What if we could reuse the rocket?". Musk's contributions can pretty much be summed up by "already had a lot of money" and "hired smart people". Contrast w/ the founding of Microsoft or Apple, in which the founders were the actual people creating their first products from scratch. Musk is certainly a big-idea person, but I think he is a prime example of somebody who was in the right place to get lucky at the top of the dotcom boom, which in turn rested on him being from an already wealthy family. His foray into Twitter, "how to solve the Ukraine-Russia war", and the Thai cave rescue suggest he's not quite the genius his fans make him out to be.
  - dhedberg 4y ago
    > Musk's contributions can pretty much be summed up by "already had a lot of money" and "hired smart people". He almost went bankrupt getting their first small rocket to space. He wasn't exactly poor at the time thanks to paypal, but he didn't have anything close to unlimited funds. He is a billionaire now because he succeeded, not the other way around. > [..] which the founders were the actual people creating their first products from scratch. If your claim is that Elon was not involved in creating the products, this is misinformed. https://old.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/k1e0ta/evidence_that_musk_is_the_chief_engineer_of_spacex/ https://old.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/k1e0ta/eviden... is the link I have handy. > which in turn rested on him being from an already wealthy family. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1005593651219582977 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1005593651219582977, "I arrived in North America at 17 w $2000, a backpack & a suitcase full of books. Paid my own way thru college. Dropped out of Stanford Eng/Phys grad school w $110k in college debt." > Thai cave rescue The "pedo"-thing was stupid and deserve criticism, but he was actually asked to continue working on the submarine: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1016684366083190785 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1016684366083190785
  - WalterBright 4y ago
    > He's certainly not the first person to say "What if we could reuse the rocket?" Of course. But he was the first person to make it work, which was very non-trivial. NASA failed at it for 60 years. From sratch? I don't think so. DOS was bought from Tim Patterson. Microsoft BASIC ran on a computer created by others. Microsoft didn't invent BASIC. Neither did Apple. Apple didn't invent the 6502. The Apple 1 was built from off-the-shelf parts available to anyone. Being a genius does not require being a success at everything. In fact, most successful people fail quite a lot. The difference between successful people and unsuccessful ones is the successful ones: 1. are not dissuaded by failure 2. learn from their mistakes and failures 3. try again and again The unsuccessful ones "learn" from their failure by not trying again. Or they quit before they start.
WalterBright 4y ago
Musk recognized her talent and put her in the right position at SpaceX. That's what leaders do.
- r00bot 4y ago
  Hiring someone great does not make you greater than them, though.
panick21_ 4y ago
People love to give her all the credit, just to discredit Musk. She was doing sales for the first 8 years of the company. Surely an important job, and she is of course great, but to claim she is some overwhelming part of the success of SpaceX compared to Musk is to much. Of course all the early people, Shotwell, Mueller, Königsmann, Bazza were all really important. Shotwell by now being the the most important. But there really is no question that Musk deserves by far the most credit.

She's definitely critical for the the commercial success, and probably federal contracts. Elon contributed the "what if we landed the rocket?" moonshot ambition. Definitely need both.

WalterBright 4y ago
Elon contributed the company and contributed getting the talent hired and pointed in the right direction.
LargeWu 4y ago
Ambition, backed by a lot of money. He's certainly not the first person to say "What if we could reuse the rocket?". Musk's contributions can pretty much be summed up by "already had a lot of money" and "hired smart people". Contrast w/ the founding of Microsoft or Apple, in which the founders were the actual people creating their first products from scratch. Musk is certainly a big-idea person, but I think he is a prime example of somebody who was in the right place to get lucky at the top of the dotcom boom, which in turn rested on him being from an already wealthy family. His foray into Twitter, "how to solve the Ukraine-Russia war", and the Thai cave rescue suggest he's not quite the genius his fans make him out to be.
- dhedberg 4y ago
  > Musk's contributions can pretty much be summed up by "already had a lot of money" and "hired smart people". He almost went bankrupt getting their first small rocket to space. He wasn't exactly poor at the time thanks to paypal, but he didn't have anything close to unlimited funds. He is a billionaire now because he succeeded, not the other way around. > [..] which the founders were the actual people creating their first products from scratch. If your claim is that Elon was not involved in creating the products, this is misinformed. https://old.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/k1e0ta/evidence_that_musk_is_the_chief_engineer_of_spacex/ https://old.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/k1e0ta/eviden... is the link I have handy. > which in turn rested on him being from an already wealthy family. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1005593651219582977 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1005593651219582977, "I arrived in North America at 17 w $2000, a backpack & a suitcase full of books. Paid my own way thru college. Dropped out of Stanford Eng/Phys grad school w $110k in college debt." > Thai cave rescue The "pedo"-thing was stupid and deserve criticism, but he was actually asked to continue working on the submarine: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1016684366083190785 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1016684366083190785
- WalterBright 4y ago
  > He's certainly not the first person to say "What if we could reuse the rocket?" Of course. But he was the first person to make it work, which was very non-trivial. NASA failed at it for 60 years. From sratch? I don't think so. DOS was bought from Tim Patterson. Microsoft BASIC ran on a computer created by others. Microsoft didn't invent BASIC. Neither did Apple. Apple didn't invent the 6502. The Apple 1 was built from off-the-shelf parts available to anyone. Being a genius does not require being a success at everything. In fact, most successful people fail quite a lot. The difference between successful people and unsuccessful ones is the successful ones: 1. are not dissuaded by failure 2. learn from their mistakes and failures 3. try again and again The unsuccessful ones "learn" from their failure by not trying again. Or they quit before they start.

WalterBright 4y ago

Musk recognized her talent and put her in the right position at SpaceX. That's what leaders do.

r00bot 4y ago
Hiring someone great does not make you greater than them, though.

panick21_ 4y ago

People love to give her all the credit, just to discredit Musk. She was doing sales for the first 8 years of the company. Surely an important job, and she is of course great, but to claim she is some overwhelming part of the success of SpaceX compared to Musk is to much. Of course all the early people, Shotwell, Mueller, Königsmann, Bazza were all really important. Shotwell by now being the the most important. But there really is no question that Musk deserves by far the most credit.