[_jal]

I suspect it would matter, for at least two reasons.

For that to work, you'd need a particular sort of senior management arrangement, not just to leave him alone, but to take a lot of heat for his eccentricities. You need particular people capable of forming unusual understandings for that to work. And there would also necessarily end up being limits - there's only so far folks will cover someone else's bets.

The second reason is Musk's ego. I think he'd find a demotion humiliating, and if he's not treated as a Master of the Universe Superhero-CEO, I bet even money he'd behave worse, pick fights with his minders, etc.

[alexandros]

Research what he did when he was fired as CEO of PayPal. He made sure the company had good management by making sure Peter Thiel came back (even though they weren't the best of friends at the time), and he stayed quiet, allowing the team to execute and make him rich. Now that you know this, will you update your beliefs about his ego?

[gamblor956]

Everything I could find says the board asked Thiel to come back, not Musk... In fact, supposedly they fired Musk and hired Thiel back while Musk was flying internationally, and had announced they change at CEO before he landed.

Knowing that, it would explain his tendency to make sudden pronouncements and try to stay at the office/factory at all hours.

[alexandros]

Went back to the sources, and it seems you're right on the Thiel thing. He did make peace with Thiel and Levchin pretty fast though, and even invested more money into paypal after he was kicked out (citation: the Ashley Vance book on Elon) which was my main point -- he didn't blow shit up or incite a rebelion, he just stayed on the sidelines and supported the team like a trooper.

[9935c101ab17a66]

You made two separate points, and the one you lead with was that he recruited Thiel after being fired... which isn't true. Also, "not blowing shit up" especially when he has money involved != 'staying on the sidelines and supporting the team like a trooper'.

[rjplatte]

Essentially, he's egotistical, but if someone forces him to back down, he's also mature enough to handle it.

[CJefferson]

You mean like how he has doubled down twice on accusing a random diver of being a paedophile?

[radiorental]

Not a random diver, it was someone who was a domain expert and dared to critique the proposed engineering solution from Musk.

You can draw a very short dotted line to all the automation they eventually had to rip out of the Model 3 production line.

On the plus side he's a visionary with a lot of cash. The downside is that his ego wont let him take advice from people he doesn't agree with.

The latter character flaw is a recipe for disaster if left unchecked over the long term. This move is good for Tesla.

[rorykoehler]

Tesla wouldn't exist if Musk took "advice from people he doesn't agree with". It's easy to point to model 3 production but what about all the other instances he has proved the nay sayers wrong? Entrepreneurs are generally not people who take advice from people saying it can't be done, instead they prove it to themselves.

[radiorental]

That's fine when your a startup but as the business matures you're approach much reflect the shift.

[ben_w]

> You can draw a very short dotted line to all the automation they eventually had to rip out of the Model 3 production line.

Given his large-scale visions, I suspect the attempt at extreme automation was intended as a proof of concept about fully automated manufacturing for off-planet use.

[JoshCole]

> critique

Elon Musk should not have said what he did, but advocating for sodomy is not critique. Some cultures have the death penalty for sodomy whereas the acceptance of critique is celebrated as wise in most cultures. The character flaw of the news is that in cases like this, it does not seek to create a peaceful resolution between the two parties, but instead blows up their differences as much as possible. Both of these men tried to save the lives of kids.

I agree that Twitter censure is likely to be of benefit to Tesla. Starving the news of Elon Musk content is a good thing. It will hurt the profits of attention-derived news. Plus, the doom of the ICE industry is rearing its head. So they can talk breathlessly about that and criticize the existing auto manufacturers for not seeing the writing on the wall once they figure out a new strategy to maximize their attention derived profits. I'm cynical enough that I figure this story shift will probably happen around the time that Tesla starts taking out television ads.

[9935c101ab17a66]

Wu... wut? "Advocating for sodomy is not a critique" ???

What Elon did:

> Elon Musk has escalated his baseless attacks against a British diver, claiming without evidence that the man who helped rescue children from a cave in Thailand was a “child rapist” in an email to a reporter. [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/sep/04/elon-musk...]

[chiefalchemist]

Perhaps it's more accurate to say he's driven, no nonsense and shrewd?

Yeah. Of course he wears his ego proudly. You don't rise to that level without above average chutzpah. But I think that's more a side show than the featured event.

[Fnoord]

Yes, that's the gist I got out of his behaviour at X.com when they merged with Cofinity as well (from the book The PayPal Wars). He wanted to turn it into a full Microsoft shop, and and he wanted to change the name to X. To sum it up: people disagreed, and there were setbacks after setbacks with the former. When he put through the latter, there was a small internal struggle and Peter Thiel become interim CEO.

[RivieraKid]

Not the OP but having followed Musk for a long time, I think his ego is enormous and that PayPal anecdote doesn't change that. Few people are more sensitive to criticism than Musk.