The charitable interpretation is that it was just hyperbole as a joke. Unfortunately, for that to be true, he would have to think it's a ridiculous thing to say and I'm not sure he does.
I work in manufacturing industry as a production planner. Although I am in a central position, from everything that happens on the factory floor to make a complete product, I know surprisingly little. There are so mind bogglingly many little details in the process. That's why there are so fucking many of us here.
From where I'm sitting, the higher you go on the management ladder more clueless people are about the actual manufacturing process. They don't need to know to do their job. They just need to listen when somebody who knows tells them the abbreviated version when necessary.
Elon does not appear to be a listener.
He's just a pompous narcissist or possibly a full blown psycho. Not sure what his tallent is.
Its many reasons the saturn V can never be rebuilt. We know the plans and specs, but all the details of the manufacturering were all held by the people doing the work. Each one was unique.
"At this point, I think I pay enough talented people who know things to make it look like I actually know things so I can focus on acting like a fool on social media platforms and interviews."
When I was a kid my parents wouldn't let me make my own pinewood derby car, even though I had done one already without issue the previous year. My dad then proceeded to put a 1/2" drill bit through his hand while doing it for me. I always found that kind of funny.
I have literally hated elon before it was cool. I don't intend to defend him but I also am of the mind it's important to be educated on opinions, or at least I strive for that for my own.
I dont know the context of this quote but manufacturing, to me, sounds extremely plausible to me and maybe one of the few legitimate "skills" he actually has. Spacex and telsa is dealing a lot with manufacturing and the logistics of that. That is what I would presume his context was from this quote. Am I missing something?
I think you might be missing the little fact that, despite the existence of Tesla and SpaceX, Melon Husk does NOT know "more about manufacturing than anyone currently alive."
Thank you, I realize now the criticism wasn't that he was totally ignorant of manufacturing. More that he claimed to be The Smartesr
I believe he is ignorant in engineering and often painted as a savant of that regardless, I had thought this was being painted in the same vein. My mistake
Him saying he knows more about manufacturing than anyone alive today is less descriptive than me saying I know more about the internet than anyonet. I work in manufacturing and the space is massive. What field if manufacturering? Because in the tesla alone there are dozens of separate fields of industrial manufacturing and he isn't even the preeminent expert in automotive manufacturing let alone any of the components in the car.
Elon musk might know a lot about manufacturing space ships and electric cars (edit: that's a big might). But that's not general knowledge of manufacturing, in fact out of a lot of manufacturing that's very specific and highly technical manufacturing.
But beyond that, Elon is not and probably never has been the head of manufacturing at any of those companies, and he hasn't worked a significant amount of time (probably not any time at all) in any of his factory floors. so it's impossible to give him points for practical manufacturing skills.
And even if you could twist your brain around to give him that. There are people in charge of manufacturing larger companies with much more diverse portfolios. Let's say something like Hitachi who has people who know manufacturing magic wands to mopeds to precision l scientific equipment.
Or how about those companies in China that make every knick-knack and consumer electronic on the planet.
Fuck, if you wanted to name American CEOs and give them credit for manufacturing everything they produce under their company Jeff Bezos owns Amazon and Blue Origin, the direct space ship manufacturing competitor to SpaceX.
Elon musk might know a lot about manufacturing space ships and electric cars (edit: that's a big might).
Well he this about Cybertruck:
All parts for this vehicle, whether internal or from suppliers, need to be designed and built to sub 10 micron accuracy. That means all part dimensions need to be to the third decimal place in millimeters and tolerances need to be specified in single digit microns. If LEGO and soda cans, which are very low cost, can do this, so can we.