riredale

Elon Musk is smart and hard-working. He is also, apparently, a first-class jerk and is unstable, bordering on dangerous. Huge senior management defections in the past year.

Those were my impressions after reading a lengthy article on the current WIRED website.

Perhaps one needs to be a "jerk" to accomplish great things. Articles about Jobs say that he was downright cruel to his daughter Lisa and her mother. But I don't think having that as a permanent legacy would be a good thing, regardless of business success.

https://www.wired.com/story/elon-mus...e-gigafactory/

LeX2K

Summary? I'm not reading all that the article is almost 10,000 words.

mmarshall

I read part of it (like Lexus2000, didn't have time for the whole thing). Warning...there are some strong four-letter words.

His management style seems to be much like that of the former VW/Audi CEO Ferdinand Piech, except that Piech governed with a quieter, more discreet abuse and intimidation....Musk blows it out in the open.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

musk reminds me of steve jobs in many ways... i think sleep deprivation is a huge part of the problem for guys like this...

LeX2K

Same, but I have more respect for Musk because he is using his genius to try and improve the planet on a grand scale. Jobs confined himself to tech gadgets.

mmarshall

I'd say Jobs also did his part for the planet. Designing ultra-reliable PCs like the MacBook (I have one, and just love it) that last for many years without the need to junk or recycle them doesn't do the planet or landfills any harm.

LeX2K

Apple products have become complete junk, sorry to say. They are poorly designed, unreliable, nearly impossible to repair. Apple refuses to sell anyone replacement parts and will sue anyone that tries to get them. Also I would say Apple products have the shortest life of just about anything you can buy for example the battery is high density but has a very limited recharge life cycle. 3 years and most iPhone's are scrapped this is by design.

Steve Jobs would be ashamed of what Apple has become, they are basically what Microsoft used to be when they had more market power. But worse, and Jobs hated Microsoft. Remember this TV spot? Apple has become exactly the thing they once fought against, could not be more ironic.

mmarshall

That sure hasn't been my experience with Apple products....particularly my MacBook Air, which has been like a gem from Day One, almost six years ago. And you guys know, just from the sheer number of posts I make, just how much I use it LOL.

My brother works at a high-tech firm that handles Government contracts......almost everything they do is on a keyboard. He tells me that most of the engineers and people in the firm with PHDs have Apple PCs at home as their personal computers. They can't afford to waste time at home dealing with unreliable stuff.

Don't want to derail the thread too much, though....we were talking about Musk. .

Och

iTrader: (3)

Musk isn't the only CEO on a reckless power trip.

https://gizmodo.com/the-deadly-reckl...str-1831027948

mmarshall

Good article. Hard to refute it.....although it is actually focused more on the dangerous limitations of self-driving vehicles than on CEOs per se.