I'd be curious to hear from employees who have worked for Elon Musk either at Tesla or SpaceX. I'm currently reading Ashlee Vance's book on Elon and the descriptions of the working conditions for Tesla and SpaceX employees sounds both exhilarating and completely exhausting.
Does working on something as truly world-changing as space travel or electric vehicles make up for the 80+ hour work weeks? Is it easier to work so hard when there's no doubt that what you're doing matters?
as truly world-changing as [...] electric vehicles
EVs have been around for a long long time, commercially, and conversions. I'm glad tesla is doing what they are, but world-changing seems like a stretch to me.
Anecdotally, I've heard from employees that Tesla is having attrition issues, so apparently not. They've recently added a few minor perks to try and keep engineers.
The world changing part might be getting them to the mainstream. Which is a combination or funding infrastructure, lowering prices and spurring competition from the other car makers.
Does working on something as truly world-changing as space travel or electric vehicles make up for the 80+ hour work weeks? Is it easier to work so hard when there's no doubt that what you're doing matters?