The pay disparity between workers and executives is important and worth discussing, but what makes this particular example of it worth pointing out?
Tesla/Musk appears to be following the model of massive greedy billion dollar corporation that would rather take free work than appropriately compensate workers/consultants.
There is a massive difference between BEING PAID and NOT BEING PAID when asked to do work. Seeing how Musk overworks and underpays his workers I'm not surprised by this move.
Also if only the winners are being paid, what about everyone else? They've invested just as much time and their contributions were still valued by Tesla. This isn't Glengarry Glen Ross, these are real humans.
As far as I can tell, this “hackathon” is being done by employees on company time, so I’m extremely confused.