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SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

nytimes.com

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Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#441

Post by ThinkingGuy »

endymi0n wrote: post #350
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given this is HN, I'm just mildly curious about how people who knew Musk 15-20 years ago view him now. I mean, I know this is tangential, but pg had an essay talking about what a bad idea it was that Musk demanded Windows over Linux when Musk ran PayPal - I just got the sense that pg was never a fan. Do folks view this as "this is an ambitious, hardworking genius whose lack of social constraints due to his success is…

I think the success really got to him. As a (cured) ex Elon fanboy who used to like him way before he was widely known to a non-nerd community, I distinctively remember this interview around the pre-Falcon 9 times with him which is like Interviewer: Neil Armstrong says he doesn‘t want a private company like SpaceX to launch humans to tue moon because it‘s unsafe. What do you think about that? Humble Elon, literally c…

The impression I got from this article by his first wife was that his growing wealth and power, as well as being surrounded by similarly wealthy powerful people, sort of formed a feedback loop that just intensified personality traits that he already possessed.

https://www.marieclaire.com/sex-love/a5380/millionaire-start...

Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#442

Post by logicalmonster »

joyeuse6701 wrote: post #348
logicalmonster wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> His approach to remote-vs-in-office work is less that of a data-informed futurist and more that of an autocrat. Nobody can read minds of course, but I think it is smart to not always take people at face value and consider all of their motives in saying anything. Personally I think Elon Musk is probably strongly supporting working in the office for 2 reasons. (Obviously pure speculation) 1) Forcing an ultimatum is a…

What’s wrong with living life care free and restaurants? If they get their work done I see nothing wrong with a positive outlook on life and supporting the economy with restaurant dining. If someone’s productivity slips from wfh then address the issue sure.

> What’s wrong with living life care free and restaurants?

There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. That's what I've been strongly advocating for during the last 2 years. Go out there and live your life normally as you see fit.

One problem is that at least some people out there are trying to milk Covid-19. Publicly, they tell their employer they're too scared of Covid-19 to come to the office so they get to stay home. Privately, they go out every weekend and interact with people normally and live their life.

Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#443

Post by bena »

algoatecorn wrote: post #367
Hayvok wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> giving people Elon fatigue is his politics. > I really get the sense that people are increasingly getting sick of hearing from or about him. YMMV. YMMV indeed, because every conservative I talk to is seeing him as a hero who is finally speaking truth to power, and calling B.S. on the establishment (political, corporate HR, academic) narratives that have been running through the culture. They aren’t sick of him at a…

Gosh that phenomenon is just so familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it. There's definitely something in my memory regarding a no BS, celebrity businessman who rose to fame as a conservative demagogue. Ah, I'll think of it later I'm sure.

Well, absent a constitutional amendment, the highest level of office Musk can reach (I think) is Governor of a state or Representative (either House or Senate).

Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#444

Post by ctvo »

SpaceX now has an MO: Protect Elon at all costs.

250,000 USD paid to keep a corporate jet flight attendant quiet about alleged sexual harassment by Elon and now the immediate firing of employees asking the company to clarify Elon's views don't reflect SpaceX's views or its culture. There can't even be a hint of criticism of Elon.

Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#445

Post by JaimeThompson »

nsxwolf wrote: post #438

I can't imagine trashing my CEO and expecting to keep my job. Maybe that's a Gen-X thing?

Maybe they actually believed his statements regarding unlimited free speech. It's not backed by evidence but SpaceX does attract dreamers.

Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#446

Post by Jwarder »

jmyeet wrote: post #288
gfodor wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

I see this kind of comment a lot and it's bizarre to me. It echoes Elon's own views [1]. It's bizarre because it shows just how normalized right-wing views are in the US. Some highlights: 1. There are like 4 progressive members of Congress. Compare this to how many Republicans openly support QAnon conspiracies and other right-wing positions; 2. Anywhere else in the world, the Democrats would be a center-right party;…

I agree with your points, but I think you're painting with too broad of a brush with:

> They really mean they hate trans people and want them to go away.

It is certainly an issue; viz various bathroom panics over the last decade. But, at least in the tech sphere, most of the fear I've seen comes from Twitter BS and hate. There are vocal people who want to use "wokeness" as a tool to attack people. I can see how it would be easy to conflate those kinds of attacks with progressivism for people who are predisposed against progressivism from the start.

Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#447

Post by [deleted] »

endymi0n wrote: post #350
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given this is HN, I'm just mildly curious about how people who knew Musk 15-20 years ago view him now. I mean, I know this is tangential, but pg had an essay talking about what a bad idea it was that Musk demanded Windows over Linux when Musk ran PayPal - I just got the sense that pg was never a fan. Do folks view this as "this is an ambitious, hardworking genius whose lack of social constraints due to his success is…

I think the success really got to him. As a (cured) ex Elon fanboy who used to like him way before he was widely known to a non-nerd community, I distinctively remember this interview around the pre-Falcon 9 times with him which is like Interviewer: Neil Armstrong says he doesn‘t want a private company like SpaceX to launch humans to tue moon because it‘s unsafe. What do you think about that? Humble Elon, literally c…

[deleted]

Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#448

Post by hunterb123 »

toomanyrichies wrote: post #434

To those arguing that this letter is tantamount to insubordination and is therefore a fireable offense: “Insubordination (noun)- refusing to obey orders from someone in authority.” [1] Unless they had received direct orders not to criticize Musk at all, internally or externally, they are not guilty of refusing to obey orders. And if they had received such orders, that only adds to Musk’s burgeoning reputation for pet…

No post body was provided.

Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#449

Post by triceratops »

remarkEon wrote: post #49
uejfiweun wrote: post #18

Here's my unpopular opinion - good riddance. It's not a free speech issue because SpaceX isn't a public square. It's a company, and companies are top down. If these employees are at Musk's company, then they had better be prepared to play by Musk's rules, and they did the exact opposite, essentially leading a mutiny against the boss and sowing discord within the company in the process. SpaceX isn't an activist organi…

This is sort of a meta comment, but if you look across history the men and women who forced civilization and technology forward were typically gigantic assholes. I'm not sure what to make of that, and Musk definitely is an asshole, but that doesn't mean I don't root for his space company that's finally returned the United States to the stars.

How do you know there weren't equally capable non-assholes that the assholes pushed out of the way? Isn't that the story of Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison?

Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#450

Post by cassac »

rossdavidh wrote: post #337

I'm picturing Apple employees writing an open letter criticizing Steve Jobs and saying they don't want him to be the face of the company, or Amazon employees saying they don't want Jeff Bezos to be the image of the company, or GE employees saying they don't want Jack Welch to be tarnishing the brand of the company, or...just about any other big corporation. The CEO's job involves, among other things, being the public…

Finally a post I can agree with.
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