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Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

nytimes.com

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Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#21

Post by _bxg1 »

archagon wrote: post #14
_bxg1 wrote: post #7

This was about what I'd gathered. He's been reckless and made some huge errors in judgement over the past year, but despite it all I hope he succeeds. I don't think he's a hero or a saint like some people do, but his endeavors are having a very real and tangible positive effect on civilization. Most chiefly, as bad as the climate change situation looks right now, it would be so much worse without the insane amount of…

> Character flaws aside, Musk is the only billionaire alive (or even in recent memory) whose business ventures are netting any actual positive effect on society whatsoever. Wait, what? How can you possibly justify that? > Heck, he might be the only one not having a seriously detrimental effect on society right now. You don't have to like him to acknowledge that. What about all those recent self-driving crashes? At be…

The self-driving crashes have mostly been users using autopilot irresponsibly, from what I've read. Still, I'm not arguing the finer points; both Musk the person and Tesla the company have made some bad, sometimes even ethically dubious decisions. My point was that, for all of today's Captains Of Industry "solving problems" that's don't actually exist, dismantling democracy and privacy and destroying millions of people's livelihoods in the process, Musk stands out for funding and directing actual, honest-to-god human progress, despite everything else he and his companies may have done.

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#22

Post by _bxg1 »

archagon wrote: post #18
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can you possibly justify that? Rockets! Cars propelled by faraway vibrations! Is there no room in our world for the brilliantly mad?

Sure, but it's almost absurd to argue that Musk is the only billionaire alive whose work is a net positive on society.

Name another billionaire, other than maybe Bill Gates, who's presently doing anything good, at all.

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#23

Post by jjeaff »

propter_hoc wrote: post #8

The article notes allegations that the Board is concerned that Mr. Musk has been taking Ambien as a sleeping aid, but instead of sleeping, has been posting bizarre tirades on Twitter. I actually have a number of American* friends who take Ambien frequently with the intent that it be a sleeping aid. However, they all commonly do exactly what Mr. Musk may be doing: failing to sleep after taking their Ambien, and instea…

Do your friend's prescriptions really come up in conversation that often?

I have no idea what prescriptions my friends may or may not have with the exception of one or two really close friends.

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#24

Post by JumpCrisscross »

archagon wrote: post #14
_bxg1 wrote: post #7

This was about what I'd gathered. He's been reckless and made some huge errors in judgement over the past year, but despite it all I hope he succeeds. I don't think he's a hero or a saint like some people do, but his endeavors are having a very real and tangible positive effect on civilization. Most chiefly, as bad as the climate change situation looks right now, it would be so much worse without the insane amount of…

> Character flaws aside, Musk is the only billionaire alive (or even in recent memory) whose business ventures are netting any actual positive effect on society whatsoever. Wait, what? How can you possibly justify that? > Heck, he might be the only one not having a seriously detrimental effect on society right now. You don't have to like him to acknowledge that. What about all those recent self-driving crashes? At be…

> What about all those recent self-driving crashes?

What about Apollo 1? There is a difference between a civilian and military death. But they are both pursuing progress. One can’t discount the costs without any concept of the potential benefits.

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#25

Post by archagon »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #24
archagon wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Character flaws aside, Musk is the only billionaire alive (or even in recent memory) whose business ventures are netting any actual positive effect on society whatsoever. Wait, what? How can you possibly justify that? > Heck, he might be the only one not having a seriously detrimental effect on society right now. You don't have to like him to acknowledge that. What about all those recent self-driving crashes? At be…

> What about all those recent self-driving crashes? What about Apollo 1? There is a difference between a civilian and military death. But they are both pursuing progress. One can’t discount the costs without any concept of the potential benefits.

The Apollo 1 astronauts were willing participants and very clearly knew the risks. With poorly-designed self-driving cars, everyone is an unwilling participant.

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#26

Post by WheelsAtLarge »

Musk has turned himself into a marketing machine in the same manner that the Kardashians have. He sets up dramatic situations that have villains and he plays the good guy trying to save the world from ruin.

I commend him for being able to manipulate the media. With their help he's been able to build a billion dollar company. I wish I could do the same.

But at this point, I DON'T CARE. All I want to do is read the news and keep up to date with what is happening without having to read anything about him.

I find it interesting how we celebrate the fact that we now have all the information we want at our fingertips. But I feel less informed now than when TV and newspapers were the major form of information distributors. -- mainly because of all the trashy info that's available to us. The Tesla daily drama is a great example of trashy news.

Tesla can survive or disappear, I don't care. Just get off the daily headlines.

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#27

Post by _bxg1 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #24
archagon wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Character flaws aside, Musk is the only billionaire alive (or even in recent memory) whose business ventures are netting any actual positive effect on society whatsoever. Wait, what? How can you possibly justify that? > Heck, he might be the only one not having a seriously detrimental effect on society right now. You don't have to like him to acknowledge that. What about all those recent self-driving crashes? At be…

> What about all those recent self-driving crashes? What about Apollo 1? There is a difference between a civilian and military death. But they are both pursuing progress. One can’t discount the costs without any concept of the potential benefits.

I wouldn't include the self-driving tech among the world-changing progress. Climate change is a pressing disaster for our whole species; self-driving cars are not urgent enough to be pursued with the same intensity, and are dangerous enough to deserve more rigour.

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#28

Post by danso »

I haven't been the biggest Musk fan but this profile did evoke sympathy from me, and felt far more honest than the persona he conveys via Twitter. I don't get how the board could for so long be OK knowing that Musk is as he is, and not putting a much higher priority in finding a second-in-command. What Tesla is trying to achieve is part personal genius/drive from Musk, but I would expect a huge part of it is good logistics and management. Is there something particularly hard about finding a qualified COO for Tesla?

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#29

Post by [deleted] »

_bxg1 wrote: post #22
archagon wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but it's almost absurd to argue that Musk is the only billionaire alive whose work is a net positive on society.

Name another billionaire, other than maybe Bill Gates, who's presently doing anything good, at all.

[deleted]

Re: Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year

#30

Post by dwaltrip »

TomMckenny wrote: post #9
enraged_camel wrote: post #3

Musk may have made the biggest mistake of his career with that single tweet. According to rumors, Tesla's internal legal team has begun to calculate damages; possible impact from potential investor lawsuits apparently surpasses $1 billion. https://twitter.com/CGasparino/status/1030176495631839232

Pity that we've structured our world such that one tweet can so damage such clever companies as Tesla and maybe SpaceX.

I'm pretty sure it's always been the case that those with power can cause a lot of damage with a small amount of effort.
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