The first thing you can do about the output/safety trade-off is to take a position in the curve.

You either go fast, or go safe, or something in the middle.

You have to choose.

Elon chooses fast.

When I attended the lectures at West Point, we were introduced to the well known motto of the US military: Mission First, People Always.

In a way, it does not help:

No, man, eventually—unfortunately!—I will have to choose… should a prioritize the mission first or should I prioritize the people always?”

I guess the motto is a way to say:

Look, you will need to figure it out by yourself… but you will need to balance.

Elon chooses mission first. If you want balance, go to the circus 🤡.

In competitive environments, taking a position in the curve becomes a matter of scruples.

How much are you willing to compromise for the sake of achieving results?

It’s pretty much an ideological stance, and one that evolves over time.

It seems to me that, as societies move up the Maslow’s pyramid—as more needs are covered for more people—there’s a growing consciousness of the compromises, and the threshold of minimum acceptable safety and inclusiveness raises.

Imagine being coach of a soccer team ⚽️ in primary school.

In a match with low stakes, you would give every kid some minutes, no matter if they are good or bad players.

But if you are playing the championship final, and you are losing by one goal, you would leave the worst kids on the bench—and you know it 🫵… and probably the parents of those kids would agree.

But if you are playing the final and you are winning 5-0, you would also give every kid his minutes. This is a feast, give everyone a chance to enjoy it!

And thus we gravitate between forces, and the conditions of the times mark which ones pull stronger, creating cyclical patterns between throughput and safety—one can imagine what would happen if substandard players create a 5-4 situation 😬.

Not really cyclical, but spiral, as we are in a broader translation trajectory up the Maslow’s pyramid—fortunately!—and this sets an overall trend of rising thresholds—e.g. not many people would support slavery today as an acceptable means of production… I hope 😰.

Elon’s choice touches a nerve

For some, his attitude is reminiscent of a world that we should have already graduated from. A world driven by ambition and results, where players compete at the edge of the legally permisible and socially acceptable—if not beyond—in order to win. Elon will compromise anything for output, and, should we have no safety limits, no one knows what he could be capable of. Musk is the type of man that have brought the world to the verge of environmental collapse and social inequality we face today.

For others, Elon represents the archetype of leadership: someone that targets a meaningful problem, engineers the shit out of it, and assembles a dedicated follower base to deliver on such vision. A net creator of wealth—for himself and for others, too—, an agent of progress. Musk is the type of man that has provided the very accomodations from which others have today the luxury to question him about the way he provides them.

Whether you see him as saint 😇 or sinner 😈 depends on your own position in the curve.

And your position in the curve is circumstancial and highly influenced
by your environment (are you living in San Francisco, Madrid or Hyderabad?),
by your personal story (are you an entrepreneur? a high paid employee? man? woman?),
and by your values (mission first? people always?).

Your position is also highly subject to the evolution of the times. Despite the very ideological nature of the topic, we must be open to shift our position as external conditions change, and have the presence of mind to discern. That’s why understanding the forces at play is relevant.

The trade-off between output and safety is constant, abstract, eternal. Our position in it is variable, sometimes volatile. There’s nothing wrong with that. Strong opinions, weakly held.

Mental models help us make up our minds, and also help us understand how others make up theirs. This is a form of empathy: the capacity to understand the root cause of our differences.

I can understand why you think that way, but I still think otherwise.

is much better than:

You are wrong.

We need more of this.

Specially on Twitter 😅.

But if choosing your position in the curve creates some sort of anxiety—mission first? 😬 people always? 😖 … 😫—you need no worry: remember that taking a position in the curve is just the first thing you can do with it.

I have an ace the up the sleeve ♠️.

What if we could shift that curve?