I needed to find the source to hear the tone of that statement for myself - it’s from an interview from 2022 (link is timestamped):
I’m not sure if he realizes how stupid that makes him sound
The charitable interpretation is that it was just hyperbole as a joke. Unfortunately, for that to be true, he would have to think it’s a ridiculous thing to say and I’m not sure he does.
He’s that stupid, so no, he doesn’t.
He sounds very Trumpian.
I like to shit on Elon as much as the next person, but as someone who works in aerospace mfg, if he understands 3% of SpaceX’s manufacturing and supply chain he is already in the top 99.9999999%. What they have accomplished is absolutely unfathomable and why we have to make exceptions when hiring experienced SpaceX people into our company to pay 2-3x standard pay for them. They really really know their shit and are making everyone in the industry better by leaving SpaceX.
Yoooo whats your company are they hiring all positions?? Or is this sr engineers
You’re being incredibly generous if you think he understands any of it.
Yeah, this is the guy who takes everyone else’s accomplishments for himself. The only reason why SpaceX is so damn good at what it does is because he’s not allowed to be more than a figurehead
Ever wonder why his talk about Tesla is so stilted? He doesn’t know how it started. I listened to one of the actual founders and he was talking in and out about EVs and the business model of Tesla. Elon takes a couple of their brochure points and that’s all he can say.
understanding 3% of a supply chain
a whole 200 CSVs manually exported
I have literally hated elon before it was cool. I don’t intend to defend him but I also am of the mind it’s important to be educated on opinions, or at least I strive for that for my own.
I dont know the context of this quote but manufacturing, to me, sounds extremely plausible to me and maybe one of the few legitimate “skills” he actually has. Spacex and telsa is dealing a lot with manufacturing and the logistics of that. That is what I would presume his context was from this quote. Am I missing something?
Am I missing something?
I think you might be missing the little fact that, despite the existence of Tesla and SpaceX, Melon Husk does NOT know “more about manufacturing than anyone currently alive.”
Him saying he knows more about manufacturing than anyone alive today is less descriptive than me saying I know more about the internet than anyonet. I work in manufacturing and the space is massive. What field if manufacturering? Because in the tesla alone there are dozens of separate fields of industrial manufacturing and he isn’t even the preeminent expert in automotive manufacturing let alone any of the components in the car.
Elon musk might know a lot about manufacturing space ships and electric cars (edit: that’s a big might). But that’s not general knowledge of manufacturing, in fact out of a lot of manufacturing that’s very specific and highly technical manufacturing.
But beyond that, Elon is not and probably never has been the head of manufacturing at any of those companies, and he hasn’t worked a significant amount of time (probably not any time at all) in any of his factory floors. so it’s impossible to give him points for practical manufacturing skills.
And even if you could twist your brain around to give him that. There are people in charge of manufacturing larger companies with much more diverse portfolios. Let’s say something like Hitachi who has people who know manufacturing magic wands to mopeds to precision l scientific equipment.
Or how about those companies in China that make every knick-knack and consumer electronic on the planet.
Fuck, if you wanted to name American CEOs and give them credit for manufacturing everything they produce under their company Jeff Bezos owns Amazon and Blue Origin, the direct space ship manufacturing competitor to SpaceX.
Elon musk might know a lot about manufacturing space ships and electric cars (edit: that’s a big might).
Well he this about Cybertruck:
All parts for this vehicle, whether internal or from suppliers, need to be designed and built to sub 10 micron accuracy. That means all part dimensions need to be to the third decimal place in millimeters and tolerances need to be specified in single digit microns. If LEGO and soda cans, which are very low cost, can do this, so can we.
What’s fault tolerance?
I wouldn’t expect anything less of Phony Stark.
I’ve not heard that before, it’s very good.
the creator of the cybertruck
I’d love to see his engineering drawings.
Maybe manufacturing stock manipulations, nothing tangible.
Hope it doesn’t sound arrogant when I say that I am the greatest man in the world.
Elona channeling her inner Karen, good for her.
Shame. Shame upon you!
