201–210 of 414 posts
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Been running it fine for 10 years. Does sound boring.
Has he? They still deliver less cars than Henry Ford did in the 1930s.
I'm not sure how that reflects on Tesla. Tesla is not manufacturing bicycles. Nor are they manufacturing Model As in the 1930s automobile market.
I was reading all of the thoughtful critiques of Elon's behavior when something occurred to me: there is an awful lot of brain power here that is spending an awful lot of time analyzing the decisions and words of one man. It's actually odd when you think about it: we do a lot of observing and commenting these days (myself included) and I wonder how much more productive we would be individually and as a society if mor…
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I'm not defending Elon's behavior here, but speaking more generally: if you're in a place where you need to maintain maximum productivity for a while, because a deadline has slipped for example, meetings can turn into a massive time sink if you don't act like a total nazi during them. In so many meetings, people just want to hear themselves talk, whether to offer some opinion, reiterate some point, or ask some useles…
Yeah, but a conference call with investors is not the kind of meeting you cut short. Maybe a weekly status meeting sure, but your quarterly call with people who if things go south, you'll have to rely on their largess to borrow money from? That's something you treat with care.
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> Elon has always seemed to have the attitude of "not everyone should invest in this stock". Sounds like the CEO equivalent of a movie director saying "I didn't make this one for the critics." Translation, "I know there are problems but I'd rather have my ego stroked by fans than face real criticism."
It's more like a movie director deciding to make something other than a superhero action movie, and telling critics not to expect one. Not all investors have the same aims. Shaking off short-termist investors may be sensible to follow long term strategies. Sometimes public companies even have to become private again in order to pursue the course of action that's best for them.
There is a lot wrong with getting the budget of a superhero action movie and then making the sort of small art-house film that will never be able to pay off the investors.
If this were some quirky, self-funded Musk project, he could do as he pleased. But not only do they have shareholders, they have $1.8 billion in loans due in the next 18 months: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimcollins/2018/04/02/forget-th...
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> Elon has always seemed to have the attitude of "not everyone should invest in this stock". Sounds like the CEO equivalent of a movie director saying "I didn't make this one for the critics." Translation, "I know there are problems but I'd rather have my ego stroked by fans than face real criticism."
It's more like a movie director deciding to make something other than a superhero action movie, and telling critics not to expect one. Not all investors have the same aims. Shaking off short-termist investors may be sensible to follow long term strategies. Sometimes public companies even have to become private again in order to pursue the course of action that's best for them.
While I prefer to focus on long-term over short term, you still can't let the short term kill you. A lot of people think Tesla will be out of money within the year and that's a short-term problem that needs to be solved in the short term. If not there will be no long term.
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It's not really a flamethrower, it's a glorified propane torch with a plastic gun shell, it's a toy. Can't say S&W wouldn't get flak for making something like this given our current climate but it's really not a weapon.
What is the difference between a flamethrower and a propane torch? I find myself inexplicably delighted at the prospect of understanding this distinction.
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see that you are not defending, but this is not a meeting. it is an investor conference call - most if not all of the entire point is to clearly and openly answer their questions about financials...
Yeah, it’s not like a weekly status update meeting. It’s a tad unprofessional IMO. As the CEO of a public company, you are accountable above all to your shareholders.
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It's not really a flamethrower, it's a glorified propane torch with a plastic gun shell, it's a toy. Can't say S&W wouldn't get flak for making something like this given our current climate but it's really not a weapon.
What is the difference between a flamethrower and a propane torch? I find myself inexplicably delighted at the prospect of understanding this distinction.
The Tesla Flamethrower is literally just a roofing torch like in [1] with a plastic gun around it and the valve turned all the way open. [2]
[0] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/...
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UprliuSNvX0
[2] https://qz.com/1191685/elon-musks-boring-company-flamethrowe...
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Yeah, but a conference call with investors is not the kind of meeting you cut short. Maybe a weekly status meeting sure, but your quarterly call with people who if things go south, you'll have to rely on their largess to borrow money from? That's something you treat with care.
Borrow money isn't the right word. They're not creditors, they hold equity. They're the owners Musk is dismissing. The point of these calls is to make sure the executive officers are being held accountable to the owners of the company with thier money Elon is managing on their behalf. It was a PTA meeting and Elon Musk was being a petulant child who doesn't think he should have to do what his parents tell him.