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Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

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Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#61

Post by EamonnMR »

sys_64738 wrote: post #39
tsomctl wrote: post #5

"As you know people, as you learn about things, you realize that these generalizations we have are, virtually to a generalization, false. Well, except for this one, as it turns out. What you think of Oracle, is even truer than you think it is. There has been no entity in human history with less complexity or nuance to it than Oracle. And I gotta say, as someone who has seen that complexity for my entire life, it's ve…

Whenever I read this and the java guy Gosling they are incredibly negative about Oracle. One wonders if there is something behind all this as it appears they were figures of respect and authority at their previous company. But upon being consumed by Oracle was that still the case? I get the impression that there is underlying bitterness and resentment festering here due to something like that.

In the linked speech he goes over exactly what he thinks Oracle did wrong in excruciating detail. There's no mystery here.

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#62

Post by davebryand »

AlexB138 wrote: post #42
davebryand wrote: post #10

I'd love to hear from some Tesla employees with awakened consciousness how they feel about Ellison's involvement.

> I'd love to hear from some Tesla employees with awakened consciousness how they feel about Ellison's involvement. What does "awakened consciousness" mean in this context?

Nothing different in this context, I mean it in the universal sense:

https://www.google.com/search?q=awakened+consciousness&oq=aw...

Could also look at it as Spiral Dynamics Turquoise:

https://www.google.com/search?q=spiral+dynamics+turquoise&so...

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#63

Post by geofft »

krapp wrote: post #20
geofft wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the whole premise of capitalism that people motivated by money will build useful things for the world? How did Ellison conclude that shipping mediocrity is more profitable than shipping excellence?

>Isn't the whole premise of capitalism that people motivated by money will build useful things for the world? No, the whole premise of capitalism is that people motivated by money will build things that make them money. It's right there in the name - "capital"-ism. Capital is the means, motive and end.

So then it is not a morally defensible system, unless you believe the accumulation of wealth is inherently moral?

It seems surprising that capitalism is so easy to argue against on moral grounds. Surely it has some benefit for the society that lives under it?

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#64

Post by tsomctl »

dominotw wrote: post #56
tsomctl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point is that this doesn't bode well for Tesla. My biggest complaint with Tesla is that they don't provide service manuals or have an open parts department for their vehicles. For comparison, pretty much every other major auto maker will sell you a book telling you how to fix anything on your vehicle, and will sell you the parts and special tools to do so. Not Tesla, and given what we know about Ellison, I very mu…

> For comparison, pretty much every other major auto maker will sell you a book telling you how to fix anything on your vehicle Wow I didn't know this. I have hard time believing this. Where can I find this for my subaru 2019.

Really, modern vehicles require a subscription to a website. Hypothetically, you could pay for the 2 day access and scrape the site for your vehicle. For older vehicles, you can normally find the fsm/workshop manual with some creative googling.

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#65

Post by starbeast »

Given Tesla's current issues with how they have been reported to treat their workforce, while Larry might be useful in terms of finance and contacts, I'm more interested in discovering what Kathleen is bringing to the table and what her attitudes to things like unions and employee rights in general might be. I suspect that could be at least as make or break as anything Larry might do here.

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#66

Post by greedo »

midnitewarrior wrote: post #38
tsomctl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point is that this doesn't bode well for Tesla. My biggest complaint with Tesla is that they don't provide service manuals or have an open parts department for their vehicles. For comparison, pretty much every other major auto maker will sell you a book telling you how to fix anything on your vehicle, and will sell you the parts and special tools to do so. Not Tesla, and given what we know about Ellison, I very mu…

Apple started the path to normalizing this, and I believe it's core to being responsible for the entire user experience. Personally, I'm not a fan of this, but I understand the motives aside from profit. If a Tesla gets poor maintenance by an unskilled shop, when the vehicle crashes and kills the driver, Tesla gets the black eye and has to defend itself in the media and in front of the NHTSA. Tesla's stock takes the…

How is Apple in control of 3rd party software? That's been as buggy if anything as any part of the OS.

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#67

Post by MikeCapone »

rossdavidh wrote: post #48

After his failure, as virtually the only Theranos board member with a high-tech background, to provide any good advice on tech development to Elizabeth Holmes, this seemed incredible to me. Then, I read this in the statement: "Larry is also a big believer in Tesla’s mission, having purchased 3 million shares earlier this year." So, Musk was required to introduce more outside independence to his board, per agreement w…

Owning shares is not a negative. It's a positive. It means that he's more aligned with shareholders than with management.

Boards full of non-shareholders tend to prioritize the paycheck they get as board members, so they tend to not want to rock the boat or get into conflicts with mangement.

Those that are shareholders first tend to have a bigger incentive to confront or fire management if they start doing things that are bad for shareholders.

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#68

Post by gaius »

rossdavidh wrote: post #48

After his failure, as virtually the only Theranos board member with a high-tech background, to provide any good advice on tech development to Elizabeth Holmes, this seemed incredible to me. Then, I read this in the statement: "Larry is also a big believer in Tesla’s mission, having purchased 3 million shares earlier this year." So, Musk was required to introduce more outside independence to his board, per agreement w…

Both Ellison and Musk are vying for the position of “real life Tony Stark”, I will wager in the next year they will have a major falling out.

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#69

Post by notacoward »

porpoisely wrote: post #47
dforrestwilson wrote: post #8

The same guy who encouraged Elizabeth Holmes to ignore her engineers in favor of over the top promotion. Also a board member who failed (or chose not) to detect the underlying fraud... Every time I consider closing out my Tesla short position something like this happens and I get more confident that something is awry.

I'm no fan of Ellison or Oracle. But a guy worth $60 billion with decades long ties and influence in media and government investing in TSLA and serving on its board is not something that should make shorts happy.

Considering that ORCL has under-performed NASDAQ over the last five years, I'm not sure it would make long investors happy either.

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#70

Post by enraged_camel »

genie514 wrote: post #34
dforrestwilson wrote: post #8

The same guy who encouraged Elizabeth Holmes to ignore her engineers in favor of over the top promotion. Also a board member who failed (or chose not) to detect the underlying fraud... Every time I consider closing out my Tesla short position something like this happens and I get more confident that something is awry.

This guy built a company that services most of the data infrastructure of the world and pumps 15 billion of cash every year- but you remember him by what advice he gave to one person ; that just seems unfair.

Applauding Oracle only makes sense if you believe ends justify the means.
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