It's very possible that it's just smoke and mirrors, but if I were given an offer, I'd at least try it for a while. If it's true, I gain a lot - if it's false, I gain a useful reference in my CV.
working somewhere a while and thriving in that environment? But I get it, ethics can easily fly out the window when you choose, especially when there's alot of money in play to bribe your feelings.
With regard to how recruitment works, I've never been on a team where a recruiter got final say over whether someone is hired. As an engineer, I've had a lot of say in that decision many times. As for whether those feelings are projected, well… just look at which way the sentiment is going in this thread. Would you really want to take that gamble?
Ridiculous IMO.
He is on a power trip.
I second everything you said about fostering a competitive no bs environment. Reminds me of Jeff Bezos. But Musk's behavior is toxic. Treating people outside the firm (like customers getting into accidents with self drive and losing their life, or journalists critiquing his cars) with disrespect and annihilation is one thing. But treating your own people who you rely on to get stuff done, is entirely another. If the head is garbage, the body is too.
Musk is garbage, and when unbridled, we can see it in its full ugliness.
But Elon has this "my way or highway" blinded racehorse mentality. He overruns people if he doesn't get his way.
So you're saying you can be passive-aggressive all you want and your bosses can't fire you?
Well, good for you. You've reached Dr. House status. Enjoy it while it lasts.
In short, it means that doing things better (e.g. making a piece of software faster) for the sake of things being done better is praised, not tolerated, as is the case in the many "let's just ship it, we'll fix it later" software companies.
> when I see people from inside Twitter correct him on Twitter, with specific technical statements describing what's going on—and then he fires them
As far as I remember, the guy just said something along the lines "as the person who actually works on this, it's not 1000 RPCs.", to which Elon asked for a specific number, the guy replied with vague answers like "it only does like 50 RPCs all of which are async, but the software is full of bloat and various features slowing them down" which sounded nothing like "specific technical statements" to me. But I can't find the Tweet thread right now, so I won't stand by this opinion completely.
Regardless - even assuming the guy is 100% in the right - I don't think that publicly going against your boss in such a passive-aggressive way, at the same time portraying him as "the guy that doesn't know what he's talking about", is a right way of handling false information. Maybe another engineer told him 1000s of RPCs are being made, or he just made a hyperbole for the sake of explanation. Benefit of doubt, and all that.
Being rude will get you fired, no matter how right you are, that's kind of a given.