4 ms·

Elon Musk contains multitudes, including a stellar mind for engineering, a credible claim to be working on products that are good for humanity, excellent busine

Elon Musk contains multitudes, including a stellar mind for engineering, a credible claim to be working on products that are good for humanity, excellent business instincts, and the talent to come across as an obnoxious asshole. Seriously: when you have Bond-villain levels of fame and fortune, I expect you to be at least as clever as Peter Thiel in fucking over people who crossed you. Musk just randomly calling people he doesn’t like “pedophiles” on Twitter always feels… I dunno, “small”?

ethbr0 5y ago
It's probably for the best that billionaires draw the line at Twitter rants, rather than... other things that money could buy.
Cipater 5y ago
He's just a very rich nerd.
bdamm 5y ago
If you're going to quote, at least quote correctly. "pedo guy" was the insult.
- Niglodonicus 5y ago
  Which was pretty funny framing in any case, since Musk's wife Grimes is about 14 years old mentally (just watch any of her recent viral TikTok clips floating around).
- vimacs2 5y ago
  He also hired a private investigator to target the guy. I'm a huge fan of his work with SpaceX but let's not downplay what a petty asshole he was during that whole thing.
  - bdamm 5y ago
    Absolutely. It is worth noting that Tesla was experiencing "production hell" at the time, so obviously Musk was under a ton of stress. That doesn't excuse the behavior, but does make it easier to understand. Frankly, Musk should have kept out of the whole thing, but staying silent isn't the style that anyone operating at that level is going to have. Asking his team to build a sub is inexcusable. Still love his product, despite the distraction.
    - skissane 5y ago
      > Asking his team to build a sub is inexcusable Is that what actually happened? Version I heard is that his engineers came up with the sub idea themselves, the idea didn't actually come from Musk. He just told them they could work on this and use corporate resources/funds to do so. The sub didn't end up being used in the rescue. But, were the rescuers to any significant degree hindered by SpaceX/Boring/Tesla's offer of help? In a scenario like that, it makes sense to explore different solution options in parallel – the fact that some of them end up being culled doesn't mean it was wrong to explore them to begin with. Musk released an email exchange with the (co-)head of the cave rescue diving team [0], in which he asks if he should stop work on the sub and is told to continue with it. A lot of people paint it as if Musk and his team were hanging around the rescue site doing nothing but annoying the rescuers and getting in their way – but you'd think if that was actually true, they would have told him to abandon the submarine project not continue work on it. [0] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1016684366083190785 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1016684366083190785
user-the-name 5y ago
Maybe there's a reason "pedo" comes to mind so easily for him. https://i.insider.com/5dbc6d222f364a0a9e077c03?width=2000&format=jpeg&auto=webp https://i.insider.com/5dbc6d222f364a0a9e077c03?width=2000&fo...

ethbr0 5y ago

It's probably for the best that billionaires draw the line at Twitter rants, rather than... other things that money could buy.

Cipater 5y ago

He's just a very rich nerd.

bdamm 5y ago

If you're going to quote, at least quote correctly. "pedo guy" was the insult.

Niglodonicus 5y ago
Which was pretty funny framing in any case, since Musk's wife Grimes is about 14 years old mentally (just watch any of her recent viral TikTok clips floating around).
vimacs2 5y ago
He also hired a private investigator to target the guy. I'm a huge fan of his work with SpaceX but let's not downplay what a petty asshole he was during that whole thing.
- bdamm 5y ago
  Absolutely. It is worth noting that Tesla was experiencing "production hell" at the time, so obviously Musk was under a ton of stress. That doesn't excuse the behavior, but does make it easier to understand. Frankly, Musk should have kept out of the whole thing, but staying silent isn't the style that anyone operating at that level is going to have. Asking his team to build a sub is inexcusable. Still love his product, despite the distraction.
  - skissane 5y ago
    > Asking his team to build a sub is inexcusable Is that what actually happened? Version I heard is that his engineers came up with the sub idea themselves, the idea didn't actually come from Musk. He just told them they could work on this and use corporate resources/funds to do so. The sub didn't end up being used in the rescue. But, were the rescuers to any significant degree hindered by SpaceX/Boring/Tesla's offer of help? In a scenario like that, it makes sense to explore different solution options in parallel – the fact that some of them end up being culled doesn't mean it was wrong to explore them to begin with. Musk released an email exchange with the (co-)head of the cave rescue diving team [0], in which he asks if he should stop work on the sub and is told to continue with it. A lot of people paint it as if Musk and his team were hanging around the rescue site doing nothing but annoying the rescuers and getting in their way – but you'd think if that was actually true, they would have told him to abandon the submarine project not continue work on it. [0] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1016684366083190785 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1016684366083190785

user-the-name 5y ago

Maybe there's a reason "pedo" comes to mind so easily for him. https://i.insider.com/5dbc6d222f364a0a9e077c03?width=2000&format=jpeg&auto=webp https://i.insider.com/5dbc6d222f364a0a9e077c03?width=2000&fo...