What's going on with Elon Musk? Eccentric or going mad?

[ZCP]

Dude needs to take a day off. Especially a day off social media.

Then get back to changing the world. Let the haters hate.

How many other people got off their a$$ and offered to help the rescue? Props to him for that. He doesn't wait and hope. He jumps in to solve the problem. As an engineer, I love the guy.

He can say all the stupid things he wants if he continues to change the world.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ZF Lee]

Lately Elon Musk has been making some odd comments and making eyebrows rise.

From the sales conference call some weeks ago where he made some bizarre comments, to Twitter barbs, to this Thai cave rescue thing and calling some critic a PEDO, his comments are starting to make people wonder. Lately he's been sounding more like Trump and not unlike any other corporate figure of a publicly traded company.

Elon Musk tweets he'll "bet ya a signed dollar" that Thai cave rescuer is a "pedo"

5 outrageous Elon Musk moments from the bizarre Tesla call

I'm sure Nikola Tesla was considered an odd-ball in his day and age, so is this just Elon being Elon?

Is this his eccentricity or do you think something else is going on?

A billionaire with FU money saying FU?

I feel as long as ideas are attacked, and not the person, we are free to fire our UNSCRIPTED views. Nikola Tesla looked a lot into the ideals of an effective way of electrical current system.

'Pedo' definitely directly attacks the person. In Thailand and other Asian places, it does have a lot of stigma and anger with the pedo label floating around, due to the child trafficking schemes that popped up a lot there.

But even if you want to hit back at another person, isn't there another more 'decent' insult to fire off with? Does it really have to be....pedo?

I can imagine it must be very frustrating trying to accomplish the huge mission of colonizing Mars and having to deal with mundane things like journalists tweets, and it's probably hard to feel his world from the outside.

Maybe is that why he is trying to colonise Mars in the first place....to get far away from them?

 

[Ayanle Farah]

I'll just leave this here...

Power Causes Brain Damage - The Atlantic

It doesn't help their credibility the study participants were college kids and power isn't as rigid as they describe, it's much more fluid and exist everywhere you can think of, not just in politics and social situations.

And it doesn't cause brain damage(damn clickbait), it just decreases the functioning of the mirror neurons which have a role in empathy and the change isn't permanent either.

 

[Gepi]

I'm not sure if you guys would be willing to disclose that but is anyone here invested in TSLA?
I have put a small sum into it and despite the high volatility and the numbers which were less than ideal the last years I continue to admire the visionary qualities of Mr Musk.
Just out of curiosity I would be willing to take the risk.
So I guess I will let it play out as I don't need that money desperately.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ApparentHorizon]

All publicity is good publicity?

I mean, he hit his 5k cars per week target, then the stock dives. Gotta keep Tesla in people's minds one way or another.

I feel as long as ideas are attacked, and not the person, we are free to fire our UNSCRIPTED views. Nikola Tesla looked a lot into the ideals of an effective way of electrical current system.

'Pedo' definitely directly attacks the person. In Thailand and other Asian places, it does have a lot of stigma and anger with the pedo label floating around, due to the child trafficking schemes that popped up a lot there.

But even if you want to hit back at another person, isn't there another more 'decent' insult to fire off with? Does it really have to be....pedo?

Context: The diver called out Musk's sub as a PR stunt, and told him to stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

Not that what Musk said was ok, but I have no sympathy for the other guy either.

 

[jon.M]

It doesn't help their credibility the study participants were college kids and power isn't as rigid as they describe, it's much more fluid and exist everywhere you can think of, not just in politics and social situations.

And it doesn't cause brain damage(damn clickbait), it just decreases the functioning of the mirror neurons which have a role in empathy and the change isn't permanent either.

I agree with you. The writer takes some leaps...

Was the mirroring response broken? More like anesthetized. None of the participants possessed permanent power. They were college students who had been “primed” to feel potent by recounting an experience in which they had been in charge.

The anesthetic would presumably wear off when the feeling did—their brains weren’t structurally damaged after an afternoon in the lab.

But if the effect had been long-lasting—say, by dint of having Wall Street analysts whispering their greatness quarter after quarter, board members offering them extra helpings of pay, and Forbes praising them for “doing well while doing good”—they may have what in medicine is known as “functional” changes to the brain.
(Great 51-word sentence...)

Okay. The study was performed on college students...

Are their brains fully developed yet? So how can you know the case is the same for an older person with a fully developed brain?

They were asked to recount an experience in which they were "in charge". What does "in charge" mean? Did they persuade their parents what to eat one night? Does that compare to being in an actual position of power? Is the recollection of such a memory the same as currently possessing power?

The difference in biology between college students and most people of power -- aside from the maturity of one's brain -- might be small. However, the circumstances claimed to cause this "damage" to the brain are OF ANOTHER WORLD.

Being Elon Musk or a 21-year old who recollects the memory of "being in charge" does not even compare.

But if the effect had been long-lasting— [removed long-winded bullcrap from writer] —they may have what in medicine is known as “functional” changes to the brain.

Who draws this conclusion? The journalist, Jerry Useem? According to his bio, he has covered business and economics for The New York Times, Fortune, and other publications. Most of which seem to be cheap-ish clickbait articles such as "Why It Pays To Be A Jerk" & "Are Bosses Necessary?"

Is he the right person do take such a long leap? Never heard of him and have nothing against the guy. I just wouldn't listen to a business journalist in this instance.

 

[jlwilliams]

I agree with you. The writer takes some leaps...



Okay. The study was performed on college students...

Are their brains fully developed yet? So how can you know the case is the same for an older person with a fully developed brain?

They were asked to recount an experience in which they were "in charge". What does "in charge" mean? Did they persuade their parents what to eat one night? Does that compare to being in an actual position of power? Is the recollection of such a memory the same as currently possessing power?

The difference in biology between college students and most people of power -- aside from the maturity of one's brain -- might be small. However, the circumstances claimed to cause this "damage" to the brain are OF ANOTHER WORLD.

Being Elon Musk or a 21-year old who recollects the memory of "being in charge" does not even compare.



Who draws this conclusion? The journalist, Jerry Useem? According to his bio, he has covered business and economics for The New York Times, Fortune, and other publications. Most of which seem to be cheap-ish clickbait articles such as "Why It Pays To Be A Jerk" & "Are Bosses Necessary?"

Is he the right person do take such a long leap? Never heard of him and have nothing against the guy. I just wouldn't listen to a business journalist in this instance.

Valid points, none the less his conclusions jive with my personal observations of a "case in point" I knew. My observation doesn't equal doodly-squat as far as a statistical sample, but his observation struck home.

Without going too deep, there is a callousness or maybe the word is glibbness that I watched grow as a man I knew well (family) rose in power and wealth. He wasn't the most stable boat in the ocean to begin with, but he had a gift with interpersonal connection that went away when he didn't have to give a crap anymore.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GPM]

He can say all the stupid things he wants if he continues to change the world.

That is pretty much my view on it. I was not present for any of these altercations that Musk has been in, and there are always two sides to every story. Personally I think the media and most of these arm-chair-athletes are full of shit, so tend to downplay most things that they say anyways.

Elon can do whatever he pleases. He is his own person, and doesn't have to listen to what every person says about him.

This is all news to me anyways. I don't go on social media and rarely check the news, so this whole "lets hate on Elon" thing that is so popular now just came onto my radar yesterday. I think it could possibly be good for Elon to stay off news sites and social media for a while and recharge his batteries. But he can do as he pleases, just as I can do as I please.

I wish him all the success in the world, as he is someone who is actually working on making a difference. I hope the media stops vilifying him, because that can't be good for anyone. If he has personal demons he can work through them his way, he doesn't need them broadcast all over the world for every moron to comment on.

 

[Ayanle Farah]

Valid points, none the less his conclusions jive with my personal observations of a "case in point" I knew. My observation doesn't equal doodly-squat as far as a statistical sample, but his observation struck home.

Without going too deep, there is a callousness or maybe the word is glibbness that I watched grow as a man I knew well (family) rose in power and wealth. He wasn't the most stable boat in the ocean to begin with, but he had a gift with interpersonal connection that went away when he didn't have to give a crap anymore.

As humans we don't do things without a reason, if you can get what you want without being persuasive then what's the point in being persuasive?

 

[GainsGainsGains]

Certainly gets him more attention than tweeting about world peace and rainbows

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Azure]

This is actually not out of character for him at all. He says a lot of stupid stuff on Twitter.

 

[Process]

Notifications are this age's tobacco.

Maybe a two minute delay for social media posts with a cancel button would save millions of careers.

 

[rogue synthetic]

Social media has a way of bringing out some of the worst habits and qualities in people. It turns individuals into mouthpieces for groupthink, it discourages thoughtful reflection and patience (and/or it selects for people who don't have these virtues), it makes trivial things seem much more important than they are.

I've come to see it as a systematic dysfunction of ordinary forms of human communication. In-grouping and gossip and tribal attacks on The Other Guy are nothing new for our species of course, but it is only really in the last two decades that we've seen platforms appear where these negatives are features that the technology actually encourages with its incentives.

It's quite interesting to watch from the outside, though it's less nice to think about the impact on public life.

I think Elon is getting hit from two sides here. He's having to deal with the rubbernecker's syndrome that is encouraged by the regular Two Minutes of Hate, where anyone and everyone is encouraged to pile on whatever flash-fire dominates this week's news cycle. It will be memory-holed soon enough, and if anyone even remembers this in 4 week's time (short of a Tesla or Space-X implosion) it will be truly surprising.

Add to that the fact that social media itself is a game that, like any other activity with reward-loops and social status hanging on the line, can be addictive in its own way. I don't mean that it encourages repeat play (it does), but that participating in the culture, using the language, repeating the actions, makes it hard to resist falling in line with the mass-produced thoughts of mass-produced media. Even the most patient soul will have his patience tested here.

Like the MAD doctrine of the Cold War, the only winning move is not to play.

The second best move? Troll hard and burn out in a blaze of glory. Elon might be going for this one.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Azure]

https://i.imgur.com/USjli88.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/BzTnCw6.png

https://i.imgur.com/bILmli7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/cY6mI2d.png

https://i.imgur.com/TM8gJZs.png

https://i.imgur.com/mMkFYrd.png

https://i.imgur.com/ZPYbXfM.png

https://i.imgur.com/Hl9DPOM.png

https://i.imgur.com/BQYmAbv.png

https://i.imgur.com/xtMp858.png

https://i.imgur.com/yj3iDhi.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DrN03ZN.png

https://i.imgur.com/KvPBuLR.png

https://i.imgur.com/xYaNVpO.png

https://i.imgur.com/RrVpV7u.png

https://i.imgur.com/5hz4nf6.png

 

[CROJosh]

Weird times. Thoughts, words and actions used to be different things that carried different weight. Now thoughts and words are considered actions. There's no time to work through an idea or experiment, it just becomes canon for your persona. Not defending or piling on but it makes you wonder if we'd see history's great individuals differently through this lens.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Side effects from ambien.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Niptuck MD]

some other viewpoint FYI lol
https://nypost.com/2018/07/21/elon-musk-is-a-total-fraud/

 

[ApparentHorizon]

some other viewpoint FYI lol
https://nypost.com/2018/07/21/elon-musk-is-a-total-fraud/

idk how seriously I'd take that viewpoint with this in the sidebar

 

[Niptuck MD]

idk how seriously I'd take that viewpoint with this in the sidebar

View attachment 20222

Lol exactly my point. All haters hatin

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[SYK]

some other viewpoint FYI lol
https://nypost.com/2018/07/21/elon-musk-is-a-total-fraud/

Quote from the article “He has yet to succeed at anything...”

Ahh... so he’s one of those unsuccessful kinda billionaires.

My other favorite from the article… “So many of its rockets have burned up or crashed…”

The idea that you nail something as complex as a rocket launch first go is beyond stupid. With this logic, NASA should have boarded up back in the 1950s.

This whole article is such a microcosm of much of society. It’s just a more prominent version of trolls who comment on Facebook posts telling you your business or product is shit. People sitting on the sidelines doing nothing, throwing barbs at those who do. Why try something? It’s much safer to just watch others and criticize them.

Sure, Elon has said/done stupid shit, which he should be called out on. But tens of thousands of electric cars on streets across the world. Dozens of satellites launched into space. Not single-handedly his doing, but enough to define him as a success. No matter how you measure it.

 

[Timmy C]

Access to social media when tired, drunk, angry etc... + being famous is a dangerous combo.

this.

 

[Everyman]

I think that's just his public persona. He is an actor. You don't know how he behaves after the cameras are off. Trump is the same. Listen to them when the 'official' mics are off. I think they laugh at people who believe what they say publicly in their official statements. I would...

Although his companies are heavily subsidised by the taxpayers (you could call them state-owned probably) which may play a role here.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[csalvato]

I think that's just his public persona. He is an actor. You don't know how he behaves after the cameras are off. Trump is the same. Listen to them when the 'official' mics are off. I think they laugh at people who believe what they say publicly in their official statements. I would...

Although his companies are heavily subsidised by the taxpayers (you could call them state-owned probably) which may play a role here.

How exactly is space x subsidized?

 

[Shades]

Im not sure hes really changed personality wise. Just has one of those brains that never turns off and over time I imagine it just makes this kinda stuff come out as a side effect.

I mean the fact someone with all the things going on that he has would even get involved in something like the cave rescue speaks volumes. He just cant turn off. He just went through one of the most stressful times of his life with Tesla and jumps right into the cave rescue. Its awesome he wants to help, but going 100mph all the time has to take a toll.

 

[NanoDrake]

In the meanwhile, somewhere else, Jeff Bezos polish his rocket dreaming to be the first on Mars

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GPM]

For the life of me I can't figure out what the "R" word could possibly be. A rodent?

"He has yet to succeed at anything but somehow spins every failure into proof of imminent success. His only accomplishment has been this decades-long Jedi mind trick."

Haha! Really? The fact that every major car company is now pushing electric tech shows to me that he is a massive success. Whether or not the Tesla ends up staying around, they were the only ones with the huevos to push electric vehicles into the public eye, and actually make them good.

Another piece of nonsense written by someone who sits behind a monitor and acts tough. They probably go home from work and hate their boring lives, all the while using technology all around them with no idea where it all came from. Quality-of-life-bettering stuff just appears around these people magically, and yet they will constantly complain about "rich people".

 

[Everyman]

How exactly is space x subsidized?

Maybe my choice of words is poor. What I call a subsidy is whenever a company gets money from a government, even if they deliver something (and SpaceX might create tremendous value).

I am not going to argue about this. I just thought he might be under pressure from the government (usually governments spend money recklessly so there should be no pressure)... It's just my personal opinion.

This guy lays it out pretty well.

https://www.quora.com/How-much-did-SpaceX-receive-in-government-subsides-in-2016

And this one adds to this a bit.

www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html

 

[TheOrchestrator]

This just all reminds me of a post I read by Ryan Holiday a few months back, which suggested that the best kind of success is to be successful, yet at the same time, largely unknown by the general public.

The Most Successful People Are The Ones You’ve Never Heard Of (And Why They Want It That Way)

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[csalvato]

Maybe my choice of words is poor. What I call a subsidy is whenever a company gets money from a government, even if they deliver something (and SpaceX might create tremendous value).

I am not going to argue about this. I just thought he might be under pressure from the government (usually governments spend money recklessly so there should be no pressure)... It's just my personal opinion.

This guy lays it out pretty well.

https://www.quora.com/How-much-did-SpaceX-receive-in-government-subsides-in-2016

And this one adds to this a bit.

www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html

With respect, your comment was ignorant as your links highlight.

A $20M economic development subsidy is peanuts for a rocket company. Receiving money from government contracts is business, not subsidy.

 

[Paul Schuyler]

In my book he's earned the right to have a Howard Hughes moment or two. He probably takes on too much stress and with Tesla probably takes the media too seriously. But who knows?

It was a totally uncalled-for comment, a real case study in how to shoot oneself in the balls for no reason. Especially when he could have just said 'hey! great job to the rescuers, anyone want to buy a mini-sub?' He would have walked away with tons of PR for just trying to help.