Remember kids, Tesla's market cap is wildly irrational, and eventually that has to come crashing down. When it does, he's going to blame and sue anyone he can to recoup his losses. It wouldn't surprise me if he was even hedged against his own positions through some intermediaries. The desperation may start to sink in soon, and Musk is the type of autist who will break plenty of rules and not care who he fucks over to avoid being the world's biggest financial loser of all time. There's plenty of bad press and bad reports, and something will eventually trigger a collapse in investor confidence and thus the stock price. He doesn't know what that is, but I'd bet he believes it's tied to his cult of personality. All that aside, it's really amazing how becoming the world's richest man, suddenly espousing conservative politics and feeling like it's ok to treat staff like shit all sort of occurred at the same time. While we're on the subject of conspiracy theories, I don't think Musk believes we will go to Mars in his lifetime. I do think however, that pioneering the technology to automate "terraforming" will unlock another trillion dollar industry as places in Australia, Asia and Africa become uninhabitable due to climate change. He can use the space adventures as a lab funded by the deepest pockets on Earth, then use the tech to convert desert to resorts or whatever. Or maybe he truly does, and his autism runs deeper than we think.
My season-finale twist is that Elon Musk is criticizing Bill Gates for shorting Tesla with money that Elon Musk gave to Bill Gates to short Tesla.
Nobody said a word about it being a violation of anyone's rights. People observed that it was wildly tone-deaf, cut the legs out from under every people manager at the company, and was ignorant to what it would do to the people with the most leverage - i.e. the most senior devs and such who have offers elsewhere. A memo like that is destructive to the morale of a company in so many ways; even many people who aren't affected by the policy are going to see that. Someone who would send that kind of communication has no emotional intelligence whatsoever. Thus the discussion about autism, which is specifically what you mentioned. Frankly, I don't think my "personal feelings about remote work" are an aside here. It's the way the industry is headed; employees with leverage are demanding better, more flexible working conditions, and companies which aren't offering that are losing those people. The few major companies that are announcing a wholesale return to office are seeing their best and brightest leave - look at Apple. They said everyone was going back, they got pushback and a bunch of engineers left, and suddenly they put a pause on the return to office. At this point, any company who believes that will not happen is either not paying attention or has an over-inflated self-worth. Which again leads back into questioning Musk's ability to perceive and react to the world around him. It's certainly possible that this was a way to reduce headcount, but if it was, it was an awfully destructive way to do it. You aren't losing your low-to-mid performers. You're losing the guys who were already fending off offers from the rest of the industry because they were your smartest employees. Which, not to be a broken record, feeds right back into Musk not perceiving the full scope of his actions because he wants to slap his dick on the table and make demands.
I know no one is making that explicit argument; I was being glib regarding the public reaction to it. And sure, the employees have to chase opportunities with that satisfy their benefits needs, but there is a strange cult of personality around Musk that cuts in both directions. That tends to cause a dramatic overreaction to anything he does. And maybe it is just impulsive shit-posting on his part, but I think it was by design.
Remember when I called Musk out for being autistic, and everyone jumped down my throat for it? Good times.
My objection is more to his attitude that every employee should make his company their #1 priority in life, and to dedicate as much time to it as he demands without question. It's easy to talk about working long hours when your hourly has two commas in it. The idea that everyone else should be absolutely busting their ass to make Elon richer is, and this is putting it mildly, incredibly gauche. If Elon wants people to buy the idea that he's really on some kind of mission for humanity, and that everyone who works there is really in the trenches together, maybe raising his employees wages or lowering the price of his products, such that his own personal compensation doesn't resemble that of an Egyptian pharaoh hoarding wealth for the afterlife, would be a good place to start.
I thought he has Asperger's? Elon is about to find out in the worst of ways that the days of celebrating and admiring billionaires is over. His tech-bro mystique is largely bullshit. His family history of Apartheid-era mining eradicates any notion of him being a self-made man, and is juxtaposed against his treatment of employees and perception of others to his serious detriment. His adoption of Gen-X/Joe-Rogan conservativism couldn't be more poorly timed: his political positions now suddenly align with anti-abortion, anti-gun control and Boomer values that starkly contrast Tesla's market, not to mention the tech-bro crowd. His tremendous advances with Space X and Tesla are awesome, but he was playing with government money on one and house money on the other. The move to Texas just solidifies him as another asshole dodging taxes. He's going to find that out, because despite being absurdly wealthy, he seems to view his own brand as the key to his success. He views his public perception as a value driver, and much like Trump, his engagement online as a core product of that value driver. His logic is the longer he stays in the news, living some low-brow techie dude's dreams, the longer he prolongs the inevitable return to reality of Tesla stock. Once that happens, no matter what, he will be an embarassment: Bezos lost half his billions to his ex-wife, but that will pale in comparison to the media frenzy when Elon's billions plunge. Bezos' divorce was somewhat understandable, and his ownership of WaPo notwithstanding, it's not worth much ink because his ex-wife is now a power player in her own right, and Amazon is still wildly popular and powerful. Elon's partner is a twatty failed pop star. They can't wait to document his demise, and I think they will find a more sympathetic audience with the image of him being a failed billionaire asshole than him being a genius tech bro. Musk could just shut the fuck up, and retract from public life, and he probably fears that will hasten his own demise, and can't see through his own bullshit to learn otherwise.
@downndirty I find your take on this to be charming and refreshing. I hope it's true. I don't have enough faith in the general population to believe it. But I hope it's true.
I didn't realize Matthew McConaughey was from Uvalde. In case anybody wanted to read his op-ed piece:
I would add, one nationwide standard for gun ownership instead of the 50 different variations we have today. Consider that 2A is a right enshrined in the Constitution and it applies to every state. Why is any state allowed to interpret it separately from any others? We don't do that for civil rights, thankfully. At least not yet.
Do any of the pro 2A people have any issues with what he said? What about the other people on the board? Still too lax? Looks like common sense to me and I don't have any strong objections to it.
I don’t have any objections, but the people who make the laws clearly don’t give a shit enough to promote something so sensible.
I take issue with red flag laws. In theory they're a good idea, but in practice where already in existence they're abused to either further an agenda or vindictive against an ex, etc.
There needs to be a nationwide baseline, (and probably a ceiling) but letting California, NY, etc decide what's best for Idaho, New Hampshire, etc., isn't a good idea either.
At this point letting literally anyone decide what's best for Idaho is probably better than the status quo in that state. Not even talking about guns.
Too busy at the moment to reread it but I think he said something about people abusing the red flag law and it needs to be signed off by a judge. I'd think that'd help with vindictive people. Also, this is just some actor dude. If he can take a few minutes and write up some halfway common sense guns laws, then the politicians should but they're too busy being politicians.
This is an actor who has aspirations on Texas politics, and given the recent state of how retarded it all was (see: Governor Abbott), decided against a campaign. Remember, in politics name recognition is everything, it's by definition a popularity contest. Actors and pseudo-celebrities have a tremendous advantage (see: family names, Reagan, Dr. Oz, etc.). It's unlikely he's writing anything this....polished without some degree of a political consultant giving it a good shine. Maybe, but the pivot in "We have an epidemic of indiscriminate mass shootings, of parents burying their children, of inaction, and buck-passing. Saving the unnecessary loss of lives is not a partisan issue." is vivid, smooth, centrist appeal, without choosing a side on an issue until the support has been solidified underneath that issue. This reeks of a pro's work. I can't see why any of us give a salty shit what "Alright Alright Alright" has to say, based nothing more than the accident of his birth coinciding with this atrocity. He sheds no light on the community, his ties to it, or really anything about it at all. "I was born in Uvalde" is the only rationale any of us were given to read his take on a pretty serious, well-steeped set of policy suggestions. "I believe that (Policy)" isn't a tear-jerker or a think piece. It's a preamble to his campaign, as is the mention of his charity. He uses his hometown to shoehorn in some political opinions no one really asked for to get a debate stirred up, and as silly as it sounds, he is deeply Texan. I dunno if his opinion will sway folks, but it does matter because it's coming from someone within Texas, who attends their ball games, and whose literal career rennaisance started with a movie with the word Dallas in the fucking title. It's a gambit, to be sure, and not a well-disguised gambit. If it gets some traction, and it seems like it has, he may double down on it. If it gets mocked on Twitter, and shit on by Fox News, he got his answer on "maybe the time for fuck-tarded politics is over, or is it just beginning?" Or do we really think a guy with both bongo drums AND millions of dollars somehow came up with gun policies on his own, after just talkin to folks, especially gun-ownin' Texans? Not buying it, but I will never have to vote in Texas.
It could very well be a pro. Likely even. But, what does that matter if it gets two sides to partially agree on something? Right now, it's as if both sides are doubling down on trying to get as far away as centrist as possible. From his letter "1) All gun purchases should require a background check. Eighty-eight percent of Americans support this" Anything 88% of the population agrees on should pass with flying colors. But if a Dem brings it up, the "mah guns" people go ape shit and if a Rep brings it up..... Well, they won't because they think they'll lose their base so here we are.