The Rise of SpaceX Elon Musk's Engineering Masterpiece

[deadman1204]

In his interview with the World Government summit which was posted onto social media yesterday, Elon, in response to a question about UFO’s, said that he doesn’t think there is anyone on Earth who knows more about Space Technology than himself at this point in time.

Dunning–Kruger

Who knows more about current space technology than the chief engineer of SpaceX? Give an example. (Note we aren’t talking people who are smarter or better technically skilled… there are lots of people with higher IQ than Elon. This is about knowledge of current space tech.)

I'm gonna go with the legion of actual engineers who design and run the stuff. Not the CEO who has spent the last 5 months tanking twitter, and somehow also runs Tesla too? The very idea that he can waltz into a meating and know what it took other 10-20 years of study and experience to learn is ludicrous.

Don't forget, "cheif engineer" is a bs title given to placate the guy who fires people when they disagree with him (well documented, it happened again just last week). Show me his phd in:
1. metalurgy
2. orbital mechanics
3. electrical engineering
4. mechanical engineering
5. Aerospace engineering
Or his lifetime of practice using these skills and learning. He has none of these, because he doesn't NEED them (and its also not possible). His job is to direct the company.
He sounds knowledgable because like EVERY CEO, he has people to coach him on what to say. This is an open secret in business, lots of people do it.

I think you are probably misunderstanding what makes Elon Musk unique (and frustrating). He dives into the detail on all important decisions, and he is a very hands-on chief engineer. He is not like "every CEO", and has demonstrated that more times than I could list. He is an engineer first, and a CEO second.

And let's not get into whether you need a PhD in something to be an expert. Academic qualifications are one way to demonstrate deep knowledge, but by no means the only one. And he does have a lifetime (at least career-wise) of learning and practice, of course.

You think other people who run companies don't also dive into details and learn about stuff?

What makes spaceX unique is that they placed progress over fat paychecks.

What makes musk unique is that he has waged a very successful publicity campaign for years to convince so many people that a billionaire who mistreats everyone else is worthy of worship and somehow can do the work of thousands.  There is a reason his following is described with words like "cultish".

[Robotbeat]

You sound like someone who has never talked with folks who worked at SpaceX and believes all the made up crap Elon hate clubs on Twitter spread.

Also hilarious you think Elon is effective at publicity campaigns. The only reason he has had positive image is because the efforts he led have succeeded. He sucks at public speaking and before SpaceX and Tesla had objectively been successful, they were not taken seriously.

But seriously, we get tired of your relentless Musk hate campaign, here. Why not instead advocate for what you think is better, signal boost those groups that are doing better, in your opinion?

[alugobi]

Musk haters are cultish, too.

[Robotbeat]

And keep in mind this is a spaceflight *enthusiast* forum. We do and should err on the side of being enthusiastic about some spaceflight thing.

(Note that while critical analysis is good, it’s true that sometimes the SLS hate goes overboard… overly cynical attitudes about spaceflight in general shouldn’t be welcome here.)