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

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

#241

Post by that_jojo »

fabizeid wrote: post #201
tomhoward wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same Musk with the same employees I think I agree with everything except that. What I'm saying is we can't have everything that's positive about Telsa, but completely discard Musk. What we _should_ hope for is for the current version of Musk to become a better version of Musk - say, one that can build a viable EV company and help bring about a global transition away from combustion-powered transport, but without…

Why does it have to be the current version of Musk to be a better version of Musk? Why can't we consider that Musk or his type was instrumental to launch Tesla but at this point a different person is better fit to grow it? Maybe skills needed to sustain a company might be different than the skills needed to launch it.

Completely just to play devil's advocate, here: When has a major innovative company ever done better after ousting a visionary but perhaps somewhat toxic founder?

Maybe we could look at Uber, but it's too soon to tell. And The new management there seems earnest, but I'm not sure they're looking so hot from an actual business perspective.

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

#242

Post by aws_ls »

Nasrudith wrote: post #186

Really Elon Musk has struck me as honestly in need of psychiatric help - not in a derogatory way but a sincere one. Between the outbursts, shortsighted impulsive decisions, and well being CEO of so many different companies at once it sort of resembles some combination of ADHD and Bipolar.

I think, the problem is just easy access to twitter. We have seen so many downfalls on Twitter, due to irresponsible tweeting, haven't we? I think, its just that.

Before the "pedo" tweet, I never felt, any problem with his tweeting. But now, this is the second big gaffe.

A twitter buffer feature, could have avoided both issues.

But at the same time, I won't like him to delete his account. Kind of enjoy his tweets - and knowing that they are his (sometimes raw) thoughts.

May be we just need to forgive more. If a person wants to recall a tweet. What they tweeted should not be held too much against them, perhaps.

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

#243

Post by lttlrck »

chatmasta wrote: post #223
grosjona wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that there are lots of people who could do a better job than Elon Musk but they will never have the opportunity to prove it. The vast majority of people would know that calling the Thai cave diver/rescuer a 'pedo-guy' was a bad decision. Also, announcing that some funding was secured when it actually wasn't - That was a bad decision as well. To suggest that Elon Musk is irreplaceable is ridiculous. People use…

Tesla/SpaceX now are more like Apple before the first time it fired Jobs. In that case, he was most definitely not replaceable (he had to come back). So that’s maybe not the best analogy at this time.

However in his Stanford Commencement Address Jobs said “I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me”

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

#244

Post by akmiller »

fabizeid wrote: post #201
tomhoward wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same Musk with the same employees I think I agree with everything except that. What I'm saying is we can't have everything that's positive about Telsa, but completely discard Musk. What we _should_ hope for is for the current version of Musk to become a better version of Musk - say, one that can build a viable EV company and help bring about a global transition away from combustion-powered transport, but without…

Why does it have to be the current version of Musk to be a better version of Musk? Why can't we consider that Musk or his type was instrumental to launch Tesla but at this point a different person is better fit to grow it? Maybe skills needed to sustain a company might be different than the skills needed to launch it.

I've never bought into this, and without significant evidence proving it to be true, I never will. Removing the soul of the company is never good. I've followed leaders who were passionate about their business and I've worked for companies where there is no passion. Hard to commit to the latter!

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

#245

Post by refurb »

bayesian_horse wrote: post #70

Twitter is bad for you. Repeat that a hundred times.

Underrated comment here.

There is little to be gained and a ton to be lost with such a casual, public forum.

If anyone in a leadership position thinks “I should tweet this!”, the default should be waiting 24 hours before making a final decision and even in that case the answer should be “no”.

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

#246

Post by r2d2-c3po »

lylecubed wrote: post #196
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? There are billions of dollars invested in Tesla's demise through shorts. Yes, quite a few people need Tesla to fail. A lot of those people also own media companies. Musk isn't being hyperbolic when he says the short sellers "are desperately pushing a narrative that will possibly result in Tesla’s destruction." > what kinds of people it will take to lead the next generat…

Short sellers don't need Tesla to fail to make money. There's plenty of room between Tesla being worth 50-60 billion and Tesla being worth 0. 50-60 billion of market cap means that Tesla has to do some absolutely crazy things in the next few years in an increasingly competitive environment while they've struggled consistently to meet production targets in less competitive environments. They have some problems such as a convertible bond issue for almost one billion due in Feb'19 that only adds to the cash burn problems if they can't meet the $360 convertible price. Short sellers push a narrative because they want the price to go down, but they really only take the position because they think that the market has currently mispriced the firm and there is opportunity there. They're not inventing problems, they're pointing out that they're there (perhaps exaggerating, but that's for the people to identify if true or not with the money they put on longs/shorts for Tesla).

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

#247

Post by that_jojo »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #192
travbrack wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're struggling to meet production goals even with the staff burning the candle at both ends, and using a highly automated assembly line. What could they do to be more efficient? I'm sure Musk would love to hear if you have an idea.

>using a highly automated assembly line Last I heard the established automakers were basically laughing at the quality and amount of automation on their production lines. Has this changed?

From everything I'm seeing, it sounds like it may be over automated if anything. (sorry if I'm going against code of conduct, I'm not sure what the rules are on making the link-footnotey deal)

https://www.investopedia.com/news/teslas-hyperautomated-asse...

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

#248

Post by [deleted] »

simion314 wrote: post #198
speedplane wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they didn’t have hype, they wouldn’t be funded and they wouldn’t get off the ground. Hype is now an unfortunate requirement of any successful company.

But the big disadvantage is when the hype will work against you, there are many examples like the No Man Sky game that was a decent game but because of the hype it will be forever remembered on how not to hype the product, in the present the game has the promissed features but very few will take a look at it. I understand that a company wants good PR, but I think you need to keep it real, like if a dude posts a video…

[deleted]

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

#250

Post by Sangermaine »

Gatsky wrote: post #237
_bxg1 wrote: post #7

This was about what I'd gathered. He's been reckless and made some huge errors in judgement over the past year, but despite it all I hope he succeeds. I don't think he's a hero or a saint like some people do, but his endeavors are having a very real and tangible positive effect on civilization. Most chiefly, as bad as the climate change situation looks right now, it would be so much worse without the insane amount of…

Yeah I agree. Don’t understand why people are so pissed off by Musk, but seem happy to give a free ride to any number of cut and dried vile megarich dynasties like the Koch brothers or the crown prince of Saudi Arabia or whichever asshole owns Elsevier. Consider that these villains are quite literally destroying the planet, impeding scientific progress and manipulating societies for their personal profit.

You may be surprised to learn that the Koch Bros. and the Saudis do, in fact, receive enormous amounts of criticism for their behavior.

But I think with Musk the answer is that people respond extra harshly to perceive hypocrisy. The Kochs are almost cartoon corporate arch-villains and the Saudis are brutal theocrats. No one has any illusions that they are good people trying to help the world. Musk, however, has been presented as a Good Guy by both himself and a largely fawning press, set up as some kind of technology messiah. I think people therefore react strongly when, of course, this proves not to be true and that he's just another businessman, albeit one who does genuinely seem to want to help people.

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