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Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

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41–50 of 258 posts

Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

#42
I would doing some sort of very-low profile work to not get his attention ever, or anyone's attention whatsoever.

Kind of like Milton from Office Space (but not a complete deadbeat) doing something barely useful like "I make sure all printers have paper and help organize the yearly company getaway".

Oh boy, imagine actually retiring from a job like this, :).

Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

#43

His management style is not the worst thing about the guy. If all the legends about him were true (superhuman BS detector, genius level IQ, laser sharp focus) I'd be happy to be part of the team. Unfortunately, I think his main talent is the uncanny ability to overhype himself. He is lucky that a side effect of this ability helped him hire and motivate really good engineers. Thay might not be sufficient in the long r…

One thing that can be said about Twitter, is it is really revealing of how people are, rather than how their PR teams try to view people.

Maybe he’s playing 4D chess, but I don’t know if there’s a lot of superhuman chess behind signing a binding agreement waiving due diligence at a meme price. The man is a walking unforced error.

Given the downturn of access to free money I wonder what happens next for him (and other “innovators” in general , see SoftBank funds)

Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

#45
The guy might be an asshole and a boarder line sociopath, but I would still choose SpaceX/Tesla over meta/twitter. At least the formers didn't help unleashed the modern hyper-polarerized society.

The job better come with a premium for the foreseeable job instability though.

Musk also seems to demand his employee to devote their entire waking hour to the job and be constantly switching contexts to handle different tasks. Some people excel at that but not me, so I probably won't meet the bar.

Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

#46
When I was younger and didn't have kids, I would have seen it as a great opportunity.

My priorities shifted to creating a more stable environment at home while my kids are growing up though. Consistent hours, not missing their activities and events, etc.

I don't have any issues with working long hours towards a big challenge, I just value my time with my kids more.

Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

#48

His management style is not the worst thing about the guy. If all the legends about him were true (superhuman BS detector, genius level IQ, laser sharp focus) I'd be happy to be part of the team. Unfortunately, I think his main talent is the uncanny ability to overhype himself. He is lucky that a side effect of this ability helped him hire and motivate really good engineers. Thay might not be sufficient in the long r…

It’s sad because I want the legends to be true and I thought they were for a long time. Now that he’s showing his true colors, it’s clear that they are not.

Same. That would be fun to have a real Tony Stark on earth.

The guy think he is Tony Stark.

The sad news is that nobody is going to Mars yet.

Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

#50
Yes.

A big part of being a business owner is that you fall on the spectrum of being an asshole. A little bit or a lot.

It takes being an asshole to do large things. And people end up hating you for it.

The bigger things you do, the bigger of an asshole you end up being.

Quick, name me the leader of a large company who is not an asshole…

And if they are not publicly one, privately they are.

The traits of a leader requires that at least half of the people you are leading will disagree with you.

So yes, why not? I would be an employee hired to do whatever would be needed.

Shift levers. Pound sand. Write code.

And since it is a free country, I would negotiate or accept a wage that I think is good for me and my family.

Or find another job.

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