4 ms·

I can barely believe this man started a spaceflight company. He must have had some incredibly subordinates to pull that off; not only did they have to deal with

I can barely believe this man started a spaceflight company. He must have had some incredibly subordinates to pull that off; not only did they have to deal with him, but they also had to bootstrap spaceflight.

pydry 4y ago
I'm seriously wondering if this is drug related. I dont think he was always this erratic.
- zamalek 4y ago
  Specifically the drugs required to stave off sleep, and the psychological effects of lack of sleep.
- DabbyDabberson 4y ago
  That single puff of a joint on JRE definitely decreased his IQ by 40-80 points.
  - artificial 4y ago
    The one that he didn't inhale?
- jareds 4y ago
  Realizing you may have thrown away billions has a way of adding stress.
  - InitialLastName 4y ago
    He didn't throw it away, he's working on donating it to improving global public discourse by eliminating Twitter.
- Animats 4y ago
  Up until he was seen smoking pot, he seemed to be doing OK. Since then, he's been weird.
  - pmoriarty 4y ago
    Did he only smoke pot, or anything else?
- malcolmgreaves 4y ago
  He's always had an outsized ego, a lot of money from his family that masked his individual success, and, up until now, was successful at cosplaying an engineer. Good people tend to give others the benefit of the doubt. My personal point of no return is when those children were trapped in a cave, and Elon musk came in to turn that crisis situation into a publicity stunt to further his engineer cosplay.
  - googlryas 4y ago
    How rich was his family, and how many families are as rich or richer than that in the world?
- mr90210 4y ago
  If you read his Ashlee Vance about him, you’ll understand that he’s always had this character on him. The biggest difference is that what he does no longer stays inside Spacex or Tesla.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- cwkoss 4y ago
  Elon recently tweeted about amphetamines and psychedelics. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1591850617462738946 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1591850617462738946
- jeffskiling 4y ago
badwolf 4y ago
I think a big part of SpaceX successes are due to Elon letting Gwynn Shotwell manage the company.
- Kon-Peki 4y ago
  Apparently when they first met, she gave him a dressing down and told him a bunch of things he needed to do to be successful. He then tracked her down and hired her to do all the things.
  - badwolf 4y ago
    He's got a mega case of "George Lucas Syndrome" it seems. He needs someone who can tell him "No."
    - Kon-Peki 4y ago
      You have to wonder: if he was starting SpaceX now and had the same interaction with Shotwell now, would he hire her? I doubt it.
  - jvanderbot 4y ago
    Right, you don't build a spaceflight / rocket company in a vacuum, or from scratch as a software engineer. He poached top talent and got the job done from the bank and his twitter account. Not that I'm knocking that (it worked!), but the "Elon is a great engineer" trope is questionable. Look: http://larsblackmore.com/ http://larsblackmore.com/ That's the kind of person who makes spacex successful.
    - makestuff 4y ago
      Unrelated but I wish the market/VC/wallstreet put more value into hardware. I know why they never will (lower margins and harder to scale) but as an engineer I would much rather work on something like space ships or automation in robotics over just another internal reporting service that is being rebuilt just to deliver a report in 1 hour instead of 1 day.
booleandilemma 4y ago
It might be that he's alienated all of the competent people who have helped him so far and now there's no one left for him to take advantage of.
dna_polymerase 4y ago
I think he devolved into this state over time. Back when he started SpaceX he had no Twitter, no mob of fans that worship the ground he walks on and of course he wasn't THAT rich. I don't think any of this is healthy for a human in the long term.
Merad 4y ago
I'm starting to think that Elon has really bought into the myth of his own genius (i.e. that he's something like a real life Tony Stark). That didn't really exist until maybe 8-10 years ago.
gizmo 4y ago
His ability to attract top tier talent and work them hard is second to none. And frankly, many great engineers want to work hard and want to work with other great engineers who want to work hard on something that matters for society. That rules out most Silicon Valley startups. Electric cars and SpaceX are intrinsically cool to work on, but it remains to be seen whether working on "Twitter 2.0" will be interesting enough for Elon to attract enough talent.
- computerdork 4y ago
  Agree with your sentiment, and think Elon did miscalculate here. Because, yes, how much innovation is left in social media company? Maybe some, but nothing compared to changing how the world drives and uses fossil fuels, or sending people to Mars. I still think Elon is a brilliant person who (along with teams of other brilliant people) has accomplished incredible things. But as others are saying, think in this case, his ego got the better of him. I'm a software dev, and there is little chance I'd kill myself to build a different version of Twitter.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

pydry 4y ago

I'm seriously wondering if this is drug related. I dont think he was always this erratic.

zamalek 4y ago
Specifically the drugs required to stave off sleep, and the psychological effects of lack of sleep.
DabbyDabberson 4y ago
That single puff of a joint on JRE definitely decreased his IQ by 40-80 points.
- artificial 4y ago
  The one that he didn't inhale?
jareds 4y ago
Realizing you may have thrown away billions has a way of adding stress.
- InitialLastName 4y ago
  He didn't throw it away, he's working on donating it to improving global public discourse by eliminating Twitter.
Animats 4y ago
Up until he was seen smoking pot, he seemed to be doing OK. Since then, he's been weird.
- pmoriarty 4y ago
  Did he only smoke pot, or anything else?
malcolmgreaves 4y ago
He's always had an outsized ego, a lot of money from his family that masked his individual success, and, up until now, was successful at cosplaying an engineer. Good people tend to give others the benefit of the doubt. My personal point of no return is when those children were trapped in a cave, and Elon musk came in to turn that crisis situation into a publicity stunt to further his engineer cosplay.
- googlryas 4y ago
  How rich was his family, and how many families are as rich or richer than that in the world?
mr90210 4y ago
If you read his Ashlee Vance about him, you’ll understand that he’s always had this character on him. The biggest difference is that what he does no longer stays inside Spacex or Tesla.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
cwkoss 4y ago
Elon recently tweeted about amphetamines and psychedelics. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1591850617462738946 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1591850617462738946
jeffskiling 4y ago

badwolf 4y ago

I think a big part of SpaceX successes are due to Elon letting Gwynn Shotwell manage the company.

Kon-Peki 4y ago
Apparently when they first met, she gave him a dressing down and told him a bunch of things he needed to do to be successful. He then tracked her down and hired her to do all the things.
- badwolf 4y ago
  He's got a mega case of "George Lucas Syndrome" it seems. He needs someone who can tell him "No."
  - Kon-Peki 4y ago
    You have to wonder: if he was starting SpaceX now and had the same interaction with Shotwell now, would he hire her? I doubt it.
- jvanderbot 4y ago
  Right, you don't build a spaceflight / rocket company in a vacuum, or from scratch as a software engineer. He poached top talent and got the job done from the bank and his twitter account. Not that I'm knocking that (it worked!), but the "Elon is a great engineer" trope is questionable. Look: http://larsblackmore.com/ http://larsblackmore.com/ That's the kind of person who makes spacex successful.
  - makestuff 4y ago
    Unrelated but I wish the market/VC/wallstreet put more value into hardware. I know why they never will (lower margins and harder to scale) but as an engineer I would much rather work on something like space ships or automation in robotics over just another internal reporting service that is being rebuilt just to deliver a report in 1 hour instead of 1 day.

booleandilemma 4y ago

It might be that he's alienated all of the competent people who have helped him so far and now there's no one left for him to take advantage of.

dna_polymerase 4y ago

I think he devolved into this state over time. Back when he started SpaceX he had no Twitter, no mob of fans that worship the ground he walks on and of course he wasn't THAT rich. I don't think any of this is healthy for a human in the long term.

Merad 4y ago

I'm starting to think that Elon has really bought into the myth of his own genius (i.e. that he's something like a real life Tony Stark). That didn't really exist until maybe 8-10 years ago.

gizmo 4y ago

His ability to attract top tier talent and work them hard is second to none. And frankly, many great engineers want to work hard and want to work with other great engineers who want to work hard on something that matters for society. That rules out most Silicon Valley startups. Electric cars and SpaceX are intrinsically cool to work on, but it remains to be seen whether working on "Twitter 2.0" will be interesting enough for Elon to attract enough talent.

computerdork 4y ago
Agree with your sentiment, and think Elon did miscalculate here. Because, yes, how much innovation is left in social media company? Maybe some, but nothing compared to changing how the world drives and uses fossil fuels, or sending people to Mars. I still think Elon is a brilliant person who (along with teams of other brilliant people) has accomplished incredible things. But as others are saying, think in this case, his ego got the better of him. I'm a software dev, and there is little chance I'd kill myself to build a different version of Twitter.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]