Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15149238
An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”
61–70 of 77 posts
Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”
#62One 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.
I often wish people would avoid most acronyms completely, especially in online discussions. Sure, you assume I know what some acronym means and it may be incredibly obvious to you, but especially when there’s a global audience, it can be very hard and not all acronyms are easily googled (looking at you, gaming community and game name abbreviations...)
I think its fine to use acronyms in a document if you always write it out fully the first timem or, better yet, have a glossary of acronyms used.
Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”
#63I got "in trouble" at this one company for just doing my job. I walked onto the sales floor and asked a sales person if I can silently watch over their shoulder so I can learn about how the companies CRM was used. The sales manager felt I infringed on her team and complained to the lead programmer who in turn begrudgingly "warned" me not to do that ever again. I think I lasted like another 6 weeks there before puttin…
> I walked onto the sales floor and asked a sales person if I can silently watch over their shoulder so I can learn about how the companies CRM was used
This is not how things work in big companies. You should have contacted you boss, discuss with him of the improvement suggestions and your plan, so that he may contact the sales boss, and present it to him, emphasizing the performance improvements that could be brought, and, after two of three long and boring meetings, start to schedule a volunteer program where you would monitor specific parts of someone's job. All of this will require weeks (or months) of political discussions, carefully crafted powerpoints, subtle emails that will attempt to balance political interests of each parties, and, if you are smart enough to put key managers ego on a pedestal, your project may succeed (and of course you're probably never going to be credited for that)
Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”
#64Earlier 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…
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).
Did you read the original comment? It rather explicitly states if you have people taking care of things you get more time. I really don't see the point of your continuous misrepresentation.
The point was about privilege and the average person. Obviously you will have more time if you have people taking care of things for you or are Usain Bolt with food like yourself, but this does not apply to the average person.
If they had the same privilege as Musk they too can work 14 hours a day so it's not noteworthy in any particular way.
Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”
#65Perhaps 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 want…
At this point you are using policies and procedures to fix misalignment of goals. Seems like something has gone wrong way earlier? I am trying to keep sales and support directly plugged into engineering, with latter being responsible for establishing, policing, and communicating proper scope. It educates sales of what's possible, but also educates engineering of the real-world impact of their action and inaction. We're a still a small company though, I don't know if I can keep it that way.
Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
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).
Did you read the original comment? It rather explicitly states if you have people taking care of things you get more time. I really don't see the point of your continuous misrepresentation. The point was about privilege and the average person. Obviously you will have more time if you have people taking care of things for you or are Usain Bolt with food like yourself, but this does not apply to the average person. If…
Yes, I did read the original comment. 95% of the comment was made up numbers with one sentence thrown in for good measure:
> The ability to work uninterrupted is a privilege.
Yes, it is a privilege, but that doesn't negate that the rest of the post is completely false conjecture by one person.
> That's a total of 14 hours that can't be negotiated
If it can't be negotiated, then why do many people do it, especially ones who are more well off financially?
> 10 hours for work. Given the brain will not operate at that stretch you need distraction, so web, tv, books, games, movies - another 2-3 hours. So 7-8 hours seems to the the maximum any human being can work.
I'm not sure why I am even bothering to reply to that, but if you think that's true then honestly we aren't having an intelligent debate and so my time is being wasted.
> So anything beyond 10-12 hours [working] seems physically impossible
Same as above.
Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”
#67Earlier 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.
Because its fun. I can't sleep because I'm excited to code. It interests me more than most other activities.
Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”
#68Earlier 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.
Do you bill those hours also?
I'm on salary. But I've gotten numerous raises & bonuses. I "front" the work, then ask for raises later. If I don't get the raise, I move onto the next company. Eventually I found a job willing pay more for increased output & stuck with it.
Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
As good as your past intentions sound, if somebody I didn't know from another department just came and sat next to me to watch me work, without me knowing it would happen beforehand, I'd put in a complaint too.
He didn't do that. He asked permission to do it. It takes a particularly shitty mindset to respond to that by sneaking around behind someone's back and complaining to his boss.
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Re: An email from Elon Musk to employees: “Communication Within Tesla”
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Yes you have to find balance. It might be 100 hours one week & 10 hours the next. I work just as much as everyone else over time, it just comes in bursts of creativity. Some light bulb goes off & then I can't sleep until I have my idea working.