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Elon Musk says SpaceX and X will relocate their headquarters to Texas (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 month ago by llamacoffee@lemmy.world to c/spacex@sh.itjust.works
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Yuck. He could have just used some lame excuse like lower taxes or less business regulations or whatever and I would have just shrugged and said, eh I guess it makes sense what with the enormous facility they've built down there. But no, he had to make this about politics.

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[-] Ledivin@lemmy.world 42 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I honestly thought he already made good on this threat years ago. Good riddance.

Musk is just mad that California won't let him abuse his children. Texas is much more welcoming of that sort of behavior... and that's not even factoring in Texas's growing child labor movement.

[-] Pegajace@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

You’re thinking of Tesla headquarters, which he moved from Cali to Texas back in 2021.

[-] becausechemistry@lemm.ee 30 points 1 month ago

It’s so disheartening seeing the manchild keep throwing fits and Dunning-Krugering his way through things. It’s really fun watching these rockets, but it’s hard to be enthusiastic anymore with such a terrible person at the helm.

[-] ptfrd@sh.itjust.works -3 points 1 month ago

Does DK apply here? The most comprehensive report & evidence review that I know of says:

Parents should be encouraged to seek clinical help and advice in deciding how to support a child with gender incongruence and should be prioritised on the waiting list for early consultation on [the issue of social transition].

Clinical involvement in the decision-making process should include advising on the risks and benefits of social transition as a planned intervention, referencing best available evidence. This is not a role that can be taken by staff without appropriate clinical training.

Doesn't sound like the author thinks social transition is the kind of thing teachers should normally be making decisions about.

[-] becausechemistry@lemm.ee 5 points 1 month ago

I suppose I’m using DK as a sort of colloquialism here. The guy knows some stuff. But knowing a little gives him unearned confidence about the rest. He has enough smart people around him to succeed, but he’s not a genius. He’s just a rich guy.

[-] ptfrd@sh.itjust.works -3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I think he's a genius. Not on this issue, of course (though if he's read any of the Cass Review he's way ahead of the people down-voting me for accurately quoting it).

But probably the best engineering manager there's ever been.

[-] becausechemistry@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago

There have been tons of reports of his subordinates having to manage him. Like, he comes into a meeting and says they have to change a design because he thinks it doesn’t look cool. So they all have to figure out which meetings he can be left out of so they can just do their jobs.

And, also, Twitter is still a dumpster fire in terms of its tech stack. He swooped in and fired people and stopped paying bills.

Not a genius.

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago

And then twitter crashed?

[-] ptfrd@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

There have been tons of reports of his subordinates having to manage him.

I've seen rumours like that online, but I doubt there are tons of reliable testimonies. (Though if you feel like spending the time digging some up, I'd be happy to go & read them, and update my views accordingly.)

But perhaps there's no smoke without fire, and I do see how his style could lead to rumours like that.

I'll start by mentioning a couple of his edicts.

  1. Something like "try deleting the part or process" [from your design]. He had some rough metric like "if you aren't finding that 10% of the parts you try deleting end up needing to be added back in [to the design], then you haven't been deleting aggressively enough".

  2. Something like "assume the requirements [that you have been asked to meet] are wrong". Talk to the other teams, and the people designing your interface or creating your requirements. Push back.

These both seem plausibly correct to me, and it's these - and perhaps many dozens of other similarly 'weird' aspects of his approach that he has adopted over the years - which are why I suspect his multiple successes are not a fluke.

And then, you can imagine a similar type of thinking applied in a 'meta' way. Basically, if Musk isn't finding that at least 10% of his crazy edicts are getting significant push-back from his teams, and eventually get dropped, then maybe he's not being crazy enough. And that certainly means there'll be examples that could lead, sometimes with some embellishment, sometimes not, to the kinds of rumours you allude to.

says they have to change a design because he thinks it doesn’t look cool

Well, yes, he's definitely weird in this way sometimes. Often placing value in aesthetics, and sometimes comedy. (Like with the "make the rocket more pointy" thing.) But seemingly not enough to cause his projects to fail. (So maybe that's ultimately a good thing too; a bit of quirkiness to remind himself and others not to take things TOO seriously.)

[-] becausechemistry@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

This is just the first, easiest thing I found showing he’s a man child manager. There are many, many others.

You seem to be a really big fan of the guy. Despite what you said, it doesn’t seem like you’re really interested in changing your opinion. There’s a lot of evidence that he’s an ass-hat, but you’re dismissing it as rumor. But equally unverifiable evidence that makes him look like a kind of crazy genius is A-OK? Dude. That’s how evidence works in conspiracy theory nonsense world.

Which makes sense, given that the folks that adore him are also into conspiracy theory nonsense.

[-] ptfrd@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 month ago

There’s a lot of evidence that he’s an ass-hat

That's a separate question from the one I thought we were discussing.

But equally unverifiable evidence that makes him look like a kind of crazy genius is A-OK?

It's all unverifiable to us. But at that point you have to remember the elephant in the room: his companies' multiple successes, pushing forwards the state of the art, in multiple domains, in a commercially viable way.

I'll remind you that my previous comment used wording such as "I suspect", and "you can imagine". I'll now, off the top of my head, put a number on it. I'm 85% confident that the primary explanation for his otherwise unlikely run of successes, is that he's a genius of an engineering manager.

What's your primary explanation, and confidence level?

Which makes sense, given that the folks that adore him are also into conspiracy theory nonsense.

I consider myself anti- conspiracy theory. When I encounter them in various comment sections, I quite often briefly reply, politely correcting people. My guess would be that such people are more likely than average to dislike Musk.

As for me, I don't adore him. And I have multiple criticisms, and things I'd want to learn more about before judging him too positively overall.

[-] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I imagine the meeting at SpaceX.

The HR manager : So, now that the production is ramping up for Starship in Texas, most of our investments are there and most of our workforce is there already.

Should we move our headquarters there too ? We are getting some good incentives from the Texas government but moving everyone will be tough ...

Musk stumbling in the meeting room while looking at his phone

What are we talking about ?

HR manager : moving our headquarter to Texa...

Musk: Right ! because if the trans law of California !

HR: not really, it's more becau....

Musk: Let me post that on X leaves the room while typing on his phone

[-] PanoptiDon@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Hope you bring your own power pro

[-] SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

I thought he moved there for the lax child support laws.

[-] jonman364@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago

I think it might be more personal than political. He has an estranged trans daughter.

[-] Oni_eyes@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 month ago

Man, fuck that guy. Texas doesn't want him any more than Cali does.

[-] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

More of that hard work on Tesla that the shareholders bought! 56 billion well spent.

[-] Pika@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Good riddance he should just move already. He's been saying this since 2020, from what I understand a good portion of spacex is already in Southern Texas, might as well move the HQ as well. As for X? it doesn't really matter where it is HQ'd anymore and moving it out of cali would lower its legal obligations with privacy and security, plus X is not like how it used to be, it has transfered into enthusiast platform that has a specific purpose instead of a general platform everyone uses, not to mention that it has bled most of it's advertisers dry and is trying to make the graphs green despite that. This is the smart business move, It would likely be cheaper in the long run to move there due to lower regulation, I wouldn't see any other outcome. I find it super sleazy he's claiming "politics" as the reason though

[-] harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 month ago

X is an "enthusiast platform"? It's a pro-Putin, right-wing propaganda machine with vestiges of its former "glory."

It's not a smart business move because of the lower taxes and regulatory burdens. Texas is in the bottom 10 states for Quality of Life.

Plenty of other companies are discovering that moving to Texas doesn't work because employees don't want to move there. Nobody wants $1000+ "freedom" electric bills.

Unless they've bought into the whole abusive "trad wife" bs, Texas is legally very misogynistic.

The professional employees at SpaceX can find work at other companies if they don't want to move.

Time for SpaceX to join the list of good companies that Elon has turned into jokes.

this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2024
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