Comment by ZeroGravitas | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ZeroGravitas | Hacker News Reader

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Very similar to the story about the Supercharger network.

Apparently the boss of the team was told to make layoffs, she did some but not enough to please Musk, so Musk in a face to face meeting demanded she make more. She said they couldn't without affecting delivery.

Musk fired her. Then fired the team. Then hired the team back because she was correct.

But not before lots of ongoing projects got stalled because contacts just disappeared and stopped answering phones.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/inside...

> The meeting could not have gone worse. Musk, the employees said, was not pleased with Tinucci’s presentation and wanted more layoffs. When she balked, saying deeper cuts would undermine charging-business fundamentals, he responded by firing her and her entire 500-member team.

and

> The contractor said he had expected Supercharger projects to provide about 20% of his 2024 revenue but now plans to diversify to avoid relying on Tesla.

Such a fragile ego. A mature manger should be able to handle a subordinate disobeying without throwing a temper tantrum and firing the whole team and damaging the whole company out of spite.

I haven't had th misfortune of having such managers myself. But I've been right next door to other managers like this and it's the absolute worse.

Even then, a power trip that actually fired hundreds of people on the spot is just ficticious levels of stupidity. It's the exaggerated evil businessman that everyone would laugh at. And musk fits it to a T.

lol, there are “managers” making 40k a year (with 3 people reporting to them) that have huge egos. It isn’t surprising that world’s richest man child has the ego to match his wealth.

Something wrong with society as a whole. People being cruel to each other for no reason, people can’t think/plan beyond the current quarter etc. Everywhere I look, people seem stressed, and they lash out in whatever way they can. Seems like a much bigger problem than Trump/Musk, though they are a big contributor to society’s stress for sure

>>lol, there are “managers” making 40k a year (with 3 people reporting to them) that have huge egos.

Power trip has its pitfalls. It convinces nobodies that they are special. Its one of the big reasons many times the middle managers end behind their reportees.

Once you taste power its easy to convince yourself that you are coasting along the path of a guaranteed victory, and winning is a given.

There was once this interview of a man I watched who would be around the head of a army, his staff pretty much treated him like a god. And he even got used to that sort of stuff over time. You can't expect good things to happen from there.

When I spend time outside without my phone for a few days it’s amazing how much better things are.

These people that parent mention do not live in people's phones. They live in people's offices. Not all people have the luxury to just quit working.

Can confirm, can't say where or when, NDA + non-disparagement.

Nice walks help, even so. Absolutely doesn't solve everything, but does help nonetheless.

Why people think it’s a good idea to put this wealthy dickwad in charge of one of the most (allegedly) important projects in the current admin is beyond me. Move fast and break things is a stupid policy to apply to public policy.

Whether or not it's a good idea depends on what outcome you desire. If the aim is to weaken the U.S. then putting a foolish unelected billionaire in charge of things that he has no idea about is a great idea.

> If the aim is to weaken the U.S.

Say if you're China and Russia...

> then putting a foolish unelected billionaire

With ties to both...

I don't think Trump's aim is to weaken the US. I don't think here's some big secret Russia conspiracy.

I think the situation is much simpler. Trump wants to be king. What happens to America in the future is immaterial. And a king needs a kingmaker, who in this case also wants to be MOTU.

Putin and Xi know this too, and help out making it happen - good for them with a clown begin the king of the US.

(Not sure if any help was needed this time though.)

>I don't think Trump's aim is to weaken the US. I don't think here's some big secret Russia conspiracy.

That's not really the claim these days. The Stelle Dossier accusations haven't really been substantiated.

He's more likely to be just a useful idiot. Far more easy to manipulate than politically educated stable people, and with less connection to the institutions of State.

One goal is to get rid of any critical voices. Only yes-men (or women) will be left standing. It is a test of allegiance, and those that care more about the mission of the organization, or team, customers, users, general public than the boss - are considered to fail. It is core to authoritarianism. Kneel before the king :/

As it was at Twitter.

In that case I'd say it seems to have proven effective for Musk multiple times now, so why stop now? In his experience, he can just keep shit-canning feds until something immediately bad happens - say he is sorry and give them a job back.

As others have already pointed out, the real damage is silent, has already been done, and will be suffered by generations to come while being able to blame others.

Reputation takes a life time to build, and can be squandered in a minute.

Everyone seems to think they know Musk, it sure does look like Musk himself is included in this list.

What is he thinking how this will turn out?

I don't know him, but as a programmer I hope I'm at least half decent at identifying a pattern. Musk's business acument is horrfying consistent, if nothing else.

Imagine the lack of empathy one would need to fire 500 people for being challenged, sociopath antics (assuming the reporting is accurate)

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