[lake_vincent]

Indeed. For example, Musk fancies himself a champion of "hard work" but what he fails to realize is that humans have not actually merged with robots yet, and we still have human needs.

If innovation and brilliant thinking are part of your brand, you actually get higher quality work, sustained over a longer period of time, if you actually back off on the whip-cracking and just give people what they need to produce great work.

You get slightly slower growth, but more area under the curve in the long run.

[ohgodplsno]

>For example, Musk fancies himself a champion of "hard work"

And Musk is the perfect example of "do as I say, not as I do", as he sends teams into a death march of insane hours, wherever he is, while he's shitposting on Twitter from his multi million dollar house paid for by company funds and pretending he's doing 120 hour work weeks

[jjtheblunt]

Maybe he realizes that, and is just a jackass.

[whatwherewhy]

Where are the nice bosses of top tech companies? Maybe that's how you build a big tech company.

[Consultant32452]

I suspect the world's wealthiest man knows how to grow a business better than either of us.

[youngtaff]

And farm government subsidies better than the rest of us

[rapsey]

To produce great work you also need some pressure. Otherwise people will get real lazy very quickly.

[htgb]

Counterpoint: open source software, of which there are many great works without anyone being forced or pressured into making it. There are many more ways of getting motivation than applying "some pressure". Indeed, people are inherently curious and motivated, but it can easily be suppressed by environmental factors. In particular "stick and carrot"-type reward systems.

For a (much more) elaborate expansion on this, see the book Drive by Daniel H. Pink.

[lake_vincent]

Exactly, which is why I am advocating precisely for giving people what they need. Some people need pressure to perform optimally, others don't. Some people need to put in 80 hours of work per week, others don't. It is simple and humane to approach it this way.

[systemvoltage]

I think motivation is more important. Solving problems should be fun and engaging activity. There are always bad apples literally in every single company no matter how good or faithful their culture. So, there is no way around it.

To give Elon credit, he does try to motivate people. Sleeping on the factory floor, doing more work than his subordinates, inspiring people about grand goals and "anti-bureacratic" philosophy – all contribute to motivation. He sent out an email to Tesla employees that literally said "If a rule becomes a Dilbert joke, then change the rule".

I am trying to steelman Elon's way of governing and personally know several people at SpaceX that are not dying from overwork, but actually happy. I also have a few friends who couldn't stand SpaceX and quit within the first year.