Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by nickik 972 days ago
Sure but an organisation doesn't just fall out of the sky.

They were once 7 people in a room. If Musk was new CEO that just came in 2 years ago of course he wouldn't get much credit.

But Musk has been leading SpaceX for literally 20+ years. So to just say he has nothing to do with it is stupid, and every single person that worked there and left tells a different story. The same for journalists and other who interact with SpaceX.

If anything people are continually surprised how involved Musk is, when anti-Musk people always stress how he is an absent boss. But then you hear about 5h meetings where Musk and engineering team sit together and go into minute detail and Musk makes decisions in those meetings.

Its really only people from outside who dislike Musk that push this story.

So yes, Shotwell was great. He increased her responsibility over time. And Musk reward that by promoting her. But so were other people that Musk recruited and put into positions, Hans Königsman, Tom Muller, Jim Buzza and so on. But dispite many of them leaving the overall organisation still continues to do well.

So at some point, leadership is something that matters.

1 comments

No one is saying a company gets anywhere without good leadership, but this:

> every single person that worked there and left tells a different story.

Is just not true. It's okay if that's your experience talking to people that have worked there, but I have also talked to people working there. As much as you chastise people who dislike Musk, these kinds of absolute statements come from people that seem compelled to leap to his defense.