Andrej Karpathy: Elon Wants Offices Full of Energy—You’re There to Build, Not Be Pampered

Andrej Karpathy: Elon wants the office to be a vibrant place. You're there to do your best technical work.

“When Elon walks into the office, he wants it to be a vibrant place. People are walking around, they're pacing around, they're working on exciting stuff, they're charting something, they're coding.

He doesn't like stagnation. He doesn't like for it to look that way.

He doesn't like large meetings. He always encourages people to leave meetings if they're not being useful. If you're not contributing and you're not learning, just walk out. This is fully encouraged.

So, vibes is a big lever that he really instills culturally.

A lot of bigger companies pamper employees. I think there's much less of that. The culture of it is you're there to do your best technical work, and there's the intensity.”

Sequoia Capital, March 20, 2024