cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/950826
Archived version: https://archive.ph/o9mOI
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20230802061230/https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/01/free-speech-absolutist-elon-musk-files-obvious-slapp-suit-against-non-profit-critic/
Before this Twitter debacle I was on the fence whether Musk is a genius or a fraud.
Today it is clear as day that he is the latter.
To me it’s still an open question why SpaceX is so successfull – is it because of him or despite him?
It has always been despite him. There are some brilliant people at SpaceX which made eveything from Falcon Heavy to Starlink to Dragon possible.
They needed to keep Musk distracted so he didn’t interfere with operations too much.
Just like PayPal!
SpaceX is successfull because they not only have competent engineers but are also good at managing Musk by distracting him and steering him away from critical stuff (or personal he might randomly fire).
SpaceX is successful because of Gwen Shotwell the CEO (fantastic name by the way).
But also because they’re not “old areospace”. They are able to move quickly and be dynamic and change focus quickly.
Meanwhile Boeing is still trying to get Starliner of to work, despite the fact that it’s clearly a dud and they should abandon it.
I think you know the answer to that. Despite. It’s despite his egregious meddling.
Def because of him. Musk is still a smart guy but has just become arrogant and is out of his league with twitter. And I guess his ego is too large now to accept he handled any of it badly so he just keeps plowing forward, duct taping around…
The open question is, is the fact that twitter is still running fairly well because it is so well engineered and resilient, or is musk actually just duct taping well?
Haven’t SpaceX engineers gone on record saying they orchestrate distractions for Musk to ensure he doesn’t meddle?
They have indeed.