You don't build a multi Billion dollar empire from scratch by being a nice guy.
I take it you never heard of Ken Olson.
I know people who worked for Steve Jobs, and I currently know some people who work for Elon Musk. The difference is night and day. One guy I know was an engineer for apple for less then a day. Jobs came flying into the office one day and just started yelling at everyone…he was having a hissy-fit over something very trivial. My friend stopped unpacking and walked out.
Nope, Lutz never created anything at all. He was a professional corporate climber, period. Not a nice human being.
Musk has my utmost respect. He’s co-founded successful software companies and not only created a car company from nothing, but conquered technical challenges that made EVs a reality. The work that he did with lithium-ion matrices was leading-edge stuff. He truly changed the automotive landscape in ways that are just beginning to manifest themselves.
I have the utmost respect for people who build or change entire industries from nothing. That does not mean I’d want to be buds with them.
Speaking of Jobs, I remember years ago looking at an office system created by Xerox, complete with ethernet and windows, before Apple. They created it and Apple got it. It was actually a nice system for its time but far too rich for our blood. Then came the PC and all heck broke loose but Xerox developed it in Palo Alto.
Steve Jobs actually got the idea from Xerox. Xerox engineers had a system set up in an office of theirs just down the street from Jobs. He heard about it, visited there, and went back and began creating a LAN. Xerox executives didn’t think the ideas had any commercial possibilities and nixed further development.
Speaking of Jobs, I remember years ago looking at an office system created by Xerox, complete with ethernet and windows, before Apple. They created it and Apple got it
Yes Windows and Ethernet was invented by Xerox. Ethernet is NOT an Apple thing. In fact Apple didn’t adopt it for years. Ethernet was based on ALOHANET. A network in the Hawaiian islands using radio towers.
Xerox should have owned the computer market based on it’s contributions to modern computing. Besides windows and Ethernet they also created Object Oriented programing and WYSIWYG. But upper management didn’t have the vision to do anything with it.
Apple stole windows from Xerox and Microsoft stole windows from Apple.
Marnet, I saw on that show “Life After People”, the moon CAR and the other stuff we left up there should be the last remaining trace of humanity. As long as it doesn’t get hit by an incoming asteroid, it should look exactly as it does today billions of years from now, until the sun swells up and melts it. The remote control CARS we left on Mars should be a close second. No water vapor to corrode, but the light atmosphere does blow dust around, which would eventually break them down.
MikeInNH, I’m sure a few of them are nice people. I know you cannot paint a whole group of people with the same brush. I see on the news from time to time where some entrepreneur sells his company and shares the profits with all his employees, sometimes into the tune of 6 and 7 figures for each employee.
thesamemountainbike, regarding your post about “fake managers”, if I didn’t know you’re in a different state, I’d think you might be one of my co-workers. We go through a management “team” on about a 24 - 36 month cycle. They all come in with the same attitude, I’m the new sherriff in town, there’s gonna be some changes around here. They think if they just write up enough people enough times, they will make their performance metrics. Any employee who makes any suggestion is accused of sabotaging the company’s plans. Over the years they’ve even created an extra layer of management to serve as the “canary”, someone for the vice president to fire so he can hold onto his job for an extra 6 - 12 months. Its the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
@“Ed Frugal” Ah, thank you. I have wondered about rust versus no rust in a vacuum.
I just remembered something about Elon Musk
And it’s transportation-related . . . !
Remember hyperloop . . . ?!
Do you also remember that he said he wouldn’t actually develop the technology or build the thing?
So he had a great idea . . . some say it wasn’t his idea in the first place, actually . . . but somebody else is supposed to flesh it out and make it a reality?!
Didnt Tesla suggest something like that one time ?
@Marnet,no,it wont rust in a vacuum.There are a couple of other things that could happen though,any polymers could degrade from the UV radiation and outgas also and sometimes the particle flux from the Sun can sort of weld some close fitting parts together(time is the universal solvent-even the nuetron will decay after enough time has elapsed.
The only problem with Xerox was that the price was always a little on the high side for penny pinchers like me but I always liked their products. Really brushing the cobwebs now but way back, the U of MN bought a few Xerox 820 personal computers for WP, Data, and spreadsheet use. They were CPM based with 8" floppy drives that only held maybe 50 pages. I think they came right after the word processors but before the IBM Dos that blew the market up. Got all the main frame folks all upset using a $2,000 machine to compete with a $10,000 word processor or a $100,000 main frame. Interesting times back then. I wish I would have kept a diary. At least I was on the side of onward and upward technology.
When I see Musk it reminds me of what a girl I dated once told me: “You are like a butterfly and just flit from flower to flower.” Gotta admit I did a little flitting looking for the prettiest flower. But then I’ve been married to her for over 40 years.
@kmccune Thank you. I had forgotten the obvious UV radiation. I will have to look up what particld flux is, though. :-))
For all that I have always been interested in sciences, physics, math, and applied applications of such, I have always struggled with understanding them. I have learned more reading here on this forum than I ever managed to in school or, for the most part, since then.
…still reading, still learning…still having fun doing so!
Got all the main frame folks all upset using a $2,000 machine to compete with a $10,000 word processor or a $100,000 main frame.
One of my consulting jobs years ago working for a company that wrote software for the insurance industry…I was brought on board to do a proof-of-concept of creating this new client server app. The server we used was a (new at the time) IBM AS-400. We optimized the server software and database (DB2 Universal) to run on the AS-400. In fact it ran faster in that configuration then on the IBM mainframe. But the project was scrapped because management said to justify a $50,000 price of the software it needs to run on a Mainframe. Our customers would never pay $50,000 for software that runs on an AS-400.
The company went out of business 3 years later.
So he had a great idea . . . some say it wasn't his idea in the first place, actually . . . but somebody else is supposed to flesh it out and make it a reality?!
He’s been a bit busy making the world’s best electric cars and also space ships on the side. 
@ shadowfax,his cars namesake,had the idea of a hyper loop 80-90 years ago
If Elon Musk is too busy doing other things, and his company doesn’t have the time to develop the technology and build the product, then he shouldn’t have mentioned hyperloop to the media, in the first place
It can serve no purpose except to generate publicity and name recognition for him and his company
That is my opinion
Clearly, that opinion is not shared by everybody else
I have a great idea
But it’s not a new idea . . . it’s an old idea
But I won’t develop the technology
But I won’t build or test the product
Okay . . . ?!
Yeah, it’s okay . . . if the goal is to drum up publicity
You dont like Mr Musk? something smells funny to me,anywaqy I think Hes a mover and shaker db.
Yeah, it's okay . . . if the goal is to drum up publicity
It’s a extremely common business tactic. It’s used to get people interested in the concept and possibly get investors. IBM, Microsoft, AT&T (just to name a few) have all done this.
You dont like Mr Musk? something smells funny to me,anywaqy I think Hes a mover and shaker db.
A mover and shaker is someone like Trump. Besides graduating from a good Ivy league university with a degree in Physics…he actually was very very technical. When he started his first company Zip2 - he didn’t do a Donald Trump and hire people to do the work. Elon was the key engineer and when the company started to get traction he hired people. As he grew up the corporate ladder he became less and less involved in the technical details and more of an Ideas man like Steve Jobs.
“A mover and shaker is someone like Trump.”
He’s entertaining . . . that’s what I would call Donald Trump