How Elon Musk spends 18 hours at work

May 14, 2025

Marc Andreessen recounts a story from an xAI employee:

“Elon spent 18 hours at the office in five-minute chunks. Each person had a five minute speaking slot to explain to Elon what they were doing.”

Marc reflects on why this is such a powerful thing for a leader to do:

“Every employee had an opportunity to tell the big boss what they were working on. Every employee had an opportunity to be recognized for their effort. Every employee had an opportunity to get live feedback from the big boss who had a comprehensive overview of everything as to what they should be doing. And there’s no place to hide.”

He continues:

“[Silicon] Valley companies are quite well-run by business standards. But that’s a level of intensity that most Valley companies aren’t even close to.”