Chapter 123

Musk applies his aggressive surge methodology to Tesla's solar roof division, cycling through executives and demanding tenfold increases in installation rates. After firing his cousins who founded SolarCity, he subjects successive leaders to impossible deadlines and his volatile management style, ultimately firing Brian Dow despite Dow's dedication and prior success working with Musk.

Following his successful Starship stacking surge, Musk turns his attention to the solar roof business acquired from his cousins Peter and Lyndon Rive through Tesla's 2.6 billion dollar purchase of SolarCity. Obsessed with justifying the acquisition against shareholder lawsuits, Musk fires his cousins and cycles through four Tesla Energy chiefs over five years, including RJ Johnson and others, each subjected to impossible growth targets. Brian Dow, a former battery factory manager, becomes the latest leader. Musk invokes his standard algorithm approach—questioning requirements, deleting unnecessary parts, simplifying designs, and accelerating production—instructing Dow to focus on product quality over sales tactics. In August 2021, Musk visits a Boca Chica installation site late at night with his son X, climbing onto a roof to inspect the work. He becomes enraged at inefficiencies, demanding installers use only one nail per foot instead of two and eliminate cardboard packaging. He insists engineers spend days on roofs installing rather than designing at desks. The next day, workers find the single-nail approach fails and switch back to two nails; when Musk arrives, he accepts the change without anger, acknowledging it aligns with his deletion algorithm. Three months later, Musk summons Dow to Boca Chica on his birthday, demanding he cut installation costs in half within a week. Dow spends the weekend preparing a cost-cutting plan, but at Monday's meeting Musk shifts focus to other metrics Dow cannot answer, then fires him. Despite previous success together at the Nevada battery factory, Musk believes Dow is losing his edge. After Dow's departure, installations plateau at thirty per week, far short of Musk's thousand-roof demands. Musk's intensity wanes in April 2022 when a Delaware court rules in his favor on the SolarCity lawsuit, eliminating the pressure to prove the acquisition's financial viability.