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Comment by empath75 | Hacker News Reader

IMO, they should fire musk, slow down their blue-sky research projects, rip autopilot out of the cars, and just build "boring" luxury electric cars with huge profit margins and rake in cash.

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I don't think they should fire him, but he should most definately do the un-american thing: work a sane amount of hours and go on vacation every now and then.

I don't care how much he works, but he's gotta do something about his thin skin and incompetence with the media.

He just needs to stop doing PR.

On the contrary, the overwhelming majority of his media appearances have been widely popular. But something seems to have snapped in him recently, perhaps culminating with calling that cave rescuer a pedophile. The dude has serious problems that are probably exacerbated by stress and lack of sleep. He needs to take a break before something bad happens.

> I don't care how much he works, but he's gotta do something about his thin skin and incompetence with the media.

This sort of thing usually comes from a severe lack of sleep and recreation.

Not everyone expect an industry leader to fake a persona in public so as to appear like the media want them to.

Wall Street might want that but hey, who cares?

It's not about how the media wants him to look, or even what shareholders of his companies want, it's about how the perception of his broader endeavors. The defensive way he reacts to any kind of criticism undermines the personal image which he has worked so hard cultivate.

Why does the image thing take 80% of the headlines and conversations, while Tesla just surpassed Mercedes and BMW in sales?

Can you find one major newspaper / website who reported that info? I certainly can find dozens of articles about Musk smoking weed, and yet not a word about the fall in BMW/Mercedes sales being hit hard by the Model 3...

We wouldn't be commenting about Musk image if they media were actually talking about the 50K deliveries of Model 3. But hey, Musk prefers to cultivate (or ruin) his image I guess...

I completely agree with this.

I feel him taking some time off and easing off would benefit everybody. He is known for his super focused and driven way of work, and as he himself said:

“If other people are putting in 40 hour workweeks and you’re putting in 100 hour workweeks, then even if you’re doing the same thing … you will achieve in four months what it takes them a year to achieve.”

But he is only human, not a robot (to the best of my knowledge), and sleeping under the desk in the factory overworked will stress out everybody and the people in their close environment no matter how logical-thinking person you are. Building your company in a constant fight-or-flight mode is a disaster in the making.

Balance is important. For the sake of sanity, health and actual productivity.

Although this is completely anecdotal, I had a similar "100 hour never stop working" approach with my initial start-up ventures (obviously not of the scale of Tesla or SpaceX) which ended up me destroying my personal relationships and I cannot say my productivity was off the roof.

Then I slowly transitioned into having a proper balanced day, with exercise, meditation and PROPER time off. Also having healthy work habits inspired a lot by Learning How to Learn (popular MOOC on coursera) and work by Cal Newport ( Deep Work ) with a sprinkle of org-mode here and there.

I have to say that first time in my life, I feel happy, fulfilled and proud of my "weekly output"

He's said repeatedly that people seem to assume it's an option that he work this much, but it is not at all because if he doesn't the company risks insolvency.

I am definitely happier after listening to Cal Newport's book "Deep Work" and implementing some of the strategies. I get so much more done so then I don't feel as much pressure to keep working until late at night (even though I have an infinite amount of work to do).

Apple should fire Steve Jobs and go back to selling colorful plastic computers that are more in the price range of their Japanese competitors. And give up on OSX already, Windows has clearly won.

Tesla's goal was to accelerate EV adoption. They either succeed or they die. I don't think they have any interest in being some niche luxury electric car manufacturer.

Here’s a reminder of what this company is about: https://www.tesla.com/about

Pretty sure all companies are about making money, no matter what they write on their webpage.

Of course. No one doubt that Tesla and SpaceX were primarily created to make money /s

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/please-sell-our-stock-...

It takes about a 90% vote to oust him due to how voting shares at Tesla are setup.

big part of TSLA price is musk name on it

This. A million times this. When a Tesla was $100,000 it was a status symbol. Seeing one on the road was cool and novel, like seeing a Maserati. Flooding the streets with Tesla is hurting that brand and causing the company to burn cash.

You’re in the SF bubble, my friend.

I don't live anywhere near SF although I do live on the North East Coast of USA so I suppose I am subject to the bias you are talking about.

Tesla mass producing their cars has been a massive headache for them. I think it would have benefited shareholders if they had stuck to the niche of luxury vehicles that they were demonstrating success in.

I think it's easy to overlook just how long it takes to establish a car business in the US, or assume it's different because this is the future. Hyundai started selling cars in America over 30 years ago, and they're still kind of an upstart. It took them almost 20 years to refocus on quality and overhaul their reputation for building junk. Tesla has only been around for a decade.

I have not clue how you get to that conclusion.

I simply don't get it. Elon is incredibly successful and he did many things nobody believed would happen and he keeped the business alive against all odds in situation way worse then things are now.

Rip out autopilot? What, why the fuck would the do that? The autopilot works well and 10000s of people (at least) are using it every day and it provides them the base of data to improve their capability in this vital future business.

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