This is patently absurd and seems like a fallacy of analyzing everything through systems. Systems always matter and systems sometimes matter the most but I wou

This is patently absurd and seems like a fallacy of analyzing everything through systems. Systems always matter and systems sometimes matter the most but I would reckon a majority of the time, systems don’t matter and focusing too much on systems leads to wrong conclusions like yours. Why does the average SpaceX employee try to do a good job? Think of the employee as an isolated piece. Some amount of it is intrinsic, humans like doing great work but not all humans are angels, and in a company as big as spaceX to perform well, intrinsic motivation is unlikely to be the root cause. No the average employee does a good job because his boss would fire him otherwise. In the case of SpaceX this is not hyperbole. SpaceX is known to have a typical brutal work culture synonymous with Elons “hard-core” philosophy, you’re expected to put 100 hour work weeks, get results very fast or you’re shown the door. It has been documented that even significant life events like birth of a new born are no excuse to stop working 120% in SpaceX. So the average employee, works because his boss would fire him, the boss works because he is under even higher pressure that his boss would fire him and so on you can climb up the ladder and you will realize that SpaceX is motivated because Elon is motivated and Elon would have them all fired the second he thinks they are not giving their 120% to work. Boeing does not matter to Elons motivation, it never did. Elon has his reasons for being motivated, he says it’s to reach Mars, but who knows what really drives a man, the fact is he has instituted a culture that expects excellence and dedication from its employees and employees are responding to that local feedback. My prediction would be if Boeing dies today, it will not slow down SpaceX one second, but if Boeing actually speeds up, then Elon would drive his employees to insanity till they catch up to Boeing or fail as a business. Boeing can only add value to the upside if they get their act together which seems unlikely.