Full podcast episode: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/l61_iZiDnLOVeqc.html Lex Fridman podcast channel: kzfaq.info Guest bio: Walter Isaacson is an author of biographies on Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci, and many others.

As an engineer I will say loyalty to seeing your project completed is what sets apart team members

Worked in silicon valley for 25 years as an engineer. After many years of 80-100 hour work weeks, decided to be a consultant. As a consultant, worked half as much for twice the previous, full-time pay.

Brain Dow saying "I would rather be burned out than Bored" shows the level of intense hard work they put in

"I'd rather be burned out than bored" - it's always great to epitomise the hardcore company people, but it's not for everyone! I much prefer 5pm finish than a 4 hour sleep every night lol

That was a good move by Musk to go down into the middle (skip-level meeting) and essentially see what he had propping up the program. I’ve worked for a number of private companies that were content with inefficiency and incompetence and, for whatever reason, would not promote or take advice from their mid-level employees who know what the problems are with a product or how the company operates. Often those are the the employees who know how to exactly fix problems but also the people that all too often aren’t utilized or asked about structural advice. Those are your NCOs that know the job and what works well but also have seen where all the problems are. You’re mid-level employees will languish and possibly exit if you wait too long to heed their advice or altogether ignore them. Good on Musk for realizing that.

Leslie Nielsen is very convincing in this role.

The hiring process matters, it's not whats on paper but the PERSONALITY

When you want to know if someone is really looking for loyalty and not submissiveness, try to argue with them about a topic they deeply care about. Not for the sake of it, but to find the best possible solution for your shared goal. The result of this will tell you what they really value. There're too many power hungry "leaders" that use all these buzzwords in their speeches and interviews, but in reality just want to feel like kings, prove something to their abusive parents and be better than everyone. Intensity and hardcoreness drives capitalism, but we all know, it is not very sustainable.

im hearing loyalty, my brain is thinking obedience, you could only be as loyal to elon as he is to you, that's how a 2 way transactional relationship works

I was a kid when soviet union collapsed and as a kid seeing what my country and the people were doing, I understood one thing; you can not build on ruins, the ruins become your foundation. Delete, delete, delete is right.

Sounds like a man committed to his mission. Excellence, loyalty and drive seem great (and mutual 360 degrees) criteria for organisations, even when it comes to living wellness, ethics, and ecological living for companies, "all in".

"called him after midnight - are you still around? Yes, I'm still at work". Most important thing in the hiring process is being a workaholic, most likely with no family, and most likely going to burn out sooner rather than later. Yes, you can do that in your twenties and early thirties. Not for your entire career.

I’d like the audiobook, as read by Musk himself. 🚀

I wonder if the current Elon would hire his younger 23+ year old version Elon...Wouldn't bet money on it.

can someone explain why we have to watch 3 min ads before the video?

Really enjoyable clip nd guest ⚡️🔥❗️

Having to make the decision to cut plp off is a rare super power 😂😂

To expect A player output, is there an associated increase in compensation?

I don't blame him for firing all those people from Twitter. From what I've heard from them they needed fired. I predict he will either have Twitter either breaking even or turning a profit. It may take a few more years. He will stop it from losing money by virtue of efficiency.

- I want a job at X - what was your last job? - twitter - we'll call you back, have a nice day! 😂😂😂

Thank god Elon asserted free speech values and took down the childish idiots who think their feelings have inordinate value.

Individual success within the gravitational pull of Elon is simply based on rate of success (as defined exclusively by Musk) and willingness to relinquish most self autonomy and control of your life (again, as defined exclusively by Musk). Some would just rather be "bored" than "burned out". But you burn yourself out anyway burning your fuel trying to escape his gravitational pull. So you might as well play ball once you are on the roster.

Seems like Elon is the scariest boss ever

its crazy to expect your people to work a 9-5 but they're still @ the office past 3am you're literally working yourself to death with less than 5hrs sleep

Musk grew up in the same area than me .South Africa Petoria . Never pesonally knEw him . Absolute Nonsense about his Father . Our culture in Afrikaans is dissipline and absolute order.iTS THE WAY WE WERE ALL RAISED HERE .Mentally Tough and strong. Charlise Theron Actress Same culture ...

musk's letter to twitter stuff about "long hours at high intensity or receive three months of severance" was a form of ultimatum and looked like pure disrespect to the employees.

Love how they got rid of radical leftist base on slack virtue signalling and derangements

fantastic insight ty men

"I'd rather be burned out than bored". I love that

All of the people commenting in disaproval of Musk’s methods in hiring and managing are hypocritical. Because if you were listening about a world class coach or a special forces lead guy - you’d be totally all-in and would agree that is what makes that job special and successful for everyone involved. But when top level engineers want to do the same at Musk’s companies, you ridicule them. It’s like making fun of Djokovic’s training regime because you’d rather play tennis once a week with your cousin.

I think its a lot of hype. It probably depends on his mood.

0:22: 🔥 Elon Musk fired 85% of the engineers working on Tesla's full self-driving autopilot software. 2:28: 👥 The success of Elon Musk and Steve Jobs can be attributed to their ability to hire and manage great teams. 4:53: 🚀 Elon Musk uses skip level meetings to identify emerging talent and make important decisions. 7:26: 🏢 Elon Musk promotes Brian Dow to run the solar roof division after multiple failed attempts by others. 9:47: 🔑 Trustworthiness is the most important and hardest trait to obtain. Recap by Tammy AI

The ultimate point is that despite firing a massive amount of their engineers, Twitter still works absolutely fine and in some aspects better than it used to, so yeah that's pretty damning

I too would rather work hard than be bored, because if you truly love your job, truly love the mission, work isn't work, is a sport that you play to win. There are two kinds of state of stress: Stressed because you have to put up with problems you don't like or don't understand OR stressed because you have many problems and you accept the challenge or like learning new things.

I can't understand Musk's talent. It seems like he doesn't invent anything....but he's got a mystique and that's huge. People will follow, governments will give him contracts and he is a kiss ass at the highest level.

There are plenty of great places to work. X is probably not one of them.

I had a small business and I personally interviewed potential employees. I would talk with them let them smoke and not hire them for the job. All my employees were non smokers.

No one mentions that they forced Elon to pay $44 billion for Twitter. Of course he must have arrived indisposed.

Well, you cant work for TESLA, if you are not working to your capability. He is just making sure, the company is putting out QUALITY products....and thats a big task...the only other ccompanies i can Think of guallity, is Toyota,and Honda..

Good interview

“Skip level” meetings aka you poorly hired in leadership positions

El9n was like the first boss I worked for, and such strictness really shapped me on to this day even though he fired me😅

Whats the price in Germany?

Lex. How about Stephen King for the next pod

Exactly why I'd never work for a company.

We shouldn't be surprised. Dude runs the most successful private space company and electric car company. Of course he should be a nightmare type of boss.

The best part is no part

Elon sounds like an awful, childish, tantrum-prone, trigger-happy employer. I hope the guys who work for him get well compensated.

Nobody who owns a company wants to get rid of anyone who is an asset providing value to their company. Their greatest fear is losing good employees and will do what it takes to retain those employees. So anyone who says Elon is a scary boss either has no confidence in their own ability or is looking for a free ride at his expense.

Imagine being on vacation during the skip-level

You fire me for no good reason, good luck hiring me back! Take a hike!!

The ramifications in terms of damage to the Twitter platform and associated investment return does not seem to directly correspond with the risks associated with firing the majority of current market segment leading business without fully assessing and understanding that risk. Investors in Twitter/X may never get a decent return on their money again

We'd need Neuralink version 100 to work in SpaceX.

If you’re a bad-ass engineer, it would be awesome to work with Musk, even if he fires you later!!

"stellar people" at Space X. Well, obviously.

This is pathetic. I went through the hiring process in one of Elon's companies, and I quickly realized that there is no point in trying to "save humanity" if his own workforce of highly skilled hard working young people are treated like a stock of cattle. It's a scam.

Anda harus jujur berjuangkan ke bahagia saya dan saya akan berjuang membahagiakan anda agar kita bisa membuat tatajan baru tentang america dimasadepan

I hope you can play a convincing Leonardo, Lex.

THAT SPIDEY SENSE LMAO yeah I see that when I find like minded people but I need to train it better cuz it's kinda unreliable.

nah ambition in and of itself isn't it nor is self knowledge

I wonder how many A players were thrown away. The presumption an algorithm is a better judge of character was long ago debunked. Keywords and catch phrases have little to do with potential. A fun thought. Algorithms rely on collated lists. Employees are just a number or series of numbers 1 bad seed in HR or with the ability to swap data used is all it takes

yeah good line- rather be burned out than bored. ooh should I save this in my obsidian is it worth my obsidian hmmm?

This man says he probably… so he does not know. That’s the answer.

I’ve never seen someone dox a human that hard multiple times in an interview in my life 😂 BOCA CHICA 2BEDROOM OF SOUTH TEXAS LOOKIN AHH

Why would I be all-in for Musk?

wrt to the musketeers and slack messages sorting, is Elon looking for people truthful to him or the company?

Jacob sounds like my dad

Fan boys are boring

lex slobbering all over it

Lex throwing shade? Id say so.

Elon ❤

Sounds like a A Game boss which is good but you must be single, childless and willing to put serious commitment while working for him. At some point you have to hand over the reins or he takes them off you

“How many names can I drop in 60 seconds.”

So loyalty and trustworthiness is the most important trait yet if you dont give up your life for corporate daddy elon then you get cut without a second thought, LOL the delusions are real

Lex is doing paid promotion of his new book

It's a question of being someone's slave. Every successful driven business will use you up then humiliatingly throw you out. It's the nature of the beast. The trick is to quit and move on before that eventuality.........

He doesn't seem to really understand Musk...always an undercurrent of caveat and low-key shade. #WeaknessAndMediocrityCommentingOnStrengthAndExcellence

Guy sounds like a total wacko

Walter Isaacson will say things to please his biographical subjects. Steve Jobs was not an engineer and was smart but incredibly lucky to have met great computer engineers and known Edwin Land who helped him immensely. Elon Musk is just a bit of an idiot in certain things. I mean who on Earth would pay $40billion for Twitter when it was a loss making company. Is that not a stupid thing to do.

Watch this speakers lung reflux to see how convincing he is

Maybe Elon is an astute businessman……..but I bet he makes a lot of enemies along the way. You can’t have things both ways.

Semua pria sukses mempunyai pider sihp dari wanita yg sepesial

Making a test comment

可唔可以教一下簡單的fact check？現在的假新聞很聰明，假中帶真，最近睇Sun Channel，講就好公正，但隱藏很多大外宣

In sum: work like a slave. Nothing new under the sun!

We have been working nonstop for this guy all year long, record profits and guess what? No BONUSES THIS YEAR from this ungrateful wrench 😢

So no freedom of speech within Twitter?

The earliest bird catches the finest worm. If employees are "in" the company "only" for their personal fame. Fire them. Employees have to be fully in the company with their hearts, the mission.

I rather be burned out rather than bored. That’s what I live bye. ❤

he said ben franklin wtf

Sorry for being a grammar nazi here, but, for fluck sake, can at least writers remember that it’s “number of people”, not amount of people. Amount is used for immeasurable quantities.

he does know that a raptor hasn’t made it out of our atmosphere yet, right?

More and more, Musk is turning into a right-wing nut job. Kudos to the folks at SpaceX who can work with him. I just hope that there is now enough independent expertise there to carry on when Musk finally goes completely "round the bend".

2/3's weren't aquiencing nazis at twitter

Hey Lex, how did you get that beautiful last name!? Was it KGB assigned!? 😁

"Musk is a magnet for awesome talent . "-Walter Isaacson I agree 💯 ❤

Evs are the biggest scam right now 💯

Musk is a great boss

I was a big fan of SpaceX, & Elon until last year when he kicked an American who's older than him off twitter. Me. Both sides of my family in America since 1620. Not so much for Space Karen who hobbled my rights in America. I only had 400 followers & was still banned. So much for Space Karen's Lip Service on Free Speech. Time for Space Karen to head back to where he came from - South Africa.