This whole article was light on hard content, but had some great ideas expressed well. For example:
Professional managers—MBA CEOs—are not very creative or adaptable, and their skills don't suit a startup. Business is like a multidimensional probabilistic chessboard. The rules aren't set, and the same moves don't always make you win. A lot of people can be really good in a set-piece battle; my biggest differentiating skill is I can invent new pieces.
expresses an idea that most can't articulate well, but seems intuitively true.
I agree that this idea seems intuitively true, but I don't think there is a problem articulating it. It's simply that many will find it offensive that a scientist can be better than an MBA student at managing a company.
Then again, Musk majored in both physics and business.
One thing I love about what this guy has done is the fact that he actually sees this stuff through. He didn't just talk about these ideas - he made them happen. It's one thing to do that for a Web site that two guys build in a room. It's quite another to literally put a rocket in orbit.
Agreed. I'm glad that he sees foreign companies as competitors... I'm not itching to get in a fight with China or Russia, but they're frenemies. We shouldn't be giving them any more than we have to.
"Business is like a multidimensional probabilistic chessboard. The rules aren't set, and the same moves don't always make you win. A lot of people can be really good in a set-piece battle; my biggest differentiating skill is I can invent new pieces."
Really shows you how he thinks. And I think he's correct too. And life is like that, in general, not just business. One big multidimensional probabilistic chessboard. Or perhaps a Rube Goldberg machine, where parts of the machine are not completely ludicrous. Part of the reason why I'm building a startup that simulates life. Because making models of multidimensional probabilistic Rube Goldbergian chessboards is fun!
Professional managers—MBA CEOs—are not very creative or adaptable, and their skills don't suit a startup. Business is like a multidimensional probabilistic chessboard. The rules aren't set, and the same moves don't always make you win. A lot of people can be really good in a set-piece battle; my biggest differentiating skill is I can invent new pieces.
expresses an idea that most can't articulate well, but seems intuitively true.