He did not say that someone's manager should be more qualified technically. He said only that a manager should _be_ qualified technically.

BTW, in the book Liftoff, which chronicles the first decade of SpaceX, Musk's hiring is credited as a major factor in their success. Until they had several thousand people, he personally interviewed everyone.

The public see Musk as a slave driver. But they don't understand. All of Musk's companies have an existential mission. As Musk has said, you can't change the work working from 9 to 5. The people who go to work for those companies on a salary do so willingly, because they believe in the mission. No one needs to tell them to work hard - they want to. The goal of those companies is not to make money - the mission is the goal. Making money is only a strategy to enable the mission.

At the end of this article, the author says something that is finally at the heart of the issue: that management and tech folks don't always match up. He is right kind of. A manager is a leader who has authority over resources - by definition. Peter Drucker famously said that a company needs "an inside person, and outside person, and a person of action". He was pointing out that different forms of leadership are needed for success. At SpaceX, Gwynn Shotwell provides the leadership forms that Elon cannot - she maintains relationships with customers. But - crucially - she is very knowledgeable technically. She has the foundation. I think that is Musk's point: you have to know what you are talking about.