« on: October 28, 2023, 01:20:03 PM »
https://www.space.com/elon-musk-walter-isaacson-book-excerpt-starship-surge'We need to get to Mars before I die.' Read exclusive excerpt from 'Elon Musk' by biographer Walter Isaacson
By Brett Tingley published October 03, 2023
Walter Isaacson's sweeping biography of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reveals what drives the innovative entrepreneur to consistently push the envelope.
For the next few hours, he lumbered along the assembly lines, his hairless arms swinging, his neck slightly bent, pausing occasionally to stare at something in silence. Increasingly, his face got darker, and his pauses took on an ominous feel. By 9 p.m., a full moon had arisen out of the ocean, and it seemed to be transforming him into a man possessed.
I had seen Musk get into this demon-mode temperament before, so I sensed what it portended. As often happens�at least two or three times a year in a major way � a compulsion was swelling inside him to order up a surge, an all-in burst of round-the-clock activity, like he had done at the Nevada battery factory, the Fremont car assembly plant, and the autonomous-driving team offices, and would later do in the crazed month after he bought Twitter. The goal was to shake things up and "extrude shit out of the system," as he put it.
Ever since he flew back from Russia and calculated the costs of building his own rockets, Musk had deployed what he called the "idiot index." That was the ratio of the total cost of a component to the cost of its raw materials. Something with a high idiot index � say, a component that cost $1,000 when the aluminum that composed it cost only $100 � was likely to have a design that was too complex or a manufacturing process that was too inefficient. As Musk put it, "If the ratio is high, you're an idiot."
"What are the best parts in Raptor as judged by the idiot index?" Musk asked.
"I'm not sure," Hughes responded. "I will find out." This was not good. Musk's face hardened, and Shotwell shot me a worried glance.
"You better be [expletive] sure in the future you know these things off the top of your head," Musk said. "If you ever come into a meeting and do not know what are the idiot parts, then your resignation will be accepted immediately." He spoke in a monotone and showed no emotion. "How can you [expletive] not know what the best and worst parts are?"
...
Musk began with his lecture on collegiality. "I want to be super clear," he began. "You are not the friend of the engineers. You are the judge. If you're popular among the engineers, this is bad. If you don't step on toes, I will fire you. Is that clear?" Hughes stuttered a bit as he assented.
...
"We should ask each of them to see if they can get the cost of their part down by eighty percent," Musk suggested, "and if they can't, we should consider asking them to step aside if someone else might be able to do so."
By the end of the meeting, they had a roadmap to get the cost of each engine down from $2 million to $200,000 in twelve months.
« Last Edit: November 03, 2023, 02:16:05 PM by Robina »
I desire to go to hell and not to heaven. In the former place I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings, and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks, and apostles. ~ Niccolo Machiavelli on his deathbed, June 1527
Topic: Idiot index (Read 1552 times)