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

nytimes.com

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

#161

Post by oblio »

khamoud wrote: post #158
oblio wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't even say they were a group, just individuals :) And can't you just accept that some people are good?

I don’t think so. I think it’s pretty naive to think some people exist without personality flaws. Everything people do is out of some sort of greed. Some of it results in good deeds others not so much. You volunteer or donate to charity because it makes you feel good, boosts your ego, and/or inflates your sense of self worth but you ARE being helpful in the grand scheme of things.

I know someone who is genuinely altruistic. She does things for other people cause she enjoys helping other people.

If you're consistently doing good for reasons which are in no way indistinguishable for pure goodness, to me it's the same. Call it "boosting your ego" or "inflating your sense of self worth". Some people just feel good knowing they've helped other people. I don't see how these people can be considered "shit".

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

#162

Post by kristofferR »

ritchiea wrote: post #154
irishbro wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't Roseanne also blame her tweet controversy on taking Ambien aswel?

Yes but Ambien doesn't have a side effect of gifting the taker racist views.

I don't think they test for racism as a side effect, so you can't say that definitely. I actually think it's very possible that certain drugs can have irrational fears and phobias/-isms as a side effects.

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

#163

Post by practice9 »

davej wrote: post #106
matrixagent wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"and they will inevitably have extreme personality traits" – I find that a pretty bold claim and don't believe it to be true. And I'd much rather settle Mars a few hundred years later if that in turn means that Mars will be settled by not-so-big-assholes than if it happened sooner.

> And I'd much rather settle Mars a few hundred years later if that in turn means that Mars will be settled by not-so-big-assholes than if it happened sooner. I haven't seen a lot of evidence to suggest that Musk is an asshole. He deeply cares about what he is doing but he also seems to care about people. He is sometimes impulsive and perhaps volatile when he's running low on sleep. I have never heard of him subjecti…

> He deeply cares about what he is doing but he also seems to care about people. He is sometimes impulsive and perhaps volatile when he's running low on sleep.

I think he is just annoyed by bullshit, human stupidity & bureaucracy. I mean who wouldn't...

People are too sensitive & overreacting over nothing.

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

#164

Post by thesz »

tomhoward wrote: post #127
matrixagent wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"and they will inevitably have extreme personality traits" – I find that a pretty bold claim and don't believe it to be true. And I'd much rather settle Mars a few hundred years later if that in turn means that Mars will be settled by not-so-big-assholes than if it happened sooner.

It doesn't have to be an argument of belief; real-world examples will suffice. Every person I can think of who was a profoundly influential inventor, scientist or company leader has had some notable personality idiosyncrasies. Think: Nikola Tesla, Edison, Einstein, Newton, Howard Hughes. I'm happy to hear of counter-examples.

Here's one: http://www.korolev-s-p.ru/sp11.htm (in Russian)

Sergey Korolyov, the "father of cosmonautics", when asked about his biography, directly instructed the writer to write about hundreds and thousands of scientists, engineers and workers that made conquering the space possible. After WWII, no less, to boot.

From what I get, he was very humble and humane. And he was influential inventor, scientist and company leader, all at once.

Richard Feynmann is one other example. But I believe you will find something in him you would consider idiosyncrasy.

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

#165

Post by practice9 »

skgoa wrote: post #137
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 kind of alternative universe people are wishing for. One where CEOs don't lie, don't insult heroes, don't cyberstalk journalists etc. Musk has only himself to blame for the pushback he is getting for being such a collossal douche.

There should be also a universe where journalists & bloggers are not on a payroll of respective industry giants. Sometimes it seems like journalism ethics are a thing of the past.

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

#166

Post by wild_preference »

matrixagent wrote: post #98
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…

"and they will inevitably have extreme personality traits" – I find that a pretty bold claim and don't believe it to be true. And I'd much rather settle Mars a few hundred years later if that in turn means that Mars will be settled by not-so-big-assholes than if it happened sooner.

Your comment is a good example of a trend that terrifies me.

People being so emotionally invested in personalities that they’d rather halt technology progress for hundreds of years than endure some tweets.

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

#167

Post by scns »

tomhoward wrote: post #131
skrebbel wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're right. But I know many people who went through burnouts and came out better - kept everything that made them great but lost a little of the obsessive edge. Musk at 95% intensity would still be a fabulous captain of industry. Maybe he'll actually change for the better because of all this.

I agree with that: it's been my own experience of enduring severe burnout and coming out the other side in much better shape. That's what underpins my point of view on this: if we were better at supporting talented-but-flawed people through personal transformation instead treating them with hatred and ridicule every time they misstep, we could have more great leaders and more great companies.

A crisis is a chance to grow.

Loosers like to celebrate failures of people doing better than them.

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

#168

Post by varjag »

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…

Musk is almost cartoonish embodiment of "entrepreneurial spirit", with his unremarkable background, eccentricities, outlier success and disregard for unions. In other words, he is clicking all the wrong buttons for political left, leading them on the trail of hunting for personal flaws (which he certainly has) and focused nitpicking.

So yes, these people would rather see SpaceX or Tesla never happening, as a "bad" person doing good deeds invalidates much of their worldview.

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

#169

Post by practice9 »

virgilp wrote: post #68
mdorazio wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is there something particularly hard about finding a qualified COO for Tesla? From talking to a few former execs at Tesla, yes: working directly for Elon.

Gwynne Shotwell seems to be doing that just fine. Surely she's not unique in the world - though I do agree that COOs that meet Elon's bar are probably extremely rare.

From what I've read she is not afraid to confront him on different issues. She is as passionate about SpaceX as he is.

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

#170

Post by oelmekki »

I'm surprised we're not discussing what seems to be the core problem from Elon Musk's point of view : financial aggressivity.

While his tweet doesn't say why he wants to go private, this article makes it pretty clear : he's harassed by shorters (people who speculate on price going down, and thus who will contribute negative and unfounded opinions just to achieve this goal).

Whether this is really his biggest burden or not, there is certainly something to be said about people who earn money because others are in trouble. In any case, seeing that people want you to have troubles certainly doesn't help.

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