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

nytimes.com

311–320 of 377 posts

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

#311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could set more realistic growth/production goals. I’m not sure if it’s financially viable to do so, but the “normal” way of growing production from zero to several thousand cars a week is the pace that VW and Toyota did it - over say 50 years. This idea of taking companies from zero to massive within less than several decades of organic growth I think is doomed unless you accept a lot of burnout (which you shoul…

Where's the proof that would work? The auto industry has kept virtually all new competitors out of the market for the past 100 years.

The proof that slow organic-growing business has less burnout in staff than startup-mode business? I’m not sure that’s proven. It’s pure conjecture on my part

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

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could set more realistic growth/production goals. I’m not sure if it’s financially viable to do so, but the “normal” way of growing production from zero to several thousand cars a week is the pace that VW and Toyota did it - over say 50 years. This idea of taking companies from zero to massive within less than several decades of organic growth I think is doomed unless you accept a lot of burnout (which you shoul…

Where's the proof that would work? The auto industry has kept virtually all new competitors out of the market for the past 100 years.

yep - I think that is the problem. He has to push hard b/c if he did not the established companies would have crushed him by now. Slow growth wouldn't work. Its extremely difficult to gain traction in this industry today. He is also pushing the industry to change radically (and very quickly), challenging/threatening certain aspects that were considered staples (dealership model, the massive service revenue from frequent maint of ICE vehicles, parts etc ) -- this is a threat to the current status quo.

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

#313

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 sounds like an approval of moral licensing.

I am a big fan of Musk however I think that simply because he appears (and in many cases is) to be doing great things for society does not license him to also make the short sighted decision that he did.

full disclosure: I hope the company goes private and think it could do much better if it was not beholden to shareholders or stock market speculation. I think he wishes he never took it public and left it private like Spacex

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

#314

The article notes allegations that the Board is concerned that Mr. Musk has been taking Ambien as a sleeping aid, but instead of sleeping, has been posting bizarre tirades on Twitter. I actually have a number of American* friends who take Ambien frequently with the intent that it be a sleeping aid. However, they all commonly do exactly what Mr. Musk may be doing: failing to sleep after taking their Ambien, and instea…

I use it for jetlag. It's pretty good really. I guess people put up with the risk of odd side effects as it normally works ok.

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

#315

Edison, Einstein, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk... These guys have changed the World and they all have seriously strange, weird personalities - but they did change the world. Let's learn a lesson over here -- geniuses and industry disrupters are more often than not --- just weird and strange bunch of folks. Hence, learn to respect them and do what you can to make sure they succeed as Human innova…

I wouldn't put Zuckerberg amongst the others. He didn't invent anything and neither did he make an immense _positive_ impact on civilization like the other guys did.

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

#316

Edison, Einstein, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk... These guys have changed the World and they all have seriously strange, weird personalities - but they did change the world. Let's learn a lesson over here -- geniuses and industry disrupters are more often than not --- just weird and strange bunch of folks. Hence, learn to respect them and do what you can to make sure they succeed as Human innova…

This kinda sounds like objectivist kool aid. I should do what I can to make sure Zuck succeeds? I do not want to live in such a, er, utopia. Current state of progress is just fine.

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

#317
post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost 7 hours of sleep per night is more than sustainable. There are people who can get along with 5 hours of sleep per night without any impact to their health.

That is assuming that he does just that: working and sleeping. So I guess, the time where he eats and tweet is included in its work hours then.

Thats not terribly far fetched. I eat breakfast and lunch while working. If I had my own office I'd have a treadmill desk too.

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

#318

The article notes allegations that the Board is concerned that Mr. Musk has been taking Ambien as a sleeping aid, but instead of sleeping, has been posting bizarre tirades on Twitter. I actually have a number of American* friends who take Ambien frequently with the intent that it be a sleeping aid. However, they all commonly do exactly what Mr. Musk may be doing: failing to sleep after taking their Ambien, and instea…

The little sleep he IS getting isn't even quality. From the author of Why We Sleep: > Unfortunately, the current set or classes of sleeping pills that we have do not produce naturalistic sleep. So they are all a broad set of chemicals that we call the sedative hypnotics. And sedation is not sleep. It's very different. It doesn't give you the restorative natural benefits of sleep. https://www.npr.org/2018/07/20/630792…

It's a whole lot better than nothing, that's for sure.

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

#319
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that solely on Ambien or in combination with other drugs?

No combination is needed, Ambien by itself causes such effects.

Both tend to reduce you're internal "Maybe I shouldn't say this even if I mean it, it might not have the intended consequences" filter. Putting them together definitely heightens it.

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

#320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Would we rather that Musk had just never founded Tesla and SpaceX, that the world didn't have any companies doing what those companies are trying to do, and that we were left to be content with the previous status quo in the automotive and space industries? People have a serious messiah complex when it comes to Musk. Had he never been born, the automotive industry would still be moving towards electric cars. The fi…

>SpaceX has done far more than Tesla to push the rocket industry towards reusable launch systems but even then, had SpaceX never existed another company would have developed one within 5-10 years anyways. This seems unlikely. Up until Spacex actually landed a rocket, every other launch provider in the world considered it a ridiculous goal. The launch industry was concentrated around 3 groups, none of which had any in…

> every other launch provider in the world considered it a ridiculous goal

VTVL was a thing before SpaceX

> almost certainly heavily influenced by Spacex

Blue Origin was founded almost 2 years before SpaceX

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