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An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”

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Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”

#51

Post by jsjohnst »

throw2016 wrote: post #47
jsjohnst wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of what you mention is wrong for me, and I'm not remotely of the paygrade of someone like Elon Musk. If you think Elon Musk spends 2-3 hours per day on eating, then I'm not sure what I can say further.

I doubt food magically appears on your plate? You seem to have left out the 'Organizing food' part of the eating entry above which includes the time required to get the food. You either have to source food from markets and cook it, have it cooked, eat at a restaurant or order out, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. All this takes time as does time to actually eat the food. If you have a family multiply the time require…

You don't think someone with the net worth of Elon Musk and his focus on productivity doesn't have assistants for that? Really!?

Even still, I source my own food, cook it, and eat it three times a day and don't spend 3hrs/day every day doing so (and those who know me know I cook pretty fancy meals).

Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”

#52

Post by [deleted] »

CADTroy wrote: post #2

I am definitely in favour of the notion of avoiding "management silos" but I would echo the sentiment left at the end that it seems to be much easier said than done in practice. "you can talk directly to a VP in another dept., you can talk to me, you can talk to anyone without anyone else's permission." I imagine someone in such a high position would then receive an influx of e-mails to the point where it is counter…

[deleted]

Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”

#53

Post by vidarh »

throw2016 wrote: post #47
jsjohnst wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of what you mention is wrong for me, and I'm not remotely of the paygrade of someone like Elon Musk. If you think Elon Musk spends 2-3 hours per day on eating, then I'm not sure what I can say further.

I doubt food magically appears on your plate? You seem to have left out the 'Organizing food' part of the eating entry above which includes the time required to get the food. You either have to source food from markets and cook it, have it cooked, eat at a restaurant or order out, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. All this takes time as does time to actually eat the food. If you have a family multiply the time require…

In the past I've seen articles claiming Musk works while spending time with his kids, while they are attended by nannies. I doubt he sources his own food.

I still question those numbers, and even more so whether or not he can work effectively for that amount of time, though.

Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”

#54

Post by throw2016 »

DanBC wrote: post #49
throw2016 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt food magically appears on your plate? You seem to have left out the 'Organizing food' part of the eating entry above which includes the time required to get the food. You either have to source food from markets and cook it, have it cooked, eat at a restaurant or order out, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. All this takes time as does time to actually eat the food. If you have a family multiply the time require…

Very rich people don't need to do any of that. They hire kitchen staff who'll do everything but eat the food.

The original comment is about privilege and the average person. It explicitly states if you have people taking care of things for you, you get more time.

That's why working interrupted is a privilege, as other people take care of necessities for you. Elon musk working 14 hours is not anything special if he has people doing things for him, the average person does not have this privilege and anyone with similar privilege can do the same thing.

Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”

#55

Post by jsjohnst »

vidarh wrote: post #53
throw2016 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt food magically appears on your plate? You seem to have left out the 'Organizing food' part of the eating entry above which includes the time required to get the food. You either have to source food from markets and cook it, have it cooked, eat at a restaurant or order out, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. All this takes time as does time to actually eat the food. If you have a family multiply the time require…

In the past I've seen articles claiming Musk works while spending time with his kids, while they are attended by nannies. I doubt he sources his own food. I still question those numbers, and even more so whether or not he can work effectively for that amount of time, though.

> I still question those numbers, and even more so whether or not he can work effectively for that amount of time, though.

I agree completely with you here, the numbers are obviously padded vs what many normally think is "work". But the reality is that many actually work far more hours per day than they realize if the use a similar definition of "work" as what's used for Musk's number here. How many of us lay in bed thinking about a tough work problem? While quickly snarfing down food sitting at your desk, are you not reading emails or similar? Do you go to networking events and talk business? That's all "work" technically if you're being liberal with the definition (and honestly, it's not unreasonable to call that "work").

Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”

#56

Post by Pica_soO »

hacker_9 wrote: post #3

"Musk works about 100 hours per week at the electric carmaker" 7 / 100 = 14.3 hours a day. Or 100 / 5 = 20 hours a day. Does he not require food then? Or any non-work activities? Talk about hyperbole.

The lights in comrade muskovices office never go out. He is watching out for us, as we sleep!

I sometimes wonder, whether such a hyped personality could be completely synthesized. Just a actor and a really good propaganda show. And if all those morons going along for the ride, would learn from that being revealed.

Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”

#57

Post by danpalmer »

Vinnl wrote: post #48

One other Musk policy that sounded really well (I haven't experienced it actually implemented yet, but I try to keep myself to it) is to avoid non-common acronyms: https://twitter.com/davejohnson/status/602951117413216256 Starting at a company and having to come to grasp with tens of acronyms before even knowing what the thing they stand for does seriously harms your ramp-up speed, I think.

We've suffered a little from this and therefore put a lot of effort into stopping and using full terms, with all team members responsible for calling out use of acronyms. Anecdotally, seeing new team members being onboarded before and after the push, I think it's making a solid difference.

Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”

#58

Post by dkersten »

cr1895 wrote: post #17
joshribakoff wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often start at 7am and go until 10pm. My girlfriend makes me food and brings my caffeine. I have no time for "non work activities"though. I'll be in bed watching Netflix but really working on my laptop. Even when I have to goto the grocery store my mind is always on work. Being a remote employee, the line is blurred. If I'm out and about but all I can do is daydream about a new algorithm, I consider that working.

I mean this without any intention of belittling or suggestion that you should do otherwise, but why? Not that you need justify anything to me, of course. It's so fundamentally opposite to my experience, and I'm curious about what's driving you to work like this.

In my personaly anecdotal experience, it eventulally leads to burnout, health and relationship problems. After doing two startups and working way too much for way too little, I now strongly believe in a healthy work-life balance. Hell, I’m looking at reducing my worked hours (for less pay) because I now value my non-work free time much much more than I did before.

But.. to each thir own, I suppose.

Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”

#59

Post by dkersten »

throw2016 wrote: post #47
jsjohnst wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of what you mention is wrong for me, and I'm not remotely of the paygrade of someone like Elon Musk. If you think Elon Musk spends 2-3 hours per day on eating, then I'm not sure what I can say further.

I doubt food magically appears on your plate? You seem to have left out the 'Organizing food' part of the eating entry above which includes the time required to get the food. You either have to source food from markets and cook it, have it cooked, eat at a restaurant or order out, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. All this takes time as does time to actually eat the food. If you have a family multiply the time require…

Or, you know, eat things that are quick to prepare. If I am at home[1] spend about 40 minutes per week on food shopping and can prepare a simple (perhaps boring) meal in 5 minutes and eat it in 10 or multitask while eating.

[1] When not at home, eg in the office, then I spend a lot more time getting/eating lunch, but its generally to get away from work so I would spend the time away from work anyway.

Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”

#60

Post by lazyjones »

Perhaps I just fail to see the stroke of genius in that policy, or it works better in car companies than web publishers, but as CEO I actively fought this kind of communication wherever it proved harmful.

For example, the sales & marketing department got in touch with the IT and content departments directly on occasion in order to circumvent strict policies on usability and fairness vs. paying clients (i.e. they wanted special treatment for some customers when they bought expensive ads). Also, the IT folks complained that they couldn't keep their schedules because other departments kept asking for small favours that delayed their projects.

Sure, you can always fire the people responsible for harming the company this way and hope everyone always shares exactly the same goals and values, but it doesn't seem very practical to me when there are (naturally) slightly conflicting interests within the company.

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