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SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

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Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#261

Post by rsynnott »

4khilles wrote: post #249
rsynnott wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have heard stories like what you describe from some people but then you have people like Astronaut Garrett Reisman, Chip Designer Jim Keller, and AI Research Andrej Karpathy all give amazing praise to Elon and his companies. I mean, only one of these stayed more than five years; one only stayed _two_ years. And, frankly, if you're in a leadership position in a company, you say nice things when you leave after two…

No, both Garrett Reisman and Andrej Karpathy worked for Elon for more than 5 years.

Karpathy worked for Tesla for 5 years and a matter of weeks. So you're technically correct, which is of course the worst sort of correctness.

Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#262

Post by cma »

adastra22 wrote: post #122
jjulius wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hot take: The people you mentioned are hired to bring big-name cred to the organization. None of them stuck around (correct me if I'm wrong, I've only done a cursory glance just now), they all left. Eg, they're the "top tier engineering" part of the companies, and other employees (and I've dealt with these employees at Tesla in a past life, so I can attest to their terrible attitude) are the "mediocre build quality".

Might be generally true, but there are some major exceptions. Gwynne Shotwell for example.

Based on her TED interview about passenger travel on rockets being in service by 2028 cheaper than business class, I'm gonna say they might be doing well in spite of her rather than because.

Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#263

Post by [deleted] »

rsynnott wrote: post #261
4khilles wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, both Garrett Reisman and Andrej Karpathy worked for Elon for more than 5 years.

Karpathy worked for Tesla for 5 years and a matter of weeks. So you're technically correct, which is of course the worst sort of correctness.

[deleted]

Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#264

Post by CydeWeys »

uxcolumbo wrote: post #154
SCUSKU wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal anecdote is that I had an ex-SpaceX engineer as a VP of Engineering for a startup I worked for. And he was great. He is a nice guy, super friendly, very knowledgeable, solid manager, always bringing people into the fold, and technically very talented. The company he was the VP of Engineering for was an indoor vertical farming startup (which is failing), and he moved onto a new venture in the climate space…

Why is it failing? Poor management or not viable? Vertical farming seems key for our future.

Vertical farming is a solution in search of a problem. It's not viable and it doesn't solve any meaningful issues in agriculture. In cities, land is more productive when used for other purposes (residential, commercial, retail, etc.), and out in the country where crops are typically grown, space simply isn't an issue to the point that you need to go up. Indeed, way more food is currently produced than is actually needed for human consumption (most cropland in the US is used to feed livestock or turned into bioethanol).

Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#265

Post by b33j0r »

hikawaii wrote: post #254
b33j0r wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A real-life reusable rocket that lands back on the pad was an exciting project to be a part of, no matter if you were doing it in a virtual sweatshop. I could see being part of that ultimate goal as being a motivation to work for the aliens from the Simpsons (don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos!) But given the progressive nature of the projects and “for all of humanity” vision that was presented, I have always been dis…

They've only "cornered" access to LEO because they vastly outperform the competition in almost every conceivable category. That should get you a short term monopoly.

Yep. Yep. and Yeah… I didn’t quite succeed at making that sound like I was still a fan. I’d still work on these things given an opportunity. For sure.

I guess around the time some of these crunchtimes have been reported, I was in some other crunchtime too!

My bias: “hey remember when we sat around and played foosball for lunch? We actually got a lot done anyway”

Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#266

Post by adastra22 »

hemloc_io wrote: post #134
adastra22 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Compared to taking a $250k base and $250k equity offer from a startup No startup offers such high salaries.

at least one does (I interviewed and got a similar offer)

Guess I need a pay raise!

Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#267

Post by lostdog »

whiplash451 wrote: post #258
lostdog wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* Build something people want and will pay for. * Figure out what the product must look like early, and keep your vision consistent for a long time. * Dive into the details of the product, and try to get quality at the lowest levels. * Hire great and motivated people. * Remove roadblocks that prevent people from moving quickly. Those are the real lessons. My current job does all of these, and doesn't do the "Treat pe…

Where do you work?

Sadly I've ranted enough on this account that it needs to remain anonymous.

Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#268

Post by adastra22 »

cma wrote: post #262
adastra22 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might be generally true, but there are some major exceptions. Gwynne Shotwell for example.

Based on her TED interview about passenger travel on rockets being in service by 2028 cheaper than business class, I'm gonna say they might be doing well in spite of her rather than because.

I’m sorry but you clearly know nothing about what you’re talking about. Throughout the entire industry she is absolutely credited with SpaceX’s success. SpaceX dominates because of reliability, and the reliability stems from business units Shotwell manages, not Musk.

Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#269

Post by tekkk »

concordDance wrote: post #242
tekkk wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I understood SpaceX was founded by some brilliant engineers and Elon just became the poster boy with no actual engineering credentials. Undoubtedly he is business-savvy but it seems not that surprising managers who take credit for the engineers' work might thrive there.

Got any source for further reading? Everything I can find says that Musk founded it and was heavily involved in the engineering.

I based this on the intuition witnessing his incompetence managing Twitter. For a great engineer, he certainly lacks awareness that I attribute to either ignorance or being more accustomed to handling things in abstract - not in practice.

Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#270

Post by zamnos »

Yoric wrote: post #165
SilverBirch wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've learned to be super careful about what senior people say about other senior people. Because it actually reflects well on you to say nice things about already respected people, it's a free PR boost. It makes them sound generous and also knowledgeable. But, I've seen this happen a lot in big companies, someone will say "Well X is a fantastic engineer" or "X does great work" and my first thought is "Well that's int…

My experience, too. As a younger self, when I heard a C-ranked executive talk about X who's a "fantastic engineer", I assumed that I'd have to work hard to reach their level, without realizing that they may actually not have a clue. Now, when I hear a C-ranked executive talk about X who's a "fantastic engineer", I realize it's just name-dropping.

I am sure that's true for some, but I doubt that's true when a Google exec talks about, eg, Jeff Dean being an absolutely fantastic engineer. Now Jeff Dean being, well, Jeff Dean is one thing, but I'm sure there are engineers at Google who the outside world has never heard of that have done fantastic work internally.
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