Quote (NetflixAdaptationWidow @ 8 Dec 2023 16:22)
Elon is pretty clearly a case of rich guy failing upward.
Zip2 failed massively and was bought out in the dotcom boom despite being a jumbled mess with no actual value.
X.com failed and was merged with the company that would go on to be paypal, and by all accounts the x.com code base was atrocious and added nothing of value. Musk almost drove it into the ground as the newly appointed CEO and was removed within 6 months. He contributed nothing of value to Paypal, but held his shares so he got even richer with the IPO.
Used his paypal money to distribute into a dozen other companies.
Tesla already had a prototype and competent leadership. Musk acted as a hype man and fraudster to make sure money kept coming in until they could get manufacturing going. Even then has only posted profits because of extremely generous subsidy programs.
SpaceX runs almost wholly independently of Musk and only survives off extremely generous government contracts practically guaranteeing they can't fail.
Boring company builds tunnels at about market value, and sells hype to cities that will never materialize to keep in business.
Cut the work force of Twitter by 75% and went on to alienate 90% of his advertising revenue, so even though they cut costs by likely over half, they're still not profitable.
Musk cultivated a public image to keep everybody on board with funding his projects, but every time there's a project in which he is personally involved in the operations of the porject it does worse as a result. If he stuck to being a hype man and committing light fraud when he needed funding he'd probably still be loved by the public.
+1 Pretty much this. I'd add that his "Mars" project is total delusion and that many scientist have called his bluff because he makes it seem like "he knows" what "WE or the people he convinces to go on that initial journey will encounter".
Total hype guy as
mentioned. I personally invested in Tesla/Dogecoin after hearing his 1st podcast on Joe Rogan and it made me a lot of money but I did it because he "sounded very smart and confident" and I knew BIG money was already behind him. He basically took advantage of the "Reddit kids" and that generation convincing them that his projects were "good for the planet" and are the "only alternative".
I personally think he named his company "Tesla" because he could never himself be that great of an inventive mind. He also mainlined technology that Nikola Tesla wanted to give to the world for free(Main reason Nikola never received praise until long after his death)
He is from South Africa but you never see him helping out the area where he was raised. What you do see are his Lithium mines causing more toxicity/pollution then his "cars" supposedly "save".
He made it seem like he invented the FIRST electric car when in reality he just made a "sports car" and slapped technology that already pre-existed on it.
He said he'd write a check "that day" to "solve world hunger" if "they" could explain how they would do it. How boastful and ignorant could you be? Instead of just writing the check RIGHT THEN AND THERE he just faded into obscurity on that one.
So instead of helping potentially 10's of thousands of people suffering in his home country/continent he "bought Twitter" like a "cool kid at the candy store" and dangled it in front of his "puppetmasters" like, "Did I do good daddy?"
&&& now the same rich people who bought his 100k toy(electric car) are realizing that Porsche, Mercedes, BMW and basically every automaker can make a 100k electric car that LOOKS BETTER INSIDE AND OUT then a "Tesla" and that's why Tesla's EV sales plummeted and why I sold my Tesla stock back when it was over $1,000 a share. I had bought in twice when it was $150-$225 and I knew his hype was about to evaporate. Dogecoin too. I saw it skyrocket to the moon and knew it could never continue upward.
I could probably go on but what's the point lol
