I was thinking of a generalization. Choosing between working on something important in the future for many people vs. spending time in the now with a few people you value.
I.e. if you don't single out the event "birth of a child" but look at the more generalized category "spending time with family and friends" then the response may be more understandable.
If Elon truly convinced himself that he's basically trying to do his own contribution to saving the world (climate change and such) then in his mind he may be working to save countless future lives at the expense of some personal time of his own and his employees. And thus "birth of a child" and "going bowling with friends" don't seem all that different.
It's basically a side-effect of convincing himself absolutely of his own mission.
Also note that scolding is not necessarily the same thing as punishment. It's just a harsh way of stating a preference. I.e. that he would prefer if they'd spend more time on saving the world.
That's just a rationalization. I really doubt Elon cares about anything but his own driving ambition. People who can't prioritize their own loved ones over their jobs, surely don't care for "humanity". They are the very definition of selfish. They simply do what they want first and then rationalize it afterwards.
On top of that, these selfish people expect/demand that their employees work infinitely harder than they do on a ROI basis. Example: A start up founder may worked twice as many hours as the founding engineer but the founder stands to make a lot more than twice as much when the company has it's liquidation event.
> I really doubt Elon cares about anything but his own driving ambition. People who can't prioritize their own loved ones over their jobs, surely don't care for "humanity". They are the very definition of selfish. They simply do what they want first and then rationalize it afterwards.
No, I think what you wrote is selfish and is a typical rationalization of having a botched moral compass. I should prioritize my own over the rest of the world, so it's ok to fuck everyone over as long as I and my family are happy. This is how a lot of world seems to operate. You wouldn't have companies polluting rivers, or shoppers cheating you on every occasion possible, if those people were not prioritizing themselves and their families over other humans. It's easy to rationalize the harm by saying to yourself, "I have kids to feed, so fuck those other people, I need that money".
> On top of that, these selfish people expect/demand that their employees work infinitely harder than they do on a ROI basis. Example: A start up founder may worked twice as many hours as the founding engineer but the founder stands to make a lot more than twice as much when the company has it's liquidation event.
While this may apply to many startups, it doesn't apply to SpaceX and Tesla, and it's disingenuous to discuss them in such terms. The ROI on electrification of transport, switching everyone away from fossil fuels and enabling life on another planet is fuckton lot for every single human being. It dwarfs most of the personal sacrifices you could make. And still, no one is telling you to do it; people who join those companies know up-front what's the goal, and how much dedication is required.
" I should prioritize my own over the rest of the world"
It feels like you're suggesting that a job such as SpaceX is automatically beneficial to the rest of the world.
I suggest that you are assuming too much. Could SpaceX usher in a golden age of transport and colonisation? Sure. It might also fail.
I suggest that you are also assuming too much by suggesting that parenting your children is selfish and (implicitly) doesn't benefit the world. It's possibly that SpaceX takes us all to Mars and none of the kids/descendants of its employees were ever going to achieve world changing things without their mum/dad being around more. It's also possible that some of those kids would have achieved greatness if only they had a more present mum/dad in their life.
You can't bail the future down, it's made of unrealised possibilities that we make real with our choices. Those choices are either implicit or explicit and we have no way of knowing what will actually happen.
