Was an interesting discussion, but lost me with the sort of pointless Musk bashing near the end.
I remember back in the late 90's and early 2000's it was similarly cool to bash anything related to Microsoft.
I spent a good bit of time writing a lengthy comment on slashdot about "Why to code". It was fairly poignant and well-received, except at the end of it I took a low effort pot-shot at Microsoft - because it was cool to do at the time.
Someone replied and (rightly) called me out on it. Why muddle an otherwise interesting talk / piece with a cheap, drive-by swipe?
That was nearly twenty years ago, but let's call this comment me paying it back (if the author reads HN).
The bashing wasn't quite pointless. Musk is an example of the exact management style that is the opposite of what is being advocated for in the article. Musk is notorious for being an asshole to his employees.
That you got so distracted by the bashing that you lost sight of the whole point of what you are reading, speaks a bit I think to a defensive reaction and bias on your part. Objectively, people can think of Musk as an asshole, he does have a reputation for a certain management style, and this article is about how that management style is on the wrong side of the fence compared to what they are advocating. The article starts off with a big description of a dysfunctional organization, a variety of CEOs/CTOs run organizations that are hallmarks of that type of dysfuntion - Musk is a very prominent example of that (love him or hate him). Some people rave about the idea of working for Steve Jobs; these are exceptions - survivorship bias. The point of the article is that it is survivor bias, that typically you get dysfunctional organizations instead. So, don't try to emulate these notable and notorious exceptions - it usually doesn't work out well.
Microsoft was doing all sorts of immoral anti-competitive stuff, and trying to strife free and open source movements to protect their monopoly. They deserved the hate. They came around and complaining about them mostly stopped.
The fact that they so readily call Musk as being "narcissistic" (or "asshole" or "cult leader") reveals the rather dark nature of these "egoless" souls.
It is good to evaluate people on their actions rather than what they claim to be. We saw a good example of this in the Elm community[^1].
> The leadership style in Elm is extremely aggressive and authoritarian.
> By that I do not mean impolite or rude. It is almost always very civil. But still ultimately aggressive and controlling.
...
> The team [at NoRedInk] shows a bewildering mix of cargo-cult inclusiveness coupled with inability to consider that anyone could be different from them in any way that matters.
>> the core team has that "happy cult" vibe where they think that if they're (passive-aggressively) polite enough, they don't have to worry about anyone's opinion outside their insular little group.
> "Happy cult" vibe is exactly how describe that faux-niceness they throw around.
I had to look pretty hard to find the Musk bashing - there's a (face redacted) photo of Musk carrying his sink around on the slide about narcissistic personality disorder.
The slide that has an iconic, well known photo of Musk, where his face is scratched out and "screw this dumbass" is written on top is pretty easy to find.
"Redacted" is a very polite way of describing what the author did.
Part of me wants to say "Using a picture of Taylor Swift when talking about successful recording artists wouldn't make anyone bat an eyelid. This was a discussion about narcissistic personality disorder..."
I remember back in the late 90's and early 2000's it was similarly cool to bash anything related to Microsoft.
I spent a good bit of time writing a lengthy comment on slashdot about "Why to code". It was fairly poignant and well-received, except at the end of it I took a low effort pot-shot at Microsoft - because it was cool to do at the time.
Someone replied and (rightly) called me out on it. Why muddle an otherwise interesting talk / piece with a cheap, drive-by swipe?
That was nearly twenty years ago, but let's call this comment me paying it back (if the author reads HN).