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I worked for Elon Musk in the early days of SpaceX
- nosmokewhereiam 4y agoIt's not your right to yell at someone.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- hamiltonians 4y agodidn't bill gates and Steve Jobs yell. seems to be common
- kenjackson 4y agoDomestic violence is common, but doesn't mean people should do it.
- Madmallard 4y agoIt has nothing to do with rights. It just has to do with consequences.
- stormbrew 4y agoThis article reads like an abused partner defending their abuser. This kind of double-sidedness is extremely common in abusive relationships, in large part because it's a really effective method of exerting control over someone while encouraging them to blame themselves for being abused. > If there are employees not aligned with that vision, he will chew them out and he will do it in a vicious way, which is his right as owner. Is it?
- xeromal 4y agoThis guy worked with elon for 1 year. He's says in the article that he didn't enjoy that style of management and left. Sounds like he's the perfect candidate for this topic rather than a yes man from elon
- kenjackson 4y agoNo one has a right to chew you out in a vicious way. As owner he has a right to fire you, but if I were a Twitter employee and he raised his voice to me, I'd be right in face at twice the volume. I'd have to get paid a lot more than a "competitive" salary to be viciously chewed out.
- sandworm101 4y agoThe guy has money and acolytes in high places. Quit if you want, but dont make an enemy of someone who can blacklist you. Just leave. Dont make a scene.
- kenjackson 4y agoThat just feels like a cheap way to live. Maybe it's prudent, but I feel like I couldn't live with myself.
- ROTMetro 4y agoRead Sun Tzu, live like a great general, pick your battles wisely, and make the cost worth the gain. You will make more of a difference and live a life of more power than 'trying to not live a cheap way'.
- kenjackson 4y agoIt probably makes sense not to work for someone who can destroy your life and is inclined to do so on a whim. The calculus in dealing with those people is apparently different than just about anyone else you'll encounter in life.
- more_corn 4y agoGod help us if he colonizes mars and has total control of air water and heat. He won’t stop at baselessly accusing you of terrible crimes. (Which by the way he has yet to apologize for, meaning he’s not sorry and he’ll make no effort to stop) At a certain point we need to agree that his bad behavior is not worth the vision. I would never willing put myself at his mercy. Too bad he’s now in charge of defining free speech in this democracy.
- Alupis 4y agoWe're all adults, don't like his style, don't work for him. It's that simple. Obviously enough people don't think his style is harsh or vicious, as described in the article, otherwise his numerous companies wouldn't have a line out the door of prospective employees. My take on the article was Musk drives you like a good highschool sports coach. Demanding, hard, unforgiving... and you either live up to the high expectations or you are weeded out. Which actually sounds wonderful... working with an entire organization that is aligned in thought and motivations, and everyone bringing their 'A' game. Compare that to your current job... Not to mention the guy in the article only worked with Musk for less than 1 year, over 20 years ago. I don't know about you, but I'm not the same person I was 20 year ago...
- agumonkey 4y agoKinda agreeing, but I have to say sometimes there's a thin line between sport coach and bad leader. You gotta ensure tact and fairness.
- Alupis 4y agoI think given Elon's obvious numerous successes, despite this latest frenzy of "Musk Bad", he's objectively a great leader. You do not get to where he is by being a bad leader. His entire job is leading, despite what people like to think (ie. that he's actually designing rockets or whatever...)
- mwint 4y agoI’d say Musk is the rare combination of a great leader, who also has the ability to learn arbitrary subjects quickly enough to tell whether he’s being bullshitted.
- agumonkey 4y agoFair point but I feel there's a large difference between his previous ventures and twitter, this one is purposeless and highly political. We'll see.
- 4y ago
- trentnix 4y ago> This article reads like an abused partner defending their abuser. You should read a few stories about working for Steve Jobs (or head to YouTube and watch interviews). This article is extremely mild, in comparison.
- Bilal_io 4y agoVery horrible vs. extremely horrible. Spot the difference.
- stormbrew 4y agoI feel the same way about accounts of working with most (if not all) modern arch-capitalists, trust me.
- xcavier 4y ago>> > If there are employees not aligned with that vision, he will chew them out and he will do it in a vicious way, which is his right as owner. Is it? >> Yes, this is the sentence that stopped me in my tracks. No-one has that "right". But more importantly, it isn't right...
- brindlejim 4y agoI agree with the author that there is a good Elon and a bad Elon. But I think Twitter only gets the bad Elon. At Tesla, Elon is producing EVs to help save the planet. At SpaceX, he is producing spacecraft to help save humanity. At Twitter, he is making the world a better place for unfounded conspiracy theories and Russian talking points, which he himself promotes. In the last month, Elon has claimed on Twitter that 1) the attack on Nancy Pelosi's aging husband was due to a dispute with a gay lover; 2) Ukraine, a sovereign nation, should give up its industrial heartland to a bunch of rapists and war criminals; 3) Taiwan, a sovereign nation, should subjugate itself to the Chinese police state. That is, Twitter employees don't get the visionary. They get an abusive boss who is also bad at filtering information, leaning into stupid theories, and willing to traffic with police states to forward his interests. Frankly, I miss the good Elon, and I wonder where he went. * https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-taiwan-china-ukraine-russia/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-taiwan-china-ukraine-... * https://www.vice.com/en/article/ake44z/elon-musk-vladimir-putin-ukraine https://www.vice.com/en/article/ake44z/elon-musk-vladimir-pu... * https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-paul-pelosi-tweets-link-to-conspiracy-theory-santa-monica-observer/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-paul-pelosi-tweets-li...
- woodruffw 4y agoI don’t buy the premise: it’s not clear to me how prolonging our dependence on personal cars saves the planet, or how anything about space exploration is going to save the billions of humans who live on Earth. It’s very easy to confuse objects of technical fascination with moral virtue, particularly when our world appears bleak. But Musk has demonstrated no motives other than profit and infamy.
- angelbar 4y ago1) Its better to let the fossil fuels burn in a central site to generate energy than to be burned in individual ICE vehicles. Not including renewable energy. 2) SpaceX is not directed to save people in earth, but humanity in general. There is a need to generate other organizations for save earthlings, but it is not SpaceX. -But Musk has demonstrated no motives other than profit and infamy-... Sure.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Animats 4y agoIs Musk bipolar?
- woodruffw 4y agoNo, just a jackass. Edit: Yes, firing 3000 people with lives and families because you paid an obscene amount of money for a company that you didn’t actually want makes you a jackass.
- Alupis 4y ago> Yes, firing 3000 people with lives and families Maybe we need to be more mature. Twitter was very clearly bloated. Laying off the bloat is pretty much status quo for major acquisitions. There is nothing unusual here. Are any of the other major tech companies laying off huge percentages of their workforce also "jackasses"???
- woodruffw 4y agoIt’s not “very clear” to this outsider that Twitter was bloated, not that the firings adhere to any particular “debloating” rationale. Edit: The approach Musk has taken to layoffs also does not evoke maturity.
- danielodievich 4y agoI think Elon Musk is trying to be Tony Stark. Tony Stark is a fun character to read about in comic books and see fly around in a movie but he'd be insufferable in the real world. I think he's going to lose his shirt at this dumb Twitter thing and maybe that will be a humble Tony Stark post-Thanos snap style rebirth...
- etblg 4y agoIn the comic books he's also an alcoholic. In the first movie he's a rich kid who inherited his wealth, is making a killing selling arms, and only changes his tune after the consequences of his actions lead him to being captured and nearly killed -- where he decides to change his tune and become a one man army, judge jury and executioner unbound by laws. He's really a bizarre character to idolize in many ways, the real life analogue is a rich asshole who makes people around him's lives worse at the same rate he's making the world worse.
- dekhn 4y agothe best way to look at movies is, "the good guys are really the bad guys, and vice versa". Thanos was right, Darth Vader really did bring balance to the Force, and the Alien from Aliens was really just a pacifist who was looking to maintain a secure home.
- Madmallard 4y agoThe vision of space occupation has always come across to me as really stupid. From many scientific points of view it is infeasible, and many philosophical perspectives on top of that. I get the idea of making your vision come true and treating every obstacle as a technicality, but not all problems work that way. Especially not ones that go really far against biology.
- rad_gruchalski 4y ago> really stupid. From many scientific points of view it is infeasible, and many philosophical perspectives on top of that. That might be true. But let’s think about it from a larger perspective. Let’s just assume that, however unlikely, we managed to survive next 800 million years on this planet. Once our Sun starts dying, we gotta get out of here anyway. For sure, the only end game for us must be to become an interplanetary species.
- blisterpeanuts 4y agoRobotic asteroid mining to supply robotic construction of O’Neill cylinders (giant rotating habitats) is feasible with current or near-future technologies. Eventually, over 100-150 years, it should be possible for millions of people to live in space. Should we do it? Sure, why not? We’ll explore the solar system and beyond. The human race would be able to multiply almost indefinitely, and develop amazing new tech, human like robots, medical cures, art and music, anti-matter propulsion, quantum computers… so much potential.
- beenBoutIT 4y agoIt'll be interesting to see how Musk handles negative sentiment regarding him and his IP trending. Stories about burning Teslas and Tesla wrecks trending will be a thing of the past. On the flip side, boosting the visibility of pro Musk IP content is an inevitability along with unfairly boosting Tesla stock and never-ending SEC investigations.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Nokinside 4y agoSounds like Bill Gates. He yelled and bullied people to get what he wanted (and he has admitted it). Steve Jobs was also part of this club, more or less. There is no denying this type of uncivilized abusive leadership works sometimes. It drives off people not suited to it, but results speak for themselves. Complete opposite approaches work also. I think it's tied to leaders personality. Asshole can't succeed with nice guy strategy, nice guy can't succeed with asshole strategy.
- timbit42 4y agoAlso Jack Tramiel with his Jack Attacks.
- scruple 4y agoI once worked for a man last name started with an A, who was lovingly referred to as A-Bomb and you never knew what would set him or when he would go off. Thankfully, he retired about half a year after I got there.
- agumonkey 4y agoWhich successful leaders used the opposite approach ? genuinely curious.
- TheAlchemist 4y agoWarren Buffett ! He's mostly an investor, but sometimes he gets involved in the companies - and sometimes he puts his reputation on the line - cf this quote from the time he became the largest Salomon shareholder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u7-UNSkr4o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u7-UNSkr4o
- _jezell_ 4y agoWell his vision so far for Twitter seems to be to turn it into an anti-woke, advertiser shaming, ad supported platform. I'm sure there are a few people excited about that, but I'm not sure it's as visionary and uniting as something like putting people on Mars.