Look, despite Musk’s PR, I never read a story about Musk like this:
In 2004, Wolpaw was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. Expecting his condition to require a departure from the company, he spoke with managing director Gabe Newell, who surprised him by offering an extended leave with pay. “Your job is to get better,” Newell said. “That is your job description at Valve. So go home to your wife and come back when you are better.”
Gabe Newell isn’t some kind of saint, but he does at least treat his employees like human beings, unlike Musk who famously berates his employees and treats them incredibly badly, especially if they have to (gasp!) miss work for any reason.
So while people shouldn’t be praising Valve as some kind of panacea in the world, because they’re still just a company, the reality is things like this have endeared Newell to the gaming community and made them believe he did care about a quality work environment.
A reminder, 2004 was before Wolpaw had written for multiple hit games from Valve. Portal came out in 2007 with Wolpaw as one half of the writing team. A few years later he would be head writer on Portal 2.
Those games would not have been the same if he had been let go from Valve when he was sick with ulcerative colitis.
Just a different perspective, I think it’s unfair to compare Newell to a fucking slave drive apartheid fuckhead like Musk.