Flippant Until Focused, Then Total Possession

"Running two complex operations, there was only so much maniacal obsession he could offer. He would give flippant answers until precisely the moment when something became the object of his focus, at which point he gave every fuck. In such a world, you’re delegated to and given full authority—until he turns his attention on you and your little fiefdom."

"Musk listened to the senior leader for about twenty minutes before cutting him off. “This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said, before walking out. “Don’t ever show it to me again.” Musk didn’t want to prioritize one thing over another, he wanted to prioritize everything."

"As Blankenship began working closely with Musk, he found some similarities to Steve Jobs, but also key differences. Jobs had likewise been super focused on many aspects of the business. With Jobs, he had spent their hours-long meetings delving into such details as the wood grains to be used for the legs of the tables that the stores would need to showcase their products, or else weighing the position of the holes that would be cut into those tables to accommodate cords—even discussing the size and shape of those holes. While Musk could be super focused on engineering issues or car design, he had less interest in other parts of the business, such as how the stores should look. He wanted it to be like Apple—he wasn’t up to picking wood grains. With Jobs, Blankenship had gone through several iterations of the store design in a physical warehouse; for Musk, all that was needed were some renderings. “Is that what it should look like?” Musk would ask Blankenship, sincerely. Blankenship explained there would be graphics on the walls and places for storage for apparel and brochures. It would be reasonably inexpensive to build—an open layout with the car at the center of attention. “OK,” Musk said, and left it at that."