“Musk is a loose cannon.
Whatever he comes up with, he pulls off, no matter the consequences. In companies that have been accustomed to his management style for some time, people know how to work around people like him.
I have also had such bosses. You show them a funny rendering, which you have cobbled up in 10 minutes, and they take it on their cybertruck rock star tour for months on all kinds of stages, while in the meantime – you have him off your back so that you can actually do meaningful work.
Hyperloop, Boring Company, solar freaking roof shingles, these are all such things. It must work like this: someone from SpaceX or Tesla feeds him with a funny idea, Musk then runs around in circles for a few months and gives interviews everywhere about how awesome it would be if everyone had a direct tunnel from their house to their workplace, while the real developers/workers can go back to do proper work for a while.
This kind of boss and the developers usually find some kind of symbiosis:
The value of that boss for the developers is that he blows large amounts of money on things that a business administrator would never agree to fund.
In return, the developers regularly feed the boss with some stupid but media-effective ideas. The ideas are good enough for the boss to get the media attention he needs for his ego. But at the same time, these ideas are stupid enough to never actually work, and thus never threaten the original project.
In return, the developers regularly feed the boss with some stupid but media-effective ideas. The ideas are good enough for the boss to get the media attention he needs for his ego. But at the same time, these ideas are stupid enough to never actually work, and thus never threaten the original project.
Example: Hyperloop and Boring Company are doomed to fail if you think about the concept for two minutes. But are so cool that they are constantly running through the media. But they never become a real threat to Tesla or SpaceX, which Musk needs, because they are actually something like actual companies with real business.”
Translated from German, original text here:
https://www.heise.de/forum/heise- online/Kommentare/Twitter-sperrt-Accounts-von- Journalisten-Links-zu-Mastodon-teils-nicht- moeglich/Re-Ich-haette-Musk-fuer-klueger- gehalten/posting-42028668/show/