The Return of the Musk
Image: The Secret Developer / ChatGPT
So, it’s happened. The business owner Elon Musk has decided that running the multibillion-dollar car company isn’t something you can do effectively a day or two a week.
The news broke like it always does these days. Musk tweeting something like, “Gonna spend less time running America, more time on my hobby car biz lol”. Is this good news for Tesla?
From Federal Fixer to Full-Time Firefighter
Here’s the rub. Tesla’s profits have cratered. Sales are down 20%. Share price tanked.
Some blame Musk’s image, some blame tariffs (as much of the Tesla supply chain relies on parts from China). The truth is that it is both. Musk is getting torched much like the cars getting torched across the US. Who could’ve predicted this? Everyone.
The Office of Elon Management
Let’s talk “focus”. Musk promising more attention to Tesla is like being told your product owner is going to “circle back” to your Jira ticket, and then they arrange a meeting with just about everyone in the company.
The thing is, meetings aren’t productivity and adding complexity doesn’t magically produce results.
Focus doesn’t necessarily make things better, since sometimes it takes a plan and some knowledge to actually improve things. Like the DevOps manager who decided our PRs required two approvals instead of one and slowed our velocity without a commensurate increase in quality.
Sure. Musk will fix Tesla by playing CEO catch-up in between government efficiency cosplay and defending tariffs that break his own supply chain.
Oh dear
Remember that Musk misguidedly claimed that tariffs don’t really affect Tesla because they “assemble locally” across different regions. Okay. But when your suppliers are overseas and you’ve built a business that prides itself on vertical integration and razor-thin margins, maybe don’t act like geopolitics is just a side quest.
At the same time, Musk has become a toxic figurehead of Tesla, and the customer base certainly doesn’t appreciate what has been happening to their expensive purchases in terms of image.
Your CEO, Your Problem
Here’s the thing. You don’t get to separate the product from the person. Not when the person is the product, and that is the case here.
For software developers working in public companies, this matters. A CEO’s late-night political fan fiction becomes your customer churn. A leadership pivot becomes a hiring freeze. One man’s distraction is another team’s layoff.
If you think that’s hyperbole, I’d invite you to interview at a startup where the founder believes in “radical transparency” and “radical honesty”. You’ll be told brutally how you’re “not up to the standard” at interview, and employees will hear about job cuts on LinkedIn before the internal company communications are even signed off.
Conclusion
Maybe things will get better at Tesla. Perhaps if you give a venture 20% of your time rather than 5% it will get significantly better.
I’m going to call this. Don’t hold your breath.
When someone’s attention span is measured in meme cycles, no product roadmap is safe.
Image: The Secret Developer / ChatGPT