Elon Musk: Always A Douche

[grumbler]

Ok Berkut, you asked when you called him a genius.  I knew you had, and it didn't take much to find the reference.   

You emulate your hero well.

He asked you to point out where he called him a "super engineering genius," and you couldn't, because your claim was a lie.  You knew it was a lie, and couldn't find anything to support the lie.

I think that we have found Donald Trump's sock account.  No one lies as gleefully and unsuccessfully as Trump, except you.

[Barrister]

I guess the question is would humanity be better off if Musk had never existed.

The jury is still out.

Really?  Tesla and SpaceX are still huge net positives.

All I see him doing now is self-destructing Twitter (and losing himself billions of dollars), and I'm not sure how much of a negative that is.

If you believe that those two are net positives then the twitter foley should bother you. His greatest accomplishment is raising capital. Others have had vision, but he brings money. If the shine leaves the apple because he's doing boneheaded business moves in addition to just being repugnant than the money dries up.

He's largely past the point of needing to raise large sums of capital though - both his major businesses are profitable.

And it's possible that Musk losing his controlling interest in Tesla might be for the best at this point (though he'd still be the largest shareholder I believe).

[Barrister]

SpaceX is nerd wank. Not really sure how that's a net positive to the world.

On the flipside, it is trivially easy to see how him broadcasting to his followers that they should vote to gum of the system is a problem.

SpaceX re-usable rocket has brought down the cost of getting into orbit by almost an order of magnitude.  That's an easy net positive.  Starlink is huge in getting high-speed, low-latency internet to underdeveloped parts of the world (and in Ukraine).

Not sure how much a Elon Musk tweet is going to sway votes.  All I can see it is making advertisers less likely to want to advertise on his platform.

[Berkut]

I guess the question is would humanity be better off if Musk had never existed.

The jury is still out.

Really?  Tesla and SpaceX are still huge net positives.

All I see him doing now is self-destructing Twitter (and losing himself billions of dollars), and I'm not sure how much of a negative that is.

If you believe that those two are net positives then the twitter foley should bother you. His greatest accomplishment is raising capital. Others have had vision, but he brings money. If the shine leaves the apple because he's doing boneheaded business moves in addition to just being repugnant than the money dries up.

He's largely past the point of needing to raise large sums of capital though - both his major businesses are profitable.

And it's possible that Musk losing his controlling interest in Tesla might be for the best at this point (though he'd still be the largest shareholder I believe).

More to the point, I would guess that those of us who have the insane view that SpaceX and Tesla are net positives almost certainly agree that his fucking about with Twitter is a terrible idea.

[Berkut]

SpaceX is nerd wank. Not really sure how that's a net positive to the world.

On the flipside, it is trivially easy to see how him broadcasting to his followers that they should vote to gum of the system is a problem.

SpaceX re-usable rocket has brought down the cost of getting into orbit by almost an order of magnitude.  That's an easy net positive.  Starlink is huge in getting high-speed, low-latency internet to underdeveloped parts of the world (and in Ukraine).

Not sure how much a Elon Musk tweet is going to sway votes.  All I can see it is making advertisers less likely to want to advertise on his platform.

You are such a fanboy.

[Berkut]

Ok Berkut, you asked when you called him a genius.  I knew you had, and it didn't take much to find the reference.   

You emulate your hero well.

Now you are lying about the lie. I asked no such thing. I asked when I called him a "super engineering genius". You claimed that I had, and weirdly enough didn't bother to actually show that I had done so, because it is painfully obvious that I had done no such thing, and in fact what I had said was not even remotely supportive of the claim specifically, or the general attempt to paint me as some kind of Musk groupie.

It's interesting how you lie, you know you lie, and you know that everyone knows you are lying, but you are confident in the lie anyway.

It seems like a familiar pattern....

[Berkut]

And it's possible that Musk losing his controlling interest in Tesla might be for the best at this point (though he'd still be the largest shareholder I believe).

It's an interesting question. 

A good argument to be made that what he did that needed to be done with Tesla is (mostly) complete, and he should just get out of the way now.

[Admiral Yi]

A true free speech absolutist!

I think a policy of not permitting fake names is emminently defensible.

[Barrister]

SpaceX is nerd wank. Not really sure how that's a net positive to the world.

On the flipside, it is trivially easy to see how him broadcasting to his followers that they should vote to gum of the system is a problem.

SpaceX re-usable rocket has brought down the cost of getting into orbit by almost an order of magnitude.  That's an easy net positive.  Starlink is huge in getting high-speed, low-latency internet to underdeveloped parts of the world (and in Ukraine).

Not sure how much a Elon Musk tweet is going to sway votes.  All I can see it is making advertisers less likely to want to advertise on his platform.

You are such a fanboy.

Really?

I thiought I was pretty clear about the man.  I put him in the same category as Steve Jobs.  A fascinating and important figure who is a total asshole to the people around him.  And certainly neither of them were infallible, with plenty of business failures. (Jobs: NeXT, Lisa, Musk: Boring Company, Hyperloop, probably Twitter)

Let's be clear - he's making a total and complete has of owning Twitter.  It's fascinating to watch in a car-crash sort of way.  But I also don't think that Twitter is so important to the world that destroying it has much effect to the world other than on Musk's bottom line.

[Jacob]

A true free speech absolutist!

I think a policy of not permitting fake names is emminently defensible.

It seems he is mostly reinforcing it when it affects him or people he directly cares about, while enforcement is lacking or very slow for other folks.

[Admiral Yi]

It seems he is mostly reinforcing it when it affects him or people he directly cares about, while enforcement is lacking or very slow for other folks.

Was that in the link?  I missed it.

[Jacob]

It seems he is mostly reinforcing it when it affects him or people he directly cares about, while enforcement is lacking or very slow for other folks.

Was that in the link?  I missed it.

Nope.

But on my Twitter I see accounts I follow highlighting other accounts that are clearly intended to impersonate them (and without any of the "parody" tags), that have not been sanctioned. While at the same time, accounts that are clearly taking the piss out of Elon seem to be banned with 24 - 48h turnaround.

[Admiral Yi]

Nope.

But on my Twitter I see accounts I follow highlighting other accounts that are clearly intended to impersonate them (and without any of the "parody" tags), that have not been sanctioned. While at the same time, accounts that are clearly taking the piss out of Elon seem to be banned with 24 - 48h turnaround.

That is less defensible.

[Berkut]

SpaceX is nerd wank. Not really sure how that's a net positive to the world.

On the flipside, it is trivially easy to see how him broadcasting to his followers that they should vote to gum of the system is a problem.

SpaceX re-usable rocket has brought down the cost of getting into orbit by almost an order of magnitude.  That's an easy net positive.  Starlink is huge in getting high-speed, low-latency internet to underdeveloped parts of the world (and in Ukraine).

Not sure how much a Elon Musk tweet is going to sway votes.  All I can see it is making advertisers less likely to want to advertise on his platform.

You are such a fanboy.

Really?

I thiought I was pretty clear about the man.  I put him in the same category as Steve Jobs.  A fascinating and important figure who is a total asshole to the people around him.  And certainly neither of them were infallible, with plenty of business failures. (Jobs: NeXT, Lisa, Musk: Boring Company, Hyperloop, probably Twitter)

Let's be clear - he's making a total and complete has of owning Twitter.  It's fascinating to watch in a car-crash sort of way.  But I also don't think that Twitter is so important to the world that destroying it has much effect to the world other than on Musk's bottom line.

I was being sarcastic.

I completely agree with you - hence you must be a Musk groupie, since that is what I have been labelled.

[OttoVonBismarck]

So the fact that a bunch of companies failed at producing an autonomous car means that the one that succeeded is not innovative?  Is that really an argument you want to leave out there?

Tesla does not currently ship an autonomous car to customers.