He said SpaceX is engineering-centric and looks at what tough engineering problems people have solved and how.
"what what what tough engineering problems have they solved, how they solved them"
How do you hire and manage people?
Q3031 answers2011-2026
Short answer
In rocketry you cannot bluff: if something is wrong the rocket explodes. He says physics is a harsh judge, people break human laws but not physics, and rockets are ruled by physics.
All 31 answers, oldest to newest
2011 · 1 answer
2014 · 1 answer
He said the most important thing when creating or joining a company is to attract great people.
"the most important thing is to, is to attract great people"
2017 · 1 answer
Gut feel more than anything. He asks people to tell the story of their life and the decisions they made, and about the most difficult problems they worked on and how they solved them. People who really solved it know the little details.
"Tell me the story of your life"
2018 · 4 answers
He says machines are bad at picking up pieces of fluff, so Tesla removed an over-complicated automated step.
"Machines are not good at picking up pieces of fluff. Human hands are way better at doing that."
He says idea generation far exceeds the ability to execute, so Tesla must stay focused.
"idea generation far exceeds the ability to execute it. So we just need to stay focused"
He says the number of third-party contracting companies Tesla uses has gotten out of control.
"the number of sort of third party contracting companies that we're using has really gotten out of control."
He said a company is just a group of people gathered together to make products.
"People sometimes forget that a company is just a group of people gathered together to make products."
2019 · 4 answers
He said someone could join as a junior engineer at Tesla Shanghai and ultimately maybe have his job one day.
"One day somebody could join as a junior engineer here at Tesla Shanghai Giga and ultimately maybe have my job one day."
A friend asked who the chief engineer of SpaceX is; he said it is him. What he tells the team is everyone is a chief engineer: everyone must understand, broadly, all the systems in the vehicle so you do not get subsystem optimization.
"Everyone is a chief engineer"
He said if you want to advance technology you have to recruit the world's best engineers and create an environment that lets them be as innovative as possible — reward innovation and punish lack of it.
"you've got to recruit the world's best engineers"
He looks for evidence of exceptional ability, not college or high-school graduation. Give three bullet points of exceptional ability: an impressive device, a tough competition, a great idea. A 4.0 GPA can even be a contra-indicator. He worries whether Nikola Tesla alive today would get an interview.
"evidence of exceptional ability"
2020 · 6 answers
You don't need college to learn; everything is available for free. The value of college is seeing whether someone can work hard through annoying homework, and hanging around people your own age. He does not consider going to college evidence of exceptional ability.
"you don't need college to learn and learn stuff okay everything is available basically for free"
He says designing new production systems is extremely exciting and fulfilling.
"It's actually extremely exciting and fulfilling to design new production systems."
He says Tesla probably contains more than a dozen startups, with every major product line being a startup.
"Every major product line is a startup"
He says there are more than a dozen effective startups inside Tesla, every major product line.
"there's probably in excess of a dozen startups effectively in Tesla. Every major product line is a startup"
He says Tesla is not dependent on enterprise software, which is a very big deal.
"We are not dependent on enterprise software."
He wants leaders on the front lines: nobody bleeds for the prince in the palace; troops fight harder if the general is there.
"nobody bleeds for the prince in the palace"
2021 · 1 answer
He agrees that context switching is the mind killer and tries to do less of it.
"Context switching is the mind killer, which I totally agree with."
2022 · 2 answers
He said the most inclusive definition is all humans — get as many people as possible on Twitter. From a company standpoint he believes in a strict meritocracy: whoever does great work gets more responsibility.
"i believe in something in a sort of strict meritocracy"
He said a company's output is the vector sum of its people; a strong individual who drags down those around them can be a net negative.
"Output of any company is the vector sum of people within it. Someone may be a strong vector, but negatively affect those around them to such a degree that they are a net negative."
2023 · 3 answers
He says manufacturing technology will be Tesla's most important long-term strength.
"manufacturing technology will be our most important long term strength."
He says he and the team review daily order data every day and try to make the least dumb decision.
"we try to make the least dumb decision that we can."
He says he believes in giving stock to the employees and creators of the company as an incentive.
"I believe in providing stock to the people at the company, the employees and creators of the company."
2024 · 3 answers
He says small organizational errors accumulate, so it was time to reorganize Tesla for the next phase of growth.
"it is time to reorganize the company for the next phase of growth."
He says a company that is not reorganized for different phases of growth will fail.
"if you don't reorganize it for different phases of growth, it will fail."
He says you have to reorganize a company for a new phase of growth.
"you've got to reorganize the company for a new phase of growth"
2025 · 2 answers
He says he rarely sees executives whose work is going well, because he goes where the problem is.
"I don't see them very often because I go where the problem is."
Replying to a post that the junior software engineering market is nuked, he said he believes in hiring super smart junior engineers.
"I believe in hiring super smart junior engineers"
2026 · 3 answers
Bullet points of evidence of exceptional ability; trust the conversation over the resume; hire for talent, drive, trustworthiness and goodness of heart.
"evidence of exceptional ability"
Impossible; he drills into details only where they are the limiting factor.
"It is a logical impossibility for me to micromanage things"
In rocketry you cannot bluff: if something is wrong the rocket explodes. He says physics is a harsh judge, people break human laws but not physics, and rockets are ruled by physics.
"I think like like physics is the law. Um, and everything else is a recommendation"
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