According to Isaacson's biography of Musk, Musk relentlessly challenges the existence of every part in Tesla and SpaceX machines. He's willing to go too far, having to sometimes put a part back in.
Everything in the manufacturing process is also challenged to justify its existence.
This is how he managed to reduce the costs by 90%.
Isaacson’s “biographies” are glorified puff pieces. Musk is as unrecognizable in his as Jobs was in his.
Both Tesla and SpaceX had teams keeping Musk busy on bs just so that the engineering teams could do their work.
The second he took control, we got the cybertruck and the starship, the worse products both companies ever built (or attempted, in the case of the starship).
> Musk relentlessly challenges the existence of every part
This sounds insightful until you find yourself debating with the CEO for the eleventh time about how his high-school understanding of the physics involved breaks down in a particular case.
Musk is very lucky to be moving such quantities of money that his companies are big enough to protect themselves from him, if you ever wonder how Musk would fare on a tight budget, look no further than the Oceangate.
It seems to me that partisan/political hate blinds some people so much that they are becoming ridiculous.
"This sounds insightful until you find yourself debating with the CEO for the eleventh time about how his high-school understanding of the physics involved breaks down in a particular case"
Musk has a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Pennsylvania. While not a full scientist, I doubt that "his high-school understanding of the physics involved breaks down" anytime often.
Have you ever been in such a situation that you describe, or is this just your prejudice speaking? AFAIK the discussions in SpaceX revolve more around things like "can this part be 3d-printed", "do we keep the actuators for part X or can it just stick out into the wind" or "should we use landing legs or not", which have nothing to do with high-school physics and everything to do with actual engineering tradeoffs.
"the starship, the worse products both companies ever built (or attempted, in the case of the starship)."
This is what tells me that you are speaking in bad faith. Starship is not yet a finished product. Judging it now makes about as sense as judging Edison's lightbulb a year before it was introduced into the market.
Starship has several issues to fix, but we can already see that a) the Raptor engines are about the best on the planet, doubly so when considering their extremely low unit cost; b) the vessel itself is very tough and performed well even in really bad situations; c) the heat shield developed a lot and the last Starship (the one which was dragged to the Christmas Island) survived reentry in very good condition; d) the amount of control (belly flops, slowing down to hover) that they have over that huge thing is unique in the history of spaceflight.
> Musk has a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Clarification, Musk bought a B.A. in physics. In the Paypal S-1 in 2002, [1] Paypal's lawyers claimed that he graduated with a B.S. in Physics and B.S. in Economics in 1995.
Yet the actual degrees subpoenaed from UPenn indicate a B.A. in Physics and B.S. in Economics in 1997, two years later. He could not even remember the year he graduated or the degree he received just 5/7 years after their purported completion. I have yet to meet a single person who actually graduated from college who can not accurately recollect the year of their graduation, have you?
Most likely he did this because he was in the USA on a student visa and dropping out of UPenn in 1995 made him a illegal immigrant which his brother, Kimbal Musk, corroborated in a interview [2].
Small counterpoint: I'm 42 years old, and I would have to look at my resume to see what year I graduated college. By time I graduated I was already working full time, had a contracting company on the side, and had a family. College was just a thing that was happening, another job, it wasn't a huge life-defining event. I remember the people I met and the projects I worked on, but there's no way I'd be able to accurately tell you the exact year it was over. (I just checked the resume, I was off by 2. Yikers.)
Really, your lawyer asks you what year you graduated for a legal filing and you would give the wrong year? Not even bother to go check, just fly by the seat of your pants?
WalterBright · · focus · HN ↗
Everything in the manufacturing process is also challenged to justify its existence.
This is how he managed to reduce the costs by 90%.
xondono · · focus · HN ↗
Isaacson’s “biographies” are glorified puff pieces. Musk is as unrecognizable in his as Jobs was in his.
Both Tesla and SpaceX had teams keeping Musk busy on bs just so that the engineering teams could do their work.
The second he took control, we got the cybertruck and the starship, the worse products both companies ever built (or attempted, in the case of the starship).
> Musk relentlessly challenges the existence of every part
This sounds insightful until you find yourself debating with the CEO for the eleventh time about how his high-school understanding of the physics involved breaks down in a particular case.
Musk is very lucky to be moving such quantities of money that his companies are big enough to protect themselves from him, if you ever wonder how Musk would fare on a tight budget, look no further than the Oceangate.
inglor_cz · · focus · HN ↗
"This sounds insightful until you find yourself debating with the CEO for the eleventh time about how his high-school understanding of the physics involved breaks down in a particular case"
Musk has a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Pennsylvania. While not a full scientist, I doubt that "his high-school understanding of the physics involved breaks down" anytime often.
Have you ever been in such a situation that you describe, or is this just your prejudice speaking? AFAIK the discussions in SpaceX revolve more around things like "can this part be 3d-printed", "do we keep the actuators for part X or can it just stick out into the wind" or "should we use landing legs or not", which have nothing to do with high-school physics and everything to do with actual engineering tradeoffs.
"the starship, the worse products both companies ever built (or attempted, in the case of the starship)."
This is what tells me that you are speaking in bad faith. Starship is not yet a finished product. Judging it now makes about as sense as judging Edison's lightbulb a year before it was introduced into the market.
Starship has several issues to fix, but we can already see that a) the Raptor engines are about the best on the planet, doubly so when considering their extremely low unit cost; b) the vessel itself is very tough and performed well even in really bad situations; c) the heat shield developed a lot and the last Starship (the one which was dragged to the Christmas Island) survived reentry in very good condition; d) the amount of control (belly flops, slowing down to hover) that they have over that huge thing is unique in the history of spaceflight.
Veserv · · focus · HN ↗
Clarification, Musk bought a B.A. in physics. In the Paypal S-1 in 2002, [1] Paypal's lawyers claimed that he graduated with a B.S. in Physics and B.S. in Economics in 1995.
Yet the actual degrees subpoenaed from UPenn indicate a B.A. in Physics and B.S. in Economics in 1997, two years later. He could not even remember the year he graduated or the degree he received just 5/7 years after their purported completion. I have yet to meet a single person who actually graduated from college who can not accurately recollect the year of their graduation, have you?
Most likely he did this because he was in the USA on a student visa and dropping out of UPenn in 1995 made him a illegal immigrant which his brother, Kimbal Musk, corroborated in a interview [2].
[1] <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1103415/000091205702023923/a2082068zs-1.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1103415/000091205702...
[2] <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughMuskSpam/comments/1az29vs/elon_nervously_laughing_as_his_brother_kimbal/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughMuskSpam/comments/1az29vs/elo...
daedalus_j · · focus · HN ↗
There you go, now you've met one!
Veserv · · focus · HN ↗