It will make it to Orbit. Despite all of Elons ways, there are good dedicated people working to make it happen. Making it to the Moon, I am doubtful. Making it to Mars... well lets get to he moon first.
starship has nothing to do with Elon. I know some SpaceX employees. They let Elon run around like the child he his pretending to be an engineer while they do the real work (and take his money)
SpaceX pays significantly higher than NASA if you believe levels.fyi, so I think it depends what industry average you are using. If you compare to general software engineering then it certainly pays less, but that is because there are many talented engineers happy to take a pay cut to work on something they find personally motivating (space exploration).
We know he's competent on some level, and a BS-er on some level given his bombastic announcements.
But bombast about literally going to Mars are different than bombast about QAnon in terms of credibility and inspiration.
Trump warned Europeans about Russian encroachment but he's cried wolf so many times he has no credibility.
Elon was nothing without the koolaid - I think he's a bit of an imposter - he's 'Iron Man' because they said that in a movie, and, SpaceX was able to stick the landing which gives him insane cred. He could make a million gallons of free koolaid for his staffers.
Smoking dope on YouTube is fully on brand.
Even calling out people on 'free speech' - fair enough.
But he's crossing a lot of lines and it's going to affect his ability to put people on Mars.
I have never had any aspiration to work for him, because I think he's glib - but - I would probably enjoy a tour at either organization, because hey that'd be fun. But now - I wouldn't really want to spend time there.
The Hero->Super Villain story is starting to become a meme.
Nearly all the dudes in the Valley I used to look up to are starting to act like like are a 2-pack-a-day smoker, 3 days after going 'cold turkey': thin skinned, short sighted, angry, arrogant, crude, conspiratorial, cynical, greedy, needlessly cold.
Some of the things they say make me believe they stopped reading books (other than business books) or travelling at age 19 to focus 100% on 'the game', and it's cost them deeply in terms of personal development and perspective.
They are not making the leap to 'Wise Sage Leaders' very well.
I wonder if regular corporate personal development is a better preparation for leading large, mature organizations.
I don't agree with Tim Cook on a lot of things but he definitely seems a league ahead in terms of social maturity than some of the Alpha Dogs of the Valley. Ditto for so many others.
