Oddbean

I’ve been critical of Musk on a number of topics, but they all come back to a lack of honesty, and a wide public bid/ask spread on that perception. Just that one thing. I don’t think he is unintelligent, or racist, or antisemitic, etc. He is just not genuine. And he bends over for strongmen dictators while pretending to be a freedom advocate. Likewise, you will rarely if ever see me criticize SpaceX results. I never criticize SpaceX rockets blowing up and so forth. Rocketry is fucking hard and it’s about gradual iteration. SpaceX is doing fine technically as far as I can tell as a space nerd. They’re getting better. The overall US space industry has been in absolute shambles for over a decade now, so I welcome some progress there. The only extent that I’ve ever criticized SpaceX is to remind people on the right that neither Tesla or SpaceX are the Libertarian dreams that many of them imagine. SpaceX has been reliant on many government contracts, and Tesla has been reliant on many government subsidies. For SpaceX I am not saying that’s good or bad per se (they do compete for it), but I’m saying we finance a good chunk of it out of taxes. But other than making sure people are familiar with the funding source, I haven’t criticized SpaceX yet. I’m pretty specific.

The more he puts himself out there, the more you see behind the curtain.. the harder it is to like him. On one hand I can see that he bought Twitter because he thought he would be loved for it and be un-cancelable. And he was probably sick of the endless media storm shitting on everything he did. It may be the one thing that backfired on him though after many successes. I too really like the spaceX stuff and I'm not sure that it would exist without him. And starlink, is world wide life changing tech. His ideas for Twitter just showed that he's got flaws for sure .. he talked a big game about how it would all work, how it wouldn't be beholden to advertising revenue, and seemed to forget that it is just a large media corporation that will fail unless it keeps running exactly the same way it is.. I got off Twitter soon after the doge icon, so I wouldnt be reminded that he is so troll-y. If only he could have been happy posting on 4chan or something, but no, he really did want to be a huge unstoppable celebrity on his own platform, and to be liked.. and I think it actually may be ruining him mentally.

him and trump both can't stand not being the center of attention. that's why trump wants to be president and Elon wants to be Twitter boss. both Trump and Elon are losing money on these endeavors but it's worth it for their egos.

Elon is a Piece of work - didn't he take Billions from government to build those Tunnels that were supposed to solve Traffic ? He said he would build them in 6 months. That was years ago. Literally nothing has happened. I was asked how come Elon isn't in prison yet over stunts like this and i said it's because he is good friends with Klaus Schwab. My biggest concern right now is that Elon has convinced Legacy Automakers to give up development of CCS charging infrastructure in America promising instead that he will allow them to use Tesla's charging network ... but we know what Elon's promises are worth. Pretty much every EV maker now says they will be on NACS ( " North American Charging Standard " formerly Tesla Supercharger ) starting from 2025 ... why 2025 ? why not now ? everything is "Next Year" with Elon. he had robotaxis coming "next year" for a decade and already many other companies have robotaxis and Tesla still doesn't. what happened is competitors like Porsche, Audi, Mercedes and BMW were coming out with EVs that were better than Tesla's and CCS charging network was growing and Elon had to figure out a way to put some sand in their bearings so to speak so he BRILLIANTLY convinced them to give up on developing on CCS ( Combined Charging System ) which would have ended Tesla within 5 years, and instead take his worthless WORD that he will help them ... LOL i'm pulling my hair out here - how can they keep falling for Elon's tricks ? i hope they got good lawyers because they might be in for a surprise when 2025 comes and Elon has some kind of excuse for why their cars can't charge on Tesla's network ... what will probably happen is Elon will allow them to plug in, but it simply isn't going to work. and then Elon's lawyers will say we only promised we will allow you to plug in it's not out fault that nothing is working. that kind of stuff is beyond our control ! it's the same as how when Autopilot kills you one second before you die you press the brake and that deactivates Autopilot and Tesla lawyers say in court " our log data indicates Autopilot was not enabled at the time of the crash " ...

There will always be something to criticise about someone with that level of visibility and responsibilities. I'm not saying the criticism is not always justified, but in a way it's a bit unfair, because ordinary people lives are not subject to the same level of scrutiny and pressures. Elon, as a business man, has to do everything he can to maximise his profits, and in this way, he also makes our lives better. I was banned from Twitter for no valid reason imo, but I will still say that Twitter/X today is by very far better than what it was under ALL its predecessors.

I agree Elon Musk is frequently insincere, but is he insincere ENOUGH to survive in the snakepit that is our Western ruling class? Judging from the incoming wave of lawsuits and investigations, I'm guessing the answer is "no".

I like Elon *a lot* on a personal level I think he ignores reality when reality is inconvenient Reality said that he couldn't build the world's most advanced space exploration company So he ignored it Reality is that he can't be pro-freedom and sacrifice freedom for business interests So he ignores it He's influenced by the Iain M Banks Culture sci fi novels The Culture are a ruthlessly pragmatic space faring civilization But convenience and pragmatism are different things I rage quit my blue check when Elon pushed for Taiwan to sell their freedom and sovereignty to China for the second time He kinda gushed that they could be treated more leniently than Hong Kong That word leniently stuck in my mind I still like Elon a lot I also like Taiwan a lot 😊

I think my main criticism of Tesla is the reliance on minerals sourced from Child labor. Granted it is a Chinese company that builds the batteries for the “green tech revolution” the Coltan and copper used to make these products comes from a city called Kolwesii in the south of the Congo. It is normal for kids to skip education to work for 1.50$ a day hauling sacks of coltan out of mines to sell to Chinese companies. Think of the kids! I recommend reading “Behold a pale horse by William Cooper, It is a pretty good book from the 90s that uncovered a lot of high level military science and research going on around underground boring, Space and rocket science, And other government secret DARPA programs. Elon Musk is just a billionaire the corporations can slap debt on to get their programs available to the general public. Only a Saudi Prince needs a tunnel bored to hide his vault of gold in the Swiss Alps. But a direct partnership with the US Military looks pretty suspicious when building something like that. Google Majestic-12 or the JASON society.

Well, never judge until you walk in their shoes as the saying goes. That being said, Musk sits at a table that a handful of ppl sit. We can all speculate. I mean he's the top space payload transport guy. Will he be the head of a space guild of Dune -like org? Donno, maybe. About the electric car: Don't get how easy it was to sell ppl on such an imperfect/defective concept. You know the vehicle has a limit in capacity/range. This is the elephant in the room screaming vulnerability afoot, yet, every elec car buyer accepts it. Don't we have better concepts out there? The limits of the battery pack is the issue as it stands. A battery car is a defective concept. A battery car that ALSO has an onboard generating system is worth exploring. Concepts?: On-board hydrogen-on-demand generator. Too fancy? Get a lawnmower Honda engine to strictly spin a second car alternator for the strict purpose of keeping that battery pack topped-off.(batt pack that can now be smaller) Oh don't like the fact it uses a little gas as in 95+ mpg? Run it on diesel fuel replaceable by vegetable oil. Diesel engine were originally conceived to run on that. The exhaust smells like french fries but who cares? I mean the American ingenuity has no end. This is the spark I'm attracted to. Elon operates on a large population influence/market. Moves are more constrained in mass markets. But you all knew that.

Not sure Tesla has been ‘reliant’ on subsidies. More like: “if the government wants to give them, sure we’ll use them to drive adoption” but they probably would’ve been just fine without them.

I agree with most of what you have to say, about everything, although I'm not a potty mouth cause I stayed home with my kids for 10 years. I remain unconvinced that Musk is not racist, I think most people are in some form or another. He has a bigger microphone.