Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

#211

Post by Bubble_Pop_22 » Wed, Nov 16, 2022, 4:38 PM UTC

inawarminister wrote: post #206

Bubble_Pop_22 wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So no, those guys are smart dudes. Von Braun was a very smart dude but he was making the Nazi salute and fawning over Hitler all the times. When he moved to the US he was fawning over Eisenhower all the times. Similarly this Friedman guy has 4 years worth of videos in which he fawns over Putin. Technical abilities and critical thinking in the social realm are 2 very different sets of competences. It's very rare to…

Yes and? They're still smart guys. To be honest I don't see why you anti-Musk crusaders bother so much, let people's accomplishments speak for themselves. Sure, go laugh at Musk's and other self-appointed Ubermen when they fail, but at least appreciate when they did accomplish stuffs. Better to fail a hundred times than not even try from the beginning.

When I decided to be atheist I clearly reasoned that if I had to believe in somebody without any evidence I'd rather believe in myself.

If the greatest story ever told and 2000+ years of compounding marketing and outreach had no chance of getting god in my brain and heart, I'll let you figure what are the odds for Musk self-promoting himself via bullying and cheap outreach.

> let people's accomplishments speak for themselves

Musk and all the other 2500 billionaires in the world have as much agency over their so called accomplishments as lottery winners.

When I am in SV/SF I have lots of fun acting and pretending that I am a believer brainwashed too. Musk fans especially throw the most bizzarre parties, only second to crypto-guys. Maybe they hope that the cult leader would show up. I got a private jet ride in a G3 because I "believe in Elon" whatever the fuck that means lol.

Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

#212

Post by bheadmaster » Wed, Nov 16, 2022, 4:52 PM UTC

nashashmi wrote: post #189

bheadmaster wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm talking specifically about publicly tweeting a passive-aggressive rebuttal whose only purpose is to imply "this guy has no idea what he's talking about", not about correcting people in general. Try doing that when your boss says something "stupid" and see how that goes for you.

I have enough leverage in any conversation, that bosses don't have much choice other than to entertain the idea. I use this "leverage" to build further reputation as the person who only talks in the benefit of others. But Elon has this "my way or highway" blinded racehorse mentality. He overruns people if he doesn't get his way.

> I have enough leverage in any conversation, that bosses don't have much choice other than to entertain the idea

So you're saying you can be passive-aggressive all you want and your bosses can't fire you?

Well, good for you. You've reached Dr. House status. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

#213

Post by sifar » Wed, Nov 16, 2022, 4:52 PM UTC

inawarminister wrote: post #206

Bubble_Pop_22 wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So no, those guys are smart dudes. Von Braun was a very smart dude but he was making the Nazi salute and fawning over Hitler all the times. When he moved to the US he was fawning over Eisenhower all the times. Similarly this Friedman guy has 4 years worth of videos in which he fawns over Putin. Technical abilities and critical thinking in the social realm are 2 very different sets of competences. It's very rare to…

Yes and? They're still smart guys. To be honest I don't see why you anti-Musk crusaders bother so much, let people's accomplishments speak for themselves. Sure, go laugh at Musk's and other self-appointed Ubermen when they fail, but at least appreciate when they did accomplish stuffs. Better to fail a hundred times than not even try from the beginning.

>> but at least appreciate when they did accomplish stuffs. Better to fail a hundred times than not even try from the beginning.

That still doesn't give them any right to crap over people. At least treat people with basic human decency or in the long run they won't give a crap about you.

If his behaviour continues like this, sooner or later, Musk will find out that history is not kind to him ... or maybe not.

Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

#214

Post by technoooooost » Wed, Nov 16, 2022, 4:55 PM UTC

baremetal wrote: post #139

SimianSci wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your measurement for talent is GitHub commits? Do private projects not exist in your version of the world?

Its a better metric than "I've never worked with her but i hear shes great"

Could you explain your reasoning, exactly why is this a good metric?

Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

#215

Post by runamok » Wed, Nov 16, 2022, 4:57 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #140

mcphage wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Elon puts a lot of focus on ability and skill over formalities and organizations I'm curious what this means to you, because when I see people from inside Twitter correct him on Twitter, with specific technical statements describing what's going on—and then he fires them—that seems like formalities way outranking ability and skill.

"I'm curious what this means to you, because when I see people from inside Twitter correct him on Twitter, with specific technical statements describing what's going on—and then he fires them—that seems like formalities way outranking ability and skill." I'm curious... do you not understand why this person was fired? If I publicly corrected my CEO, I would expect to be fired. I do not work for Elon, and I make this s…

I think you are broadly correct. However, recall Elon's takeover of Twitter was all about "free speech" so in my opinion it's a bad look. A "bigger man" would say "put some time on my calendar and I'd love to hear more". I value flat hierarchy companies where you don't just blindly kowtow to your leaders.

Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

#216

Post by nottorp » Wed, Nov 16, 2022, 4:58 PM UTC

wellthatsawrap1 wrote: post #113

pavlov wrote: post #40

I’m not interested in working for anyone who thinks it’s a great idea to send out a mandatory web link where you either sign a statement saying “I pledge to work hardcore and tirelessly for the singular product vision of our mighty leader” or you’re immediately fired. This happened last night: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/16/musk-tw... At this point he’s just actively looking to surround himself…

No, he's looking to get rid of all the bloat at Twitter and retain the engineers that want to work on engineering problems and not play at politics and activism. Good riddance.

> engineers that want to work on engineering problems

12 hours a day 7 days per week

You're welcome to do it. Sane persons don't.

Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

#217

Post by jerf » Wed, Nov 16, 2022, 5:22 PM UTC

runamok wrote: post #215

jerf wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I'm curious what this means to you, because when I see people from inside Twitter correct him on Twitter, with specific technical statements describing what's going on—and then he fires them—that seems like formalities way outranking ability and skill." I'm curious... do you not understand why this person was fired? If I publicly corrected my CEO, I would expect to be fired. I do not work for Elon, and I make this s…

I think you are broadly correct. However, recall Elon's takeover of Twitter was all about "free speech" so in my opinion it's a bad look. A "bigger man" would say "put some time on my calendar and I'd love to hear more". I value flat hierarchy companies where you don't just blindly kowtow to your leaders.

If you think this is about "kowtowing", you're still totally in the wrong headspace and completely fail to understand the situation.

Elon basically can't not fire the guy. It wasn't even an option, so criticizing him for failing to take the non-option is missing the point. It wouldn't have been an option for Jack, it wouldn't have been an option for any other CEO. You don't get license to speak publicly for the company just because you don't like the CEO.

If anything, sorry to the HN gestalt, this is a prime example of just how out-of-touch with reality Silicon Valley liberals have become, that they are so secure that they will be protected because they have the "right opinions" or hate the "right people" that they be surprised that they are fired for mouthing off in public at the company CEO. So disconnect from reality that they have a 180 degree wrong read of the situation. And this is not special. It is completely and utterly a mundane fact of life. This person isn't being specially persecuted by the horribleevilElon. This person is just living a normal life the rest of us live, and as I said, there are indeed good and sensible reasons people live this way. Anyone who is just shocked, shocked by this firing is very out of touch with the entire rest of the world, and I'm trying to help at least a fraction of such people reconnect with reality before this bites them personally.

Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

#218

Post by Turing_Machine » Wed, Nov 16, 2022, 5:30 PM UTC

mcphage wrote: post #85

zmxz wrote: post #57

Yes. 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…

> Elon's not someone who'll fire a person who is good at what they do. And if he measures that by "number of lines of code written", do believe that is an accurate measure of how good a programmer is at what they do?

> And if he measures that by "number of lines of code written"

I've seen a lot of people making that claim, but no actual evidence that he did that.

You do understand that "evaluating someone's competence by reading their code" is not necessarily the same as "evaluating someone's competence by counting the number of lines", right?

Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

#219

Post by AndrewKemendo » Wed, Nov 16, 2022, 6:16 PM UTC

aaomidi wrote: post #204

fdasfdafdasfdsa wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My poor immigrant Indian grandparents became millionaires as did many of their siblings and friends. They certainly wouldn't have done so with socialism.

They wouldn’t have needed so. Being a millionaire is only “powerful” if there are people in poverty. If poverty didn’t exist, then being a millionaire wasn’t actually going to be that big of an increase in life quality. We should seek to cancel out rent seeking behavior. The thing I hate about our economy is the amount of momentum money gives others while actively holding others back. If our economy was truly based a…

Precisely right

Everyone wants to decouple labor and life, when the actual way to do that is to merge capital and labor such that there are no people who aren't part owner.

The existence of billionaires means that at some point there was an unethical decision made to hold onto power and wealth instead of distributing it to employees

Re: Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

#220

Post by kaba0 » Wed, Nov 16, 2022, 6:26 PM UTC

inawarminister wrote: post #209

kaba0 wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sending rockets to space from government subsidies that could have went to NASA.. Also, was that line of code written by you or the CEO of the company you have never seen?

Eh, NASA would have wasted the subsidies on pork anyway. There's a reason why Boeing's Starliner is in very huge conondrum right now, while SpaceX and the other NewSpace firms are progressing rapidly...

It’s partially due to NASA having to pay for insurance as well