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If you think the CEO of Tesla and Founder, CEO, Chief Engineer of SpaceX is a failure, I'm dying to know: What have you accomplished?

by memish 4y ago

threeseed 4y ago
Based on what we've seen with Twitter, Musk is one of the worst CEOs around. And you don't need to be an accomplished CEO in order to see that.
- memish 4y ago
  You're ignoring 20 years of Tesla and SpaceX? And the only thing that we've seen with Twitter is that it's at an all time high DAU at a fraction of the cost. So far so good. All of the doomsayers are just making predictions that haven't happened.
  - threeseed 4y ago
    I am saying that perhaps those companies succeeded in spite of him. And what we have seen is >75% of the staff leave including NOC, SREs etc. That attrition rate is really unprecedented and completely unsustainable. Update: Payroll and Tax teams have resigned. Cue the lawsuits.
    - dmak 4y ago
      > I am saying that perhaps those companies succeeded in spite of him. Wow really? You would really prefer to entertain speculative realities instead of just give credit where it's due? That's impressive.
      - threeseed 4y ago
        Based on how incompetent Twitter is being run right now it's not an unreasonable proposition.
- runarberg 4y ago
  As the saying goes: “I don’t know how to captain a giant cargo ship, but seeing one stuck in the Sues Canal, I can tell something is not going as planed”.
  - mrguyorama 4y ago
    Just like we didn't need to be devs at twitter to know 7000 devs were probably too much, we don't have to be the CEO of twitter to look at it's burning body and call for the bucket brigade.
michaelmrose 4y ago
Why shouldn't we assign that success to the actual engineers instead of the rich kid with enough money to buy the labor of smarter better men?
- alsodumb 4y ago
  Because the engineers wouldn't have come anywhere close to achieving their dreams without a rich kid who made money from Paypal and was open to spending it all on hard engineering problems instead of living a good retirement life. Tom Mueller, arguably one of the key engineers behind the success of SpaceX and designer of the Merlin engines, was working at TRW in a role not related to rocket engines before he was at SpaceX. He was building the rockets out of his garage for fun, until Musk convinced him to join him in what was considered a crazy idea back then. Lars Blackmore, the engineer who was key in developing the the control algorithms needed for landing Falcon vertically was working at NASA, where his work was in theory going to be applied on a future space mission of much smaller scope compared to Falcon. He was able to apply his research (http://larsblackmore.com/iee_tcst13.pdf http://larsblackmore.com/iee_tcst13.pdf) on a revolutionary reusable system that changed the launch industry only because a rich kid was willing to spend his money on testing what seemed like always failing rockets, instead of buying a new Yacht.
  - lapcat 4y ago
    This comment says more about capitalism than it does about Musk, if everything depends so much on the whims of rich kids, and everyone else lives or dies by those whims, including the engineers who are forced to sell their dreams and their labor to said rich kids.
  - n0tth3dro1ds 4y ago
    > Tom Mueller, arguably one of the key engineers behind the success of SpaceX and designer of the Merlin engines, was working at TRW in a role not related to rocket engines before he was at SpaceX. This is what Wikipedia says about Tom Mueller at TRW >For 15 years, Mueller worked for TRW Inc., a conglomerate corporation involved in aerospace, automotive, credit reporting, and electronics. He managed the propulsion and combustion products department where he was responsible for liquid rocket engine development.[1] He worked as a lead engineer during the development of the TR-106, a 650,000 lbf (2,900 kN) thrust, throttled, cost-contained hydrogen engine designed in 2000.
system16 4y ago
What a bizarre statement. By that logic, someone can't say Trump is a failed president unless they've become president themselves.
typon 4y ago
Film critics, music critics, food critics all need to be directors, artists and chefs?
- deleted 4y ago
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- deleted 4y ago
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kamaal 4y ago
This is HN, if this is failure, people here aspire to fail upwards like this. Who wouldn't? Most of us here hang out for listening to fellow hackers who have failed upwards.
- int_19h 4y ago
  There are different kinds of people here. Some of us believe that you need to be a sociopath to make it as a CEO of a large corporation. So, no, I wouldn't want to be one.
thrwyoilarticle 4y ago
I have not had a joke backfire that caused me to buy a company at several times its value. I have not fired people, cutting off their healthcare, during a recession. I have not made my family hate me. I have not lied repeatedly and without punishment in public. I have not been sued by the SEC, Twitter, and countless other parties.

If you think the CEO of Tesla and Founder, CEO, Chief Engineer of SpaceX is a failure, I'm dying to know: What have you accomplished?

by memish 4y ago

If you think the CEO of Tesla and Founder, CEO, Chief Engineer of SpaceX is a failure, I'm dying to know: What have you accomplished?

threeseed 4y ago

Based on what we've seen with Twitter, Musk is one of the worst CEOs around. And you don't need to be an accomplished CEO in order to see that.

memish 4y ago
You're ignoring 20 years of Tesla and SpaceX? And the only thing that we've seen with Twitter is that it's at an all time high DAU at a fraction of the cost. So far so good. All of the doomsayers are just making predictions that haven't happened.
- threeseed 4y ago
  I am saying that perhaps those companies succeeded in spite of him. And what we have seen is >75% of the staff leave including NOC, SREs etc. That attrition rate is really unprecedented and completely unsustainable. Update: Payroll and Tax teams have resigned. Cue the lawsuits.
  - dmak 4y ago
    > I am saying that perhaps those companies succeeded in spite of him. Wow really? You would really prefer to entertain speculative realities instead of just give credit where it's due? That's impressive.
    - threeseed 4y ago
      Based on how incompetent Twitter is being run right now it's not an unreasonable proposition.
runarberg 4y ago
As the saying goes: “I don’t know how to captain a giant cargo ship, but seeing one stuck in the Sues Canal, I can tell something is not going as planed”.
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  Just like we didn't need to be devs at twitter to know 7000 devs were probably too much, we don't have to be the CEO of twitter to look at it's burning body and call for the bucket brigade.

michaelmrose 4y ago

Why shouldn't we assign that success to the actual engineers instead of the rich kid with enough money to buy the labor of smarter better men?

alsodumb 4y ago
Because the engineers wouldn't have come anywhere close to achieving their dreams without a rich kid who made money from Paypal and was open to spending it all on hard engineering problems instead of living a good retirement life. Tom Mueller, arguably one of the key engineers behind the success of SpaceX and designer of the Merlin engines, was working at TRW in a role not related to rocket engines before he was at SpaceX. He was building the rockets out of his garage for fun, until Musk convinced him to join him in what was considered a crazy idea back then. Lars Blackmore, the engineer who was key in developing the the control algorithms needed for landing Falcon vertically was working at NASA, where his work was in theory going to be applied on a future space mission of much smaller scope compared to Falcon. He was able to apply his research (http://larsblackmore.com/iee_tcst13.pdf http://larsblackmore.com/iee_tcst13.pdf) on a revolutionary reusable system that changed the launch industry only because a rich kid was willing to spend his money on testing what seemed like always failing rockets, instead of buying a new Yacht.
- lapcat 4y ago
  This comment says more about capitalism than it does about Musk, if everything depends so much on the whims of rich kids, and everyone else lives or dies by those whims, including the engineers who are forced to sell their dreams and their labor to said rich kids.
- n0tth3dro1ds 4y ago
  > Tom Mueller, arguably one of the key engineers behind the success of SpaceX and designer of the Merlin engines, was working at TRW in a role not related to rocket engines before he was at SpaceX. This is what Wikipedia says about Tom Mueller at TRW >For 15 years, Mueller worked for TRW Inc., a conglomerate corporation involved in aerospace, automotive, credit reporting, and electronics. He managed the propulsion and combustion products department where he was responsible for liquid rocket engine development.[1] He worked as a lead engineer during the development of the TR-106, a 650,000 lbf (2,900 kN) thrust, throttled, cost-contained hydrogen engine designed in 2000.

system16 4y ago

What a bizarre statement. By that logic, someone can't say Trump is a failed president unless they've become president themselves.

typon 4y ago

Film critics, music critics, food critics all need to be directors, artists and chefs?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

kamaal 4y ago

This is HN, if this is failure, people here aspire to fail upwards like this. Who wouldn't? Most of us here hang out for listening to fellow hackers who have failed upwards.

int_19h 4y ago
There are different kinds of people here. Some of us believe that you need to be a sociopath to make it as a CEO of a large corporation. So, no, I wouldn't want to be one.

thrwyoilarticle 4y ago

I have not had a joke backfire that caused me to buy a company at several times its value. I have not fired people, cutting off their healthcare, during a recession. I have not made my family hate me. I have not lied repeatedly and without punishment in public. I have not been sued by the SEC, Twitter, and countless other parties.