Jealous interests use disgruntled ex-workers to impugn Musk's Neuralink (business)

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Elon Musk’s Neuralink is an absolute disaster, former employees say
https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-...k-disaster

INTRO: Trouble is still brewing at Neuralink. Despite co-founder Elon Musk’s insistence that the brain-computer interface startup will be headed to human trials later this year, many experts aren’t so sure.

Now, several former employees have spoken to Fortune about just how dysfunctional it is at the company — casting even more doubt on Musk’s ambitious goals this year. 

Six former Neuralink employees claimed that the company is beleaguered with intense pressure to meet incredibly ambitious goals, causing a veritable revolving door of leadership. “There was this top-down dissatisfaction with the pace of progress even though we were moving at unprecedented speeds,” a former Neuralink employee told the magazine. “Still, Elon was not satisfied.”

Driven By Fear.The employees said that Musk specifically has fostered a toxic and intense working culture, insisting on unrealistic timelines for overly ambitious goals. They said they were often worried about angering the founder if his expectations weren’t met. 

“Everyone in that whole empire is just driven by fear,” one employee described Musk’s companies to Fortune. As such Neuralink saw a massive turnover rate, which included the departures of much of the founding leadership team... (MORE - details)

[stryder]

The one problem of any company attempting to develop into this particular area is that area has already operators operating within it. Operators that for the most part are illicit in their activities. This means if someone starts pushing a legitimate avenue for how such business is conducted, it would bring to question why they have been operating in the shadows and under a false flag for so long.

(In other words theres a whole bunch of hidden illegal sciences out there on this subject already, run by various countries that would rather nip it in the bud than face the whiplash of woke.)

So it can be construed that such illicit operators would go out of their way to keep both Musk and Zuckerberg from reaching such goals.

As for the "Driven by Fear", if you go into a job you have the opportunity to sit down at an interview and lay down the law, even as a prospective employee. State what you will do, what you will achieve and don't let the posed future boss make those decisions. You should know what you are capable of, don't leave it to them or you'll end up regretting it.

[Yazata]

Elon Musk’s Neuralink is an absolute disaster, former employees say

Well, if you choose to base your story around interviewing disgruntled former employees, then you are likely to get stories of dissatisfaction.

INTRO: Trouble is still brewing at Neuralink.

Maybe.

Despite co-founder Elon Musk’s insistence that the brain-computer interface startup will be headed to human trials later this year, many experts aren’t so sure.

Pretty much all the "scientists' horror" in that story (by the same author) boils down to "ethicists" (whatever they are) complaining that Neuralink is "for-profit". Elon is under attack right now because Tesla and SpaceX are non-union and because they are so damn successful (and because Elon is so damn rich). People like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren simply can't stand it. That's what we are seeing here, I think. It's why when Joe Biden's BBB promised electric car purchase incentives, Teslas didn't qualify for the full incentive amount but rather $4500/car less (no UAW organized workforce).  

There's very little in that story about the many actual technical hurdles in what Neuralink is trying to do. Inevitable delays will be because of the (perhaps insurmountable) technological/philosophical problems they are trying to solve (how are thoughts, intentions, memories and perceptions encoded in the brain? Quadriplegics hope that transmission of sense data and body movements might be an easier nut to crack), not because Elon and his other investors hope to produce profitable products. 

That being said, Elon is known for his optimistic timelines and most people have learned to take them with a grain of salt. They have even coined an ironic name for them, "Elon time". 

Now, several former employees have spoken to Fortune about just how dysfunctional it is at the company — casting even more doubt on Musk’s ambitious goals this year. 

Six former Neuralink employees claimed that the company is beleaguered with intense pressure to meet incredibly ambitious goals, causing a veritable revolving door of leadership. “There was this top-down dissatisfaction with the pace of progress even though we were moving at unprecedented speeds,” a former Neuralink employee told the magazine. “Still, Elon was not satisfied.”

Elon does that at all of his businesses. It's described very well in Eric Berger's book Lift Off about the earliest days of SpaceX. Elon's (in)famous for giving his engineers impossible orders. Berger's example is jumping over a 50 foot wall. When he gets the inevitable response of 'It's impossible!', Elon asks 'How could somebody do it?' So pretty soon he has everyone thinking about super pogo sticks or jet packs.

Driven By Fear.The employees said that Musk specifically has fostered a toxic and intense working culture, insisting on unrealistic timelines for overly ambitious goals. They said they were often worried about angering the founder if his expectations weren’t met.

I don't believe that Elon will fire anyone for failing to meet his goal, provided that the person displayed some original thinking in pursuit of achieving it. Thinking outside the box is what is rewarded (just look at the whole idea of landing rocket boosters for reuse... or the seriously crazy Mechazilla catcher arms). That's how these enterprises roll.

SpaceX is (in)famous for burning out young engineering graduates in its super-intense atmosphere, while having potential new hires lined up outside. A recent poll of US engineering students asked them what company they would most want to work for, and SpaceX won by a mile.

Maybe that kind of culture doesn't work as well in neuroscience as in aerospace engineering, because so many neuroscientists come from an academic background. 

“Everyone in that whole empire is just driven by fear,” one employee described Musk’s companies to Fortune.

Probably among people who are more suited for cushy academic tenure, I'm guessing. The same kind of people who would criticize the company because it's a private company and not a government laboratory or a "non-profit".

As such Neuralink saw a massive turnover rate

It might be arguable that the culture is too intense. That's certainly possible. But that being said, it's hard to argue with success. While Neuralink hasn't succeeded yet, Tesla and SpaceX certainly have. They are the definition of what "Industry Disruption" means and they have made Elon the world's richest man. So one could reasonably say that if the methods ain't broke, don't fix them.

[Yazata]

Pretty much all the "scientists' horror" in that story (by the same author) boils down to "ethicists" (whatever they are) complaining that Neuralink is "for-profit". Elon is under attack right now because Tesla and SpaceX are non-union and because they are so damn successful (and because Elon is so damn rich). People like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren simply can't stand it. That's what we are seeing here, I think. It's why when Joe Biden's BBB promised electric car purchase incentives, Teslas didn't qualify for the full incentive amount but rather $4500/car less (no UAW organized workforce).

More on that:

https://nypost.com/2022/01/28/elon-musk-...fter-snub/

"Musk has been increasingly critical of the Biden administration since last August, when Tesla, the leading manufacturer of electric vehicles, was not invited to the White House's electric vehicle summit. Biden stood alongside executives from Ford, GM and Stellantis while detailing his executive order for half of all US car sales to be zero-emission vehicles by 2030. When asked why Tesla was not included in that event, White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted the three firms in attendance were "the three largest employers of the United Auto Workers...

'Does that sound maybe a little biased or something?' Musk said at the time.

'It's not the friendliest administration,' Musk added, asserting that the Biden administration 'seems to be controlled by the unions.'

Tesla owns a significant portion of the current US electric vehicle marketplace. The company delivered a record 936,172 electric cars in the 2021 fiscal year, an increase of 87 percent compared to the previous year."

Elon: "Biden is a damp sock puppet in human form"

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1486767109275328516

[Yazata]

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