Elon Musk: Always A Douche

[Valmy]

It is just another form of celebrity worship. This desire to know all about the personal lives of famous people.

I don't want to know anything about him. I just want him to get on with making rockets and electric cars.

But somehow I keep getting bombarded with his shit anyway. He seems to have a lot to do with that though. Like he wants to constantly be out there under the public microscope and wants all the attention. I would rather not have him getting any of my attention.

I just don't want all this bullshit, and the things Minsky said, to get in the way of the stuff he is doing that is important.

[PJL]

Yeah, Elon Musk being an attention-seeking whore is the real problem here. There are plenty of douche-bag bosses that have been successful in their industries, perhaps because of it. While a bad thing, at least most of those have had a public persona of being a well-rounded person in the media, and where they have been seen to be asshole it's always been work-related. It's when it spills out into their personal lives that it becomes OTT.

[crazy canuck]

Being an ass is the very least of his flaws.

[Berkut]

Yeah, Elon Musk being an attention-seeking whore is the real problem here. There are plenty of douche-bag bosses that have been successful in their industries, perhaps because of it. While a bad thing, at least most of those have had a public persona of being a well-rounded person in the media, and where they have been seen to be asshole it's always been work-related. It's when it spills out into their personal lives that it becomes OTT.

He cannot make you care about his personal life. He cannot force you to pay attention to him, even if he desperately wants your attention.

[alfred russel]

Us sophisticates scoff at the tabloid interest in the most important people shaping the modern world - we are above all that.

It is totally different to read dozens of books diving into the personal lives of the most important people from centuries ago. That is just a proper intellectual pursuit.

[Valmy]

He cannot make you care about his personal life. He cannot force you to pay attention to him, even if he desperately wants your attention.

Look I only care because I am concerned it will interfere with Tesla and SpaceX.

[Valmy]

Us sophisticates scoff at the tabloid interest in the most important people shaping the modern world - we are above all that.

It is totally different to read dozens of books diving into the personal lives of the most important people from centuries ago. That is just a proper intellectual pursuit.

Look I don't care that Tiberius is a dirty old man, I only worry that it might compromise the Roman Empire ok?

[crazy canuck]

Us sophisticates scoff at the tabloid interest in the most important people shaping the modern world - we are above all that.

It is totally different to read dozens of books diving into the personal lives of the most important people from centuries ago. That is just a proper intellectual pursuit.

Look I don't care that Tiberius is a dirty old man, I only worry that it might compromise the Roman Empire ok?

I believe AR was making the same point. 

[Valmy]

Us sophisticates scoff at the tabloid interest in the most important people shaping the modern world - we are above all that.

It is totally different to read dozens of books diving into the personal lives of the most important people from centuries ago. That is just a proper intellectual pursuit.

Look I don't care that Tiberius is a dirty old man, I only worry that it might compromise the Roman Empire ok?

I believe AR was making the same point. 

Yeah I was ironically restating my position on Musk incorporating the critique supplied by AR.

[Berkut]

Us sophisticates scoff at the tabloid interest in the most important people shaping the modern world - we are above all that.

It is totally different to read dozens of books diving into the personal lives of the most important people from centuries ago. That is just a proper intellectual pursuit.

If there are dozens of books that go into the personal lives of people from centuries ago, and you find that interesting and read them all, more power to you.

I suspect that the narrative of Elon Musk a century of two from now will make passing, if any, mention of his many kids or how he was an asshole on the internet.

He will either be remembered as a titan of business and industry, or not at all.

[Jacob]

I think it's likely that if Musk is remembered as a titan, there'll be notes about his many children and his internet persona and whatnot - but that those will be interpreted to serve the larger narratives and themes that interest whoever is doing the remembering.

Overall, I do agree with you Berkut. Musk's personality and apparent attention-craving is not that significant. I still engage with it on occasion, but it is at best a guilty pleasure and at worst a complete waste of time.

[The Larch]

More "Elon Musk behaving badly" alleged news:

Elon Musk denies reported affair with wife of Google co-founder
Tesla chief rejects Wall Street Journal claims he had affair with Nicole Shanahan

Elon Musk has denied a Wall Street Journal report claiming he had an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of the Google co-founder Sergey Brin, accusing the outlet of running "hit pieces" on him and Tesla.

The chief executive of the electric carmaker tweeted on Monday rejecting the claim that he had an affair with Shanahan as "total BS", adding that he and Brin were still friends.

Citing unidentified sources, the WSJ reported at the weekend that Musk had engaged in a brief affair with Shanahan in December last year. The paper claimed the affair had prompted Brin to file for divorce from Shanahan in January and had ended the tech billionaires' long friendship.

Musk tweeted that he was at a party with Brin on Sunday and that there was "nothing romantic" between him and Shanahan, a lawyer and research fellow at CodeX, an organisation dedicated to using technology to improve legal processes, based at Stanford University in California. She is also the president of a foundation that focuses on criminal justice reform, reproductive longevity for women and climate science.

In a later tweet to his more than 100 million followers, Musk said he had "lost count" of the number of "hit pieces" about him published by the WSJ. Musk claimed the news organisation had once reported that the FBI was about to arrest him, although a 2018 WSJ article alleging a criminal investigation into Tesla does not refer to arrests being planned.

Brin filed for divorce citing "irreconcilable differences", the Journal said, quoting records it said were filed in Santa Clara County superior court. Brin is a board member at Google's parent company, Alphabet, and is the world's eighth richest man with a fortune worth $94.6bn, according to Bloomberg. Musk is the world's richest man and is worth $242bn.

In its report, the WSJ also said Brin instructed his advisers to sell personal investments in Musk's companies after he came to know about the affair. The paper said it was not able to determine how large those investments were, nor whether any sales were made.

The WSJ allegation was published as Musk faces a court battle in October over his attempts to terminate his $44bn purchase of Twitter. Twitter wants to force Musk to go ahead with an agreed transaction that values the company at $54.20 a share. Musk walked away from the deal this month, citing concerns over the number of bot accounts on the social media platform.

The Wall Street Journal, Google and Shanahan have been contacted for comment.

[Grey Fox]

Shanahan is of asian descent. Totally not Musk's type, so no.

[Tamas]

So Elrich Bachman in Silicon Valley was based on Musk, then?

[Eddie Teach]

Shanahan is of asian descent. Totally not Musk's type, so no.

She has tits, a vagina and a heartbeat, so maybe?