The Billionaire formerly known as Musk...

[jemhouston]

LeMay did things by the book, and fired people who deviated. Musk rips up the book if he doesn't like the way things look aesthetically. There's a world of difference here - Musk just thinks he's LeMay.

Who wrote the book LeMay used? In large part, LeMay wrote it. Generally, it was written in blood.

[Pdf27]

Exactly.

[Micael]

I need a popcorn smiley for this one...

I wonder if Musk has ever reflected on the fact that his paternal grandmother was British and that this means that he is eligible to claim British citizenship. That could get interesting.

Well, here we go(?)

[brovane]

LeMay did things by the book, and fired people who deviated. Musk rips up the book if he doesn't like the way things look aesthetically. There's a world of difference here - Musk just thinks he's LeMay.

Well if it is on the Internet, it must be true, right?

Here is video inside of Starfactory. What do you see? Yeah bright safety colors and Musk. I guess that doesn't drive clicks does it?

https://youtu.be/aFqjoCbZ4ik?si=D3EnwknYI_VDsPQz&t=2470

[Sukhoiman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDh85cohwms

Douglas Murray on grooming gangs, Tommy Robinson and what’s wrong with Britain

1.1 million views in just 4 days. Good.

Could care less about the melodramatic hypocritical screeching from the lefties and leftie-enablers/tolerators.. in UK, Europe, larger west what have you.

You can't fix self hate, nation hate, working class hate (all for some weird psycho nihilist statism power freak utopia crap)... and rank victimization politics both dyed in the wool marxists and their current "mainstreamed" iterations have.

You have to defeat it, push it back, deport/mitigate what it imported for import sake (whatever mix of pro-crime, pro-illegal and pro-other tribal social conservatism for sake of diversity and national demoralisation)....and really not concern yourself with the tears and pearl clutching.

Sow the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind.

[Jotun]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDh85cohwms

Douglas Murray on grooming gangs, Tommy Robinson and what’s wrong with Britain

1.1 million views in just 4 days. Good.

Could care less about the melodramatic hypocritical screeching from the lefties and leftie-enablers/tolerators.. in UK, Europe, larger west what have you.

You can't fix self hate, nation hate, working class hate (all for some weird psycho nihilist statism power freak utopia crap)... and rank victimization politics both dyed in the wool marxists and their current "mainstreamed" iterations have.

You have to defeat it, push it back, deport/mitigate what it imported for import sake (whatever mix of pro-crime, pro-illegal and pro-other tribal social conservatism for sake of diversity and national demoralisation)....and really not concern yourself with the tears and pearl clutching.

Sow the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind.

And? None of Musk's beeswax, ESPECIALLY not as a de facto member of the incoming Trump administration. Then again, look at the batshit insane stuff Trump is uttering regarding Canada, Panama and Greenland. Par for the fucking course.

[Zen9]

Musk is frankly burning up talent to make his companies work and turn profit.....And to hell with their lives or the long-term future.

Essentially young people will walk through fire to be part of the future and Musk is luring them in with the very promised future we all got sold on ever the since the 60's.
Electric cars.
Space travel.
Robots.

And to be fair to him, he too was sold on that and likely expected it, as we all did "by the 2020's".......

Only by the early 2000's, it was clear it wasn't going to happen under the old leadership and it was also clear that in demographic terms the window in which this would be possible on the back of talent from a huge global population was going to close.....by 2050 if not earlier.

So with stacks of cash in the bank and a lifespan left to make it happen. The rich nerd rides to humanity's rescue......at least that's the story he probably tells himself.

Think the techy fixing the lifeboat as the ship starts to fall apart around him and the heroic characters of the movie crowd round, desperate to escape their fate.
" need more time!" Yells Musk "just hold it together for a few more minutes (years)", and of course the heros dash off to keep the ship together. While crowds of screaming passengers riot on the decks as the decrepit ship still shakes worse and worse...And ahead the rocks emerge in the distance. Dead ahead.

He doesn't care about the ship (the state).
He doesn't care about the fleet (culture, The West etc).
He doesn't care about the passengers (population).
All he cares about is getting on that lifeboat and away from the impending disaster. Ideally with the select few he allows on it.

Every intervention in politics, and culture, is to keep things together long enough for him to get what he wants. Beyond that, it can all fall apart as far as he's concerned.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

I don't think Musk has such specific plans. IMHO, he just wants us to have the best toys, happily throws talent and money at making them.

But...

He reminds me of well-off neighbours who got a pair of cute kittens for their clever daughter, bought, un-boxed and assembled a vast 'cat tree'.

( We had a very similar one, which our manic Bengals used like a circus' 'triple trapeze'...)

They were very puzzled that their kitties preferred to play in / around the big Amazon box.

The daughter, who had much more 'Common Sense' than her parents, explained, "They're cats: They'll do as they please. in their own time, in their own way. Kath and Nik reckon that, in a couple of months, they'll settle down and use the 'tree' as a bird-watching perch."

[jemhouston]

Boxes are fun. They' were a gateway drug to my lifelong addiction to containers and bags.


If you have an addiction to either, stay away from the Zarges website.

[brovane]

Musk is frankly burning up talent to make his companies work and turn profit.....And to hell with their lives or the long-term future.

Essentially young people will walk through fire to be part of the future and Musk is luring them in with the very promised future we all got sold on ever the since the 60's.
Electric cars.
Space travel.
Robots.

And to be fair to him, he too was sold on that and likely expected it, as we all did "by the 2020's".......

Only by the early 2000's, it was clear it wasn't going to happen under the old leadership and it was also clear that in demographic terms the window in which this would be possible on the back of talent from a huge global population was going to close.....by 2050 if not earlier.

So with stacks of cash in the bank and a lifespan left to make it happen. The rich nerd rides to humanity's rescue......at least that's the story he probably tells himself.

Think the techy fixing the lifeboat as the ship starts to fall apart around him and the heroic characters of the movie crowd round, desperate to escape their fate.
" need more time!" Yells Musk "just hold it together for a few more minutes (years)", and of course the heros dash off to keep the ship together. While crowds of screaming passengers riot on the decks as the decrepit ship still shakes worse and worse...And ahead the rocks emerge in the distance. Dead ahead.

He doesn't care about the ship (the state).
He doesn't care about the fleet (culture, The West etc).
He doesn't care about the passengers (population).
All he cares about is getting on that lifeboat and away from the impending disaster. Ideally with the select few he allows on it.

Every intervention in politics, and culture, is to keep things together long enough for him to get what he wants. Beyond that, it can all fall apart as far as he's concerned.

Ask yourself how many people got burned up and how many marriages failed because aerospace engineers in the 1960's had a mistress and it was called the Apollo Program. Video below is a interesting perspective from a engineer who worked at SpaceX for several years. He was told by a NASA engineer that there would come a time in his career in the space business that he would have to choose between his career and his family. You don't do epic shit by working 9-5.

https://youtu.be/r4OovdoG80w?si=Qg24QUKfWXC6tQZN

[Pdf27]

Well if it is on the Internet, it must be true, right?
Here is video inside of Starfactory. What do you see? Yeah bright safety colors and Musk. I guess that doesn't drive clicks does it?
https://youtu.be/aFqjoCbZ4ik?si=D3EnwknYI_VDsPQz&t=2470

Musk wearing trainers and no PPE while the guys right around him are doing a lifting operation with a hard hat on, no barriers between him and it? Yeah, anybody else in a normal job would be disciplined or fired for doing that.

image_2025-01-08_182348741.png

All the deaths or serious injuries in the Reuters reporting are really obvious stuff that should never have happened if you had a half decent safety culture. That comes from the top, and starts with really basic stuff like the CEO wearing the same PPE as the employees when he's around the plant.

[brovane]

Well if it is on the Internet, it must be true, right?
Here is video inside of Starfactory. What do you see? Yeah bright safety colors and Musk. I guess that doesn't drive clicks does it?
https://youtu.be/aFqjoCbZ4ik?si=D3EnwknYI_VDsPQz&t=2470

Musk wearing trainers and no PPE while the guys right around him are doing a lifting operation with a hard hat on, no barriers between him and it? Yeah, anybody else in a normal job would be disciplined or fired for doing that.
image_2025-01-08_182348741.png
All the deaths or serious injuries in the Reuters reporting are really obvious stuff that should never have happened if you had a half decent safety culture. That comes from the top, and starts with really basic stuff like the CEO wearing the same PPE as the employees when he's around the plant.

I thought it was about bright safety colors, are you done moving the goalposts?

FYI - In case you missed it one of the workers took down the safety barrier because the operation they where doing that required it to be up was done.

[warshipadmin]

Big bosses defying H&S regs is always good fun. The number of big shot American managers and execs we've had come over and wreck prototypes is hilarious, to the extent that one nearly killed my department manager who then instigated a rule that they had to pass our (internal) level 2 driving test before being allowed to drive our cars, and then were only allowed to drive at level 2, linear range, not above 180 kph.

[Zen9]

Musk is frankly burning up talent to make his companies work and turn profit.....And to hell with their lives or the long-term future.

Essentially young people will walk through fire to be part of the future and Musk is luring them in with the very promised future we all got sold on ever the since the 60's.
Electric cars.
Space travel.
Robots.

And to be fair to him, he too was sold on that and likely expected it, as we all did "by the 2020's".......

Only by the early 2000's, it was clear it wasn't going to happen under the old leadership and it was also clear that in demographic terms the window in which this would be possible on the back of talent from a huge global population was going to close.....by 2050 if not earlier.

So with stacks of cash in the bank and a lifespan left to make it happen. The rich nerd rides to humanity's rescue......at least that's the story he probably tells himself.

Think the techy fixing the lifeboat as the ship starts to fall apart around him and the heroic characters of the movie crowd round, desperate to escape their fate.
" need more time!" Yells Musk "just hold it together for a few more minutes (years)", and of course the heros dash off to keep the ship together. While crowds of screaming passengers riot on the decks as the decrepit ship still shakes worse and worse...And ahead the rocks emerge in the distance. Dead ahead.

He doesn't care about the ship (the state).
He doesn't care about the fleet (culture, The West etc).
He doesn't care about the passengers (population).
All he cares about is getting on that lifeboat and away from the impending disaster. Ideally with the select few he allows on it.

Every intervention in politics, and culture, is to keep things together long enough for him to get what he wants. Beyond that, it can all fall apart as far as he's concerned.

Ask yourself how many people got burned up and how many marriages failed because aerospace engineers in the 1960's had a mistress and it was called the Apollo Program. Video below is a interesting perspective from a engineer who worked at SpaceX for several years. He was told by a NASA engineer that there would come a time in his career in the space business that he would have to choose between his career and his family. You don't do epic shit by working 9-5.

https://youtu.be/r4OovdoG80w?si=Qg24QUKfWXC6tQZN

I don't need to, because if I was my 30 years younger self I too would pointlessly fling myself at America and Space X to get into that world and IF I had succeeded (very doubtful looking back now) would either be dead from stress or a burned out wreak within less than ten years.

In my 50's now I can look back at what I wanted to do and thank the gods I didn't get to.

I'm frankly thankful I never got into the aviation design sector as the frustration and absence of tangible products, as stidy after study would lead to noware, would've driven me mad with despair.

[warshipadmin]

Yes I had a near miss with aerospace, luckily I got a student apprenticeship with a car company rather than British Aerospace or Westland, which I interviewed at but didn't get an offer.

The people I know who were recruited by Tesla are not people I'd have selected, they all went to work for Apple!

War story about aerospace - at uni as a mere pleb working in Birmingham for Land Rover i was occasionally regaled with boasts by someone who was sponsored by Roll Royce gas turbines . I caught up with him at some reunion (not doing that again) ~6 years later and he was excited because he was finally going to fly behind one of 'his' engines.

As someone whose working life featured weekly (or sometimes daily) drives of 'my' cars I nearly burst out laughing.

[gtg947h]

I don't need to, because if I was my 30 years younger self I too would pointlessly fling myself at America and Space X to get into that world and IF I had succeeded (very doubtful looking back now) would either be dead from stress or a burned out wreak within less than ten years.

I was engaged when I graduated (needed insurance etc), had I been single I probably would have gone after a military pilot slot... but, if I were 22 and single right now I'd probably be chasing SpaceX too...

Heck, I have a friend at Blue who keeps saying "call me, I have a job waiting for you and I need help straightening these kids out"... and the only thing stopping me is we're trying to move closer to Atlanta, not further.

That said, there's a reason I got off of the new programs side of things after about seven years, and bailed over to in-service support

In my 50's now I can look back at what I wanted to do and thank the gods I didn't get to.

I thought I wanted flight test when I graduated. I'm very glad I didn't get it.

War story about aerospace - at uni as a mere pleb working in Birmingham for Land Rover i was occasionally regaled with boasts by someone who was sponsored by Roll Royce gas turbines . I caught up with him at some reunion (not doing that again) ~6 years later and he was excited because he was finally going to fly behind one of 'his' engines.

As someone whose working life featured weekly (or sometimes daily) drives of 'my' cars I nearly burst out laughing.

The first flight or three were interesting. Now I try and avoid test/eval flights and give them to the young bucks--they mess up my daily walk and lunch routine and keep me from getting more useful work done

[Pdf27]

FYI - In case you missed it one of the workers took down the safety barrier because the operation they where doing that required it to be up was done.

No, it wasn't done - there was still someone working at height on top of the scissor lift. Everywhere I've worked with lifting operations the barrier is not removed until everything is at ground level and secured.

Big bosses defying H&S regs is always good fun. The number of big shot American managers and execs we've had come over and wreck prototypes is hilarious, to the extent that one nearly killed my department manager who then instigated a rule that they had to pass our (internal) level 2 driving test before being allowed to drive our cars, and then were only allowed to drive at level 2, linear range, not above 180 kph.

Thankfully where I am they're very good about it - the CEO sets the tone by always wearing the same PPE as the staff and being photographed for the internal version of Pravda doing so.

I don't need to, because if I was my 30 years younger self I too would pointlessly fling myself at America and Space X to get into that world and IF I had succeeded (very doubtful looking back now) would either be dead from stress or a burned out wreak within less than ten years.

In my 50's now I can look back at what I wanted to do and thank the gods I didn't get to.

No chance. Even when I was that age I was aware that Formula 1 had a better work-life balance.

I'm frankly thankful I never got into the aviation design sector as the frustration and absence of tangible products, as study after study would lead to nowhere, would've driven me mad with despair.

Depends where you work and what you're doing. The stuff I work on is definitely going big places, but is a very slow burner - I've been working on it since 2018, and it'll be ~2030 before the first aircraft using it flies with the main application being after 2035. If you have the patience it's worthwhile however - the impact is very strong and it secures jobs for a generation or more, and the problems are fascinating. It's certainly a temperament thing - if you need to see action you'll spend a few years eating your heart out and leave - so is very much not for everyone.

[brovane]

FYI - In case you missed it one of the workers took down the safety barrier because the operation they where doing that required it to be up was done.

No, it wasn't done - there was still someone working at height on top of the scissor lift. Everywhere I've worked with lifting operations the barrier is not removed until everything is at ground level and secured.

Musk didn't take the barrier down. So whatever required the barrier to be up was completed.
Are we over the claim of SpaceX not having bright safety colors because Musk doesn't like bright colors?

[brovane]

Musk is frankly burning up talent to make his companies work and turn profit.....And to hell with their lives or the long-term future.

Essentially young people will walk through fire to be part of the future and Musk is luring them in with the very promised future we all got sold on ever the since the 60's.
Electric cars.
Space travel.
Robots.

And to be fair to him, he too was sold on that and likely expected it, as we all did "by the 2020's".......

Only by the early 2000's, it was clear it wasn't going to happen under the old leadership and it was also clear that in demographic terms the window in which this would be possible on the back of talent from a huge global population was going to close.....by 2050 if not earlier.

So with stacks of cash in the bank and a lifespan left to make it happen. The rich nerd rides to humanity's rescue......at least that's the story he probably tells himself.

Think the techy fixing the lifeboat as the ship starts to fall apart around him and the heroic characters of the movie crowd round, desperate to escape their fate.
" need more time!" Yells Musk "just hold it together for a few more minutes (years)", and of course the heros dash off to keep the ship together. While crowds of screaming passengers riot on the decks as the decrepit ship still shakes worse and worse...And ahead the rocks emerge in the distance. Dead ahead.

He doesn't care about the ship (the state).
He doesn't care about the fleet (culture, The West etc).
He doesn't care about the passengers (population).
All he cares about is getting on that lifeboat and away from the impending disaster. Ideally with the select few he allows on it.

Every intervention in politics, and culture, is to keep things together long enough for him to get what he wants. Beyond that, it can all fall apart as far as he's concerned.

Ask yourself how many people got burned up and how many marriages failed because aerospace engineers in the 1960's had a mistress and it was called the Apollo Program. Video below is a interesting perspective from a engineer who worked at SpaceX for several years. He was told by a NASA engineer that there would come a time in his career in the space business that he would have to choose between his career and his family. You don't do epic shit by working 9-5.

https://youtu.be/r4OovdoG80w?si=Qg24QUKfWXC6tQZN

I don't need to, because if I was my 30 years younger self I too would pointlessly fling myself at America and Space X to get into that world and IF I had succeeded (very doubtful looking back now) would either be dead from stress or a burned out wreak within less than ten years.

In my 50's now I can look back at what I wanted to do and thank the gods I didn't get to.

I'm frankly thankful I never got into the aviation design sector as the frustration and absence of tangible products, as stidy after study would lead to noware, would've driven me mad with despair.

From what I have read a lot of engineers work for space because they actually get to implement what they design instead of study after study leading to nowhere. They work at SpaceX for a set amount of time to get experience and then move on to somewhere else that has a slower pace.
I think about Sarah Gillis who got a BS degree in aerospace engineering and interned at SpaceX in 2015. Joined the company after graduating in 2017 and was involved in the crew Dragon and was responsible for overseeing astronaut training for Crew Dragon. She then got the opportunity to fly on the first Polaris Dawn mission and participate in the first commercial EVA. She played the Violin in Orbit https://youtu.be/0yHjVU_nbvI?si=ZPvHuVA_NhOzg9A7. She is 31, you don't do epic shit while working 9-5.

[jemhouston]

Speaking of epic shit

I'm not excusing the behavior but, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Hyman G. Rickover, and Curtis LeMay were difficult to work for. How many innovators were pleasant people to work for?