No, I'd not work for someone who can't treat their employees with respect and some dignity and dragging them in front of a 100 million audience from a position of power is disgusting and petty. Berating them for the kinds of comments he himself makes on a routine basis no less.
Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?
71–80 of 258 posts
Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?
#72His 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…
I don’t get what people mean by this. I have mixed feelings about the guy, but vaporware? Are the rockets not real? Are the cars and solar panels and tunnels and Paypal not real?
Of course he didn’t single-handedly do this. Of course other engineers were invaluable in the process. But he forced Tesla and SpaceX into existence when everyone thought it was guaranteed to fail.
We saw people trying with electric cars and new kinds of rockets before him. From General Motors to Burt Rutan, none succeeded. Elon had a viable vision and pushed it like a maniac and now it’s real, and mainstream. It’s incredible.
If I can do this with a single project, I’d consider my life a smashing success.
Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?
#73Yes. Twitter is unprofitable. People working there come off as lazy and entitled. They openly attack Elon, not contributing anything tangible except "rich man evil, worker good". Previous management wasted investor's money. Culture born in Twitter is awful, it's as if no one is proud of their work and low performers are loud and toxic. I have no problem with Elon's stance, I don't even view him as narcissist like som…
You think Twitter is unprofitable now? Just wait until all the advertising dollars disappear because of Musk’s behaviour.
Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?
#74I think it’s become very clear that to many people that Elon doesn’t exhibit any special qualities.
The media blitz of his personal brand really made him seem god-like amongst technologists for while, but the media blitz is over and I feel we are beginning to see who the real Elon is.
I’m finding Elon’s style to lack any unique quality aside from being horribly extractive, relying on a toxic relationship with his workers that primarily benefits him.
Also he has a value system that seems horribly dated and more the result of his upbringing as a child of a massively wealthy family who never had to struggled with basic needs.
Overall, I don’t buy into why anyone would look to work for Elon unless they buy into the propaganda about how his latest personal investment will “save the planet.”
Hard pass
Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?
#75Absolutely not. There are too many reasons to list, but the biggest one is that he can't accept even the most neutral criticism.
One of the most important parts of being an engineer of any kind is being able to discuss the pros and cons of solutions. Working for a man that seems like he'd get angry and fire you if you challenged whatever idea comes off the top of his head sounds miserable.
Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?
#76His employees work crazy hours for not crazy money.. so base answer is no.
However tf I was critically motivated by a subject (think some device that would save my life or a relative) and I was ready to put in the hours, and he was CEO of a compagny contributing to this project, yes of course. He has a track record of building companies who succeed in crazy projects. (SpaceX would be a sufficient example of it).
And no, I would not mind working for a super authoritarian guy considering, precisely, that he's unapologetic of it. At least it's the "devil you know". It's better that compagnies that pretend to care for you but will fire you without a second thought if they feel they need it.
Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?
#77Yes. Twitter is unprofitable. People working there come off as lazy and entitled. They openly attack Elon, not contributing anything tangible except "rich man evil, worker good". Previous management wasted investor's money. Culture born in Twitter is awful, it's as if no one is proud of their work and low performers are loud and toxic. I have no problem with Elon's stance, I don't even view him as narcissist like som…
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?
#78His 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…
I was listening to Andrej Karpathy's interview on the Lex Friedman podcast. Karpathy said that Elon's superpower is "human engineering" and limiting "entropy" in large organizations.
If you trust Karpathy as a source, it seems like working for Elon would be the opposite of working for a bureaucracy.
Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?
#79No, there’s better cults to join.
Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?
#80Yes. 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 requ…
Having worked with people who built (and build) extremely large things - not true in my experience.
While the corporate landscape is conducive to sociopaths, it certainly doesn't require them.
So, yes, go find another job is the right answer - because we all deserve to be treated with respect.