Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 377 posts

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#71

Post by kentrado »

speedplane wrote: post #52
kamaal wrote: post #51

>>He said he had been working up to 120 hours a week recently >>Mr. Musk said he had not taken time off of more than a week since 2001 >>There were times when I didn’t leave the factory for three or four days — days when I didn’t go outside >>This has really come at the expense of seeing my kids. And seeing friends. >>All night — no friends, nothing >>But from a personal pain standpoint, the worst is yet to come. >>I…

You're thinking about it wrong. Working 120 hours a week at a normal job is torture. Working 120 hours at something you love is just living. The 120 hour/week estimates are likely over-inflated folk-lore, but still, when you have a passion for something and care, it's not work, you're just living your life the way you want to. Many say Elon long work-weeks are super-human, they're not. He's just loves doing what he's…

Also, he is the boss so it is likely just 120 hours of delegating tasks.

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#72

Post by _gbc »

Saying no to some things would probably help. He is on track to burn out or have a breakdown at the current rate, assuming it hasn't already happened.

Personally, I'd love to see him close or sell every company other than SpaceX and focus all of his efforts there.

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#73

Post by mikekchar »

speedplane wrote: post #52
kamaal wrote: post #51

>>He said he had been working up to 120 hours a week recently >>Mr. Musk said he had not taken time off of more than a week since 2001 >>There were times when I didn’t leave the factory for three or four days — days when I didn’t go outside >>This has really come at the expense of seeing my kids. And seeing friends. >>All night — no friends, nothing >>But from a personal pain standpoint, the worst is yet to come. >>I…

You're thinking about it wrong. Working 120 hours a week at a normal job is torture. Working 120 hours at something you love is just living. The 120 hour/week estimates are likely over-inflated folk-lore, but still, when you have a passion for something and care, it's not work, you're just living your life the way you want to. Many say Elon long work-weeks are super-human, they're not. He's just loves doing what he's…

I used to work those kinds of hours when I was young. 16 hours a day during the week and 8 hours a day on the weekend. No days off. I enjoyed it.

It's tiring, though. As I get older (50 now), I can't do it any more. I still over work -- because I really like working. A while ago I ended up in the hospital from what seems to have been a panic attack (that lasted a week...) It appears that panic attacks can really feel like heart attacks...

Stress is one of those weird things. It can fuel you, but at least in my experience, there is still a cost. If you're getting to the point where you are suffering stress related illness (like not being able to sleep), then you've probably gone too far into the red zone. It's important to find activities where you don't always have to be "on".

For some people like me, that's hard, but at least now I realise I have a choice between that and death. Hard challenges are fun, and I don't really fancy the death option at the moment ;-)

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#74

Post by pzone »

icc97 wrote: post #66
tomhoward wrote: post #37

But, he added, “if you have anyone who can do a better job, please let me know. They can have the job. Is there someone who can do the job better? They can have the reins right now.” I think this hits at the crux of the issue around the performance/behaviour of Musk and other leaders of hugely ambitious companies. And I think it highlights the importance of thinking about what kinds of people it will take to lead the…

> But when I see the hate and vitriol heaped on him, I'm compelled to wonder just what alternative universe people are hoping for. > Do we actually want Tesla and SpaceX to fail? This is an issue for anyone trying to change things, haters hate anyone successful and do just want them to fail. Elon does also though have a ton of fans (of which I'm one) so he does get the benefits too. But the haters don't seem to bothe…

> It's just the short sellers who could bankrupt Tesla. But that's their job.

Let's be clear that the thing that the only thing that could actually cause Tesla to go bankrupt would be failing to produce and deliver products as promised. Short sellers, at most, may speed up the clock a bit.

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#75

Post by yborg »

azernik wrote: post #50
Animats wrote: post #11

"Then he got in a Tesla Model S and drove himself to the airport. En route, Mr. Musk typed his fateful message." Don't text while driving. This going private thing is a strange idea. Sell Tesla to the Saudi sovereign wealth fund? The one dedicated to keeping oil a viable industry? Does he want Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud as a boss? That makes no sense. Softbank might make sense. Part of Musk's problem seems to be "O…

> Part of Musk's problem seems to be "Only I can fix it". Tesla desperately needs a chief operating officer. They have a VP of manufacturing, Gilbert Passin, who's a car guy, but he does not seem to be in charge. He's not the one living in the plant. There are people who have fixed broken production lines. Musk is not one of them. Basically, Tesla needs Gwynne Whitwell or her clone.

Gwynne Shotwell.

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#76

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

lazysheepherd wrote: post #48
tomhoward wrote: post #37

But, he added, “if you have anyone who can do a better job, please let me know. They can have the job. Is there someone who can do the job better? They can have the reins right now.” I think this hits at the crux of the issue around the performance/behaviour of Musk and other leaders of hugely ambitious companies. And I think it highlights the importance of thinking about what kinds of people it will take to lead the…

This. People apparently have a little self reflection, if at all. Let's get something straight: every person is a piece of shit, in some ways, granted some a bit more and some a bit less. Your project manager is a piece of shit in some ways, the new intern is, in her ways, your parents are, like it or not, in their own little ways. And finally you are a piece of shit, in your own distinct ways. But of all the pieces…

[flagged]

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#77

Post by rabidrat »

TomMckenny wrote: post #9
enraged_camel wrote: post #3

Musk may have made the biggest mistake of his career with that single tweet. According to rumors, Tesla's internal legal team has begun to calculate damages; possible impact from potential investor lawsuits apparently surpasses $1 billion. https://twitter.com/CGasparino/status/1030176495631839232

Pity that we've structured our world such that one tweet can so damage such clever companies as Tesla and maybe SpaceX.

There is an old Japanese saying: The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour.

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#78

Post by bumholio »

njarboe wrote: post #33
_bxg1 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't include the self-driving tech among the world-changing progress. Climate change is a pressing disaster for our whole species; self-driving cars are not urgent enough to be pursued with the same intensity, and are dangerous enough to deserve more rigour.

Automobiles cause over 1,000,000 deaths globally per year. Not to mention the number of human hours used to drive. Elimination of the need for people to drive and reducing auto deaths by, say 95%, I think would be world-changing. What ratio of lives saved to extra deaths while creating self-driving tech would you accept?

You know the answer to that: zero. In the court of public opinion, existing risks are internalized and heavily discounted while new risks are always perceived as gargantuan no matter how small.

It's basic human psychology, it's why some people prefer to drive long distances instead of flying, and why a flu pandemic is conducive to mass hysteria, while the obesity and diabetes prevalence, orders of magnitude more deadly, barely appears on the radar.

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#79

Post by emedih42 »

tomhoward wrote: post #37

But, he added, “if you have anyone who can do a better job, please let me know. They can have the job. Is there someone who can do the job better? They can have the reins right now.” I think this hits at the crux of the issue around the performance/behaviour of Musk and other leaders of hugely ambitious companies. And I think it highlights the importance of thinking about what kinds of people it will take to lead the…

> Do we actually want Tesla and SpaceX to fail?

Defenitely! I do not think it is good for the world to have even more concentration of economic power in the hands of the US.

I hope EVs succeed, and that private space companies start venturing to space in earnest. I just hope that other economic blocks are able to rip the rewards - ideally developing countries, including China and Russia.

We already have a terrible situation with most internet companies being american.

Economic power is extremely schewed.

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#80

Post by [deleted] »

danso wrote: post #28

I haven't been the biggest Musk fan but this profile did evoke sympathy from me, and felt far more honest than the persona he conveys via Twitter. I don't get how the board could for so long be OK knowing that Musk is as he is, and not putting a much higher priority in finding a second-in-command. What Tesla is trying to achieve is part personal genius/drive from Musk, but I would expect a huge part of it is good log…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN