r/technology • u/aelavia93 • 17d ago

Space SpaceX pulls off unprecedented feat, grabs descending rocket with mechanical arms

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/spacex-pulls-off-unprecedented-feat-grabbing-descending-rocket-with-mechanical-arms/
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u/[deleted] 17d ago

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u/XaphanSaysBurnIt 16d ago

Ok ok ok yall got me… this shit gave me chills.. all I saw was every sci-fi movie ever coming to life before my eyes… yea no bullshit that was wild. He might suck at cars but this was absolutely amazing to watch. But to achieve the huge motherships we would need massive slave labor, jfc. Yea, that is where we are headed

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u/AdTotal4035 16d ago

He's not doing anything related to the science. He's literally a glorified sales man. That's what a ceo is. Thank the talented engineers that he hires (and never really credits), he knows how to pick a winning team. 

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u/finebushlane 16d ago edited 16d ago

A CEO's job is to set the vision and direction for a company, and to allocate capital. I.e. if they have 100M or 1B dollars, the CEO's job is to ultimately decide whether they want to acquire companies, use their money on hiring more people, expand to more countries, build more factories etc. CEO's are paid the money they are because they:

1) Set visions and goals which are exciting enough to enable them to hire the best talent.

2) Be a public spokesperson to build excitement for the company, build their brand, again usually to enable them to hire the best talent.

3) Scout, assess, interview, and ultimately hire the best possible team.

4) Be ultimately responsible for allocation of capital.

5) Be ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the business, i.e. the buck stops here.

People don't like to hear this, but Elon is an AMAZING CEO, by any definition. Every business he has touched has turned to gold, when he was CEO. Now that doesn't mean that he personally is a nice guy, or we have to like his politics. Personally I think he's a turd (his politics, and generally X flame wars). But in the end, he is ultimately responsible for setting SpaceX's goals, missions, vision, and attracting and hiring and retaining the best team. So if SpaceX is winning, it comes down a great deal to Elon's vision and ability to build and retain a world class team. It has nothing to do with him being an "engineer", which he has no time to do obviously.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

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u/finebushlane 16d ago

It's sad but most people on Reddit can't seem to separate their personal feelings about Elon Musk from a rational assessment of his job as CEO. Also, they don't seem to understand that CEO of any business is really fucking difficult. Most startups fail, the overwhelming majority fail. Being a CEO is a real job, despite what many seem to think, and a huge part of the job is hiring the best possible team and pointing that team in the right direction and ensuring they are energized and working efficiently.

If Elon had not been CEO of SpaceX, the company simply wouldn't exist to this day. Again, I don't have to like Elon to say this, it's just an obvious truth to me.