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> As a shareholder of TSLA, I don't want to see Elon Musk smoking weed on YouTube anymore But the whiskey was ok with you? Should CEO's have to hide their rec

> As a shareholder of TSLA, I don't want to see Elon Musk smoking weed on YouTube anymore But the whiskey was ok with you? Should CEO's have to hide their recreational drug (of which alcohol is a subset) use? FWIW I also hold TSLA and want to see them succeed but a puff of weed (that he didn't inhale) is the least of our concerns. That said, we can probably both agree 3 hours of sleep rather than an interview with Joe Rogan probably would have been the smart move.

hueving 8y ago
>But the whiskey was ok with you? Should CEO's have to hide their recreational drug (of which alcohol is a subset) use? Yes, given the fact that weed isn't federally legal and the fact that it could compromise SpaceX contracts with the air force it shows a shocking lack of judgment. It looks like he's coming unglued. Until weed is actually legal federally, it's absolutely insane for the face of such a large company to take that risk. Not a moral judgment, just a legal reality.
- randlet 8y ago
  > it could compromise SpaceX contracts with the air force If that's true, then you have a good point that I hadn't considered. I can't fathom that could ever become a reality, but my "that will never happen" sense has been way off lately.
  - alexforster 8y ago
    The USAF definitely noticed. He technically shouldn't be able to maintain his security clearance after this. It's probably going to amount to nothing, but it's still bad- https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/7/17833208/elon-musk-air-force-pot-smoking-investigation https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/7/17833208/elon-musk-air-for...
    - whb07 8y ago
      This is fake news. Time to update your sources. If this was an issue for a clearance, then you might as well insta-ban the majority of holders.
      - MBCook 8y ago
        There can be a big difference between doing something you’re not supposed to and FLONTING that you’re doing it. Add to that his level of importance (vs some military office worker with a clearance) and I’d say he’s at a much higher risk.
        dragonwriter 8y ago
        > There can be a big difference between doing something you’re not supposed to and FLONTING that you’re doing it. Flaunting it actually makes it less of a security risk in some ways; for one things no one is going to blackmail him with the threat of exposing it.
        MBCook 8y ago
        Interesting. I actually dictated that to Siri and that’s how she chose to spell it. I see now it’s not a word. I thought it looked off but I figured she knew better than I did. It’s not exactly word I use all the time.
        jfoutz 8y ago
        Clearance is about being compromised. Do you think Musk would reveal state secrets in exchange for weed? Do you think he would exchange state secrets to avoid the public finding out he smokes weed? The agent who interviewed me said, "Are you the kind of person who speeds and owns up to it, or are you the kind of person who speeds and lies about it?" One of those is risky but generally acceptable. I dunno. We're in a weird time. I can point to a few people that, i think, should not have clearances. But compartmentalization is a thing, perhaps those folks don't have a need to know the kinds of things i worry about. My super casual, outside observer view is, the military might provide some facts and figures about payloads, but they're not saying this telescope can resolve .1mm from geosynchronous orbit. they're saying, it weighs this much and can withstand this much acceleration. There will likely be new revised policies on what's shared with spaceX about their payloads. But does anyone think Musk actions would lead him to be compromised?
    - xedeon 8y ago
      A USAF public affairs officer (Capt Hope Cronin) put out a statement denying those false allegations. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-musk-air-force/reports-of-air-force-reviewing-musks-security-clearance-inaccurate-u-s-air-force-idUSKCN1LN2OF https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-musk-air-force/repo... The articles floating around are all speculation designed to pull in click/views, which you can immediately tell since none of them cited a source and even worse, mentioned having a source. The Verge has recently turned mostly into a clickbaity outlet. I stopped visiting the site after I watched the Tesla Q2 2018 conference and them immediately releasing a video with a sensational headline claiming many things like "Elon almost lost his job", “Tesla is in trouble” which contradict the facts and were not representative of the event at all.
rtpg 8y ago
> Should CEO's have to hide their recreational drug (of which alcohol is a subset) use? It’s not even about the drug use. Just a general lack of professionalism. Like if he showed up for this interview and ate 3 gallons of ice cream. Why is he participating in such stupid bits for a radio show? The galaxy brain take is that Elon has always been doing this, and his dumb flamethrower thing is what should get people mad. Don’t tweet about lack of sleep while wasting your time on dumb jokes I mean people are allowed to have fun , but a bit less so when the company they’re supposed to be running is supposedly falling apart
- icelancer 8y ago
  > Just a general lack of professionalism This is the final straw in this regard!? This is nothing. It's just him smoking a spliff on Joe Rogan's podcast. He's done like ten more ridiculous things that are unprofessional in public in the last 6 months that I can recall off the top of my head.
  - openIce 8y ago
    That's your opinion?? Because he did stupid stuff before he should continue doing stupid shit? Everyone is aware that smoking weed labels you as some punk teen but i guess that's exactly the image Tesla wants
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
wpietri 8y ago
Personally, I'm entirely ok with normalizing marijuana usage. It has been legal all year here in SF, and de facto legal for years before that. Nothing bad happened. I'd love for the rest of the country to get over the moral panic on it. That said, I think Musk's move was colossally dumb. Tesla's valuation is based in large part on future expectations, and those expectations are deeply tied with Musk personally in a way that's true for very few other companies. If Tesla were in the black and shipping lots of cars, he could have done this happily. But people have a lot of very reasonable concerns about Tesla. One of those concerns is that the CEO is getting erratic under pressure. Publicly dating and breaking up with a pop star. Spending his time shitposting on Twitter. Calling a hero of the Thai cave rescue a pedophile, and then doubling down on it. Announcing he was taking the company private and then changing his mind. Given that, video of him smoking weed would have been foolish on its own. Doing that at the same time Tesla announced two executive resignations? Absurd. And given that one of those resignations was the Chief Accounting Officer leaving after 29 days? Plain dumb. It makes him look entirely irresponsible. Is he being irresponsible with the business? Who knows. But Musk knows better than anybody how much of Tesla's valuation is based on his own very personalized PR efforts. He should go find a crisis communications consultant. And then listen to them.
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
  > He should go find a crisis communications consultant. And then listen to them. What I don't understand is, why isn't the board putting him under severe pressure to do this? Something like: Musk old buddy old pal, you need to pull your head in for another year or so, then maybe he can go on a "sabbatical", without your Twitter password, and have a massive bender.
  - GW150914 8y ago
    As I understand it, the board is set up to require something like a 90% vote for something like that, and it’s loaded with his friends. It’s a good setup for getting things done in a hurry in accordance with one man’s vision, but now... it’s pretty much useless.

hueving 8y ago

>But the whiskey was ok with you? Should CEO's have to hide their recreational drug (of which alcohol is a subset) use? Yes, given the fact that weed isn't federally legal and the fact that it could compromise SpaceX contracts with the air force it shows a shocking lack of judgment. It looks like he's coming unglued. Until weed is actually legal federally, it's absolutely insane for the face of such a large company to take that risk. Not a moral judgment, just a legal reality.

randlet 8y ago
> it could compromise SpaceX contracts with the air force If that's true, then you have a good point that I hadn't considered. I can't fathom that could ever become a reality, but my "that will never happen" sense has been way off lately.
- alexforster 8y ago
  The USAF definitely noticed. He technically shouldn't be able to maintain his security clearance after this. It's probably going to amount to nothing, but it's still bad- https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/7/17833208/elon-musk-air-force-pot-smoking-investigation https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/7/17833208/elon-musk-air-for...
  - whb07 8y ago
    This is fake news. Time to update your sources. If this was an issue for a clearance, then you might as well insta-ban the majority of holders.
    - MBCook 8y ago
      There can be a big difference between doing something you’re not supposed to and FLONTING that you’re doing it. Add to that his level of importance (vs some military office worker with a clearance) and I’d say he’s at a much higher risk.
      - dragonwriter 8y ago
        > There can be a big difference between doing something you’re not supposed to and FLONTING that you’re doing it. Flaunting it actually makes it less of a security risk in some ways; for one things no one is going to blackmail him with the threat of exposing it.
        MBCook 8y ago
        Interesting. I actually dictated that to Siri and that’s how she chose to spell it. I see now it’s not a word. I thought it looked off but I figured she knew better than I did. It’s not exactly word I use all the time.
      - jfoutz 8y ago
        Clearance is about being compromised. Do you think Musk would reveal state secrets in exchange for weed? Do you think he would exchange state secrets to avoid the public finding out he smokes weed? The agent who interviewed me said, "Are you the kind of person who speeds and owns up to it, or are you the kind of person who speeds and lies about it?" One of those is risky but generally acceptable. I dunno. We're in a weird time. I can point to a few people that, i think, should not have clearances. But compartmentalization is a thing, perhaps those folks don't have a need to know the kinds of things i worry about. My super casual, outside observer view is, the military might provide some facts and figures about payloads, but they're not saying this telescope can resolve .1mm from geosynchronous orbit. they're saying, it weighs this much and can withstand this much acceleration. There will likely be new revised policies on what's shared with spaceX about their payloads. But does anyone think Musk actions would lead him to be compromised?
  - xedeon 8y ago
    A USAF public affairs officer (Capt Hope Cronin) put out a statement denying those false allegations. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-musk-air-force/reports-of-air-force-reviewing-musks-security-clearance-inaccurate-u-s-air-force-idUSKCN1LN2OF https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-musk-air-force/repo... The articles floating around are all speculation designed to pull in click/views, which you can immediately tell since none of them cited a source and even worse, mentioned having a source. The Verge has recently turned mostly into a clickbaity outlet. I stopped visiting the site after I watched the Tesla Q2 2018 conference and them immediately releasing a video with a sensational headline claiming many things like "Elon almost lost his job", “Tesla is in trouble” which contradict the facts and were not representative of the event at all.

rtpg 8y ago

> Should CEO's have to hide their recreational drug (of which alcohol is a subset) use? It’s not even about the drug use. Just a general lack of professionalism. Like if he showed up for this interview and ate 3 gallons of ice cream. Why is he participating in such stupid bits for a radio show? The galaxy brain take is that Elon has always been doing this, and his dumb flamethrower thing is what should get people mad. Don’t tweet about lack of sleep while wasting your time on dumb jokes I mean people are allowed to have fun , but a bit less so when the company they’re supposed to be running is supposedly falling apart

icelancer 8y ago
> Just a general lack of professionalism This is the final straw in this regard!? This is nothing. It's just him smoking a spliff on Joe Rogan's podcast. He's done like ten more ridiculous things that are unprofessional in public in the last 6 months that I can recall off the top of my head.
- openIce 8y ago
  That's your opinion?? Because he did stupid stuff before he should continue doing stupid shit? Everyone is aware that smoking weed labels you as some punk teen but i guess that's exactly the image Tesla wants
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

wpietri 8y ago

Personally, I'm entirely ok with normalizing marijuana usage. It has been legal all year here in SF, and de facto legal for years before that. Nothing bad happened. I'd love for the rest of the country to get over the moral panic on it. That said, I think Musk's move was colossally dumb. Tesla's valuation is based in large part on future expectations, and those expectations are deeply tied with Musk personally in a way that's true for very few other companies. If Tesla were in the black and shipping lots of cars, he could have done this happily. But people have a lot of very reasonable concerns about Tesla. One of those concerns is that the CEO is getting erratic under pressure. Publicly dating and breaking up with a pop star. Spending his time shitposting on Twitter. Calling a hero of the Thai cave rescue a pedophile, and then doubling down on it. Announcing he was taking the company private and then changing his mind. Given that, video of him smoking weed would have been foolish on its own. Doing that at the same time Tesla announced two executive resignations? Absurd. And given that one of those resignations was the Chief Accounting Officer leaving after 29 days? Plain dumb. It makes him look entirely irresponsible. Is he being irresponsible with the business? Who knows. But Musk knows better than anybody how much of Tesla's valuation is based on his own very personalized PR efforts. He should go find a crisis communications consultant. And then listen to them.

TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
> He should go find a crisis communications consultant. And then listen to them. What I don't understand is, why isn't the board putting him under severe pressure to do this? Something like: Musk old buddy old pal, you need to pull your head in for another year or so, then maybe he can go on a "sabbatical", without your Twitter password, and have a massive bender.
- GW150914 8y ago
  As I understand it, the board is set up to require something like a 90% vote for something like that, and it’s loaded with his friends. It’s a good setup for getting things done in a hurry in accordance with one man’s vision, but now... it’s pretty much useless.