Re: Musk has lot of bold goals, but how many has he achieved?

On 6/14/26 8:05 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:

> This is an excellent description of the Tiger Team group dynamics and 
> effective leadership style:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine
> When it came out I was on a similar team developing an LSI-11 based 
> machine to test computer chips on the production line. Our leader was a 
> brilliant Ph.D. with an easygoing (but very focused) beard and sandals 
> hippie attitude and VW bus. When I mentioned I had made insulating 
> polyester film inserts for my home windows he mentally calculated the 
> radiative heat transfer through them.

"Soul of a New Machine" is probably my favorite Tracy Kidder book, 
rivaled only by "House", which in some ways is similar only applied to 
carpentry and the building of a house and the conflicts needing to be 
resolved in successfully completing the job.

Kidder lived right here in the Northampton, MA area and just recently 
passed away.

Strangely, I could not finish "Home Town" which was about my home town 
of Northampton, MA., even though I personally knew some of the people 
the book detailed.

Very well liked, both as an author and a person.


SMH