Disclaimer: I work in the space industry for one of SpaceX's competitors. None of my work is in competition with SpaceX (totally different systems), but it bear

Disclaimer: I work in the space industry for one of SpaceX's competitors. None of my work is in competition with SpaceX (totally different systems), but it bears mentioning. I've also never worked for SpaceX, so a lot of what I'm saying here is opinion and hearsay. SpaceX does excellent work, and has an amazing track record for such a young space company. That being said, it's important to highlight that the 'absurd level of improvement' that we're seeing not just the product of good engineering management practices. Much of it comes as a result of some pretty extreme expectations placed on the employees working there. I've lost track of the number of people who've told me that they'd love to work at SpaceX, if only the culture wasn't so oppressively work-centric. These comments have come from students looking for full time jobs having previously interned within the aerospace industry as well as NASA civil servants and contractors who have been putting stuff into space for decades. The aerospace industry is practically built around overworking its engineers, and, for almost everyone in it, working here was a conscious sacrifice to be able to do some Very Cool Shit. SpaceX takes that concept and turns it up to 11, expecting people to eat, breathe, and live their jobs. The last thing I would want is a firm dedicated to propagating these ideals.