5 ms·

I have similar feelings as you do about Elon, and take anything he says with a grain of salt. But, he’s in some (not all!) aspects the world’s most successful c

by manmal 4y ago

I have similar feelings as you do about Elon, and take anything he says with a grain of salt. But, he’s in some (not all!) aspects the world’s most successful company leader, and he got there with exactly this behavior. Evolutionary pressures in our society and markets seem to favor this behavior (also keeping in mind the last US president).

hef19898 4y ago
Musk is the best, or at least among the best, marketers currently alive. That's it. Let's not make more out of this than it is.
- manmal 4y ago
  I agree, and Elon seems to know - he closed Tesla's PR department a while back to (re)gain full message control. That's a pretty big deal though, since businesses usually run on marketing, and not on raw engineering prowess. Without great marketing, you can't even attract great engineers. Some people argue that the Nazis were as successful as they were due to propaganda (my final thesis at school was about Goebbels) - a sibling of marketing. Marketing rules the world.
basisword 4y ago
>> Evolutionary pressures in our society and markets seem to favor this behavior (also keeping in mind the last US president). Trump was the first president since the 80’s/early 90’s not to get a second term. Acting like an asshole only gets you so far maybe until people grow tired of it.
- hef19898 4y ago
  Bring an a*hole got T his first term, being an idiot lost him his second. And, I'd argue, all the terms until his death after the second one. Putin is another example. Being a ruthless, smart sociopath got him all his power, being an idiot once lost him almost everything.
  - zmgsabst 4y ago
    What has Putin lost?
    - hef19898 4y ago
      His influence on Western politics? A big chunk of the Russian economy? Finnland joining NATO? His ability to divide NATO countries? That list is quite long.
      - zmgsabst 4y ago
        I’m not sure he had any of those to lose (nor that, eg, Finland joining NATO is assured) — except the economy one, where the ruble is faring better than the dollar. The ruble currently trades stronger against the US dollar than September 2021. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RUB=X/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RUB=X/
    - inglor_cz 4y ago
      The situation is still in progress, but if Russia can get out of this mess with just loss of Donbass, Crimea and the Black Sea Fleet, they would have to gratulate themselves for unexpected salvation. That would be akin to the Russo-Japanese war, where their diplomats were able pull off a much more reasonable peace than one would expect from the actual war result. The worst case scenario is a civil war like the one that followed their military collapse in WWI. Only with nukes in the mix. Yuck.
      - zmgsabst 4y ago
        What makes you think that is the likely outcome?
        inglor_cz 4y ago
        The attrition of Russian military equipment is very high and they are in no position to replenish it fast enough. At the same time, the Ukrainians are receiving enormous amounts of high tech equipment from a coalition of states that, taken together, is about 30 times as rich as Russia and much more technologically capable. The Russians already had to abandon their Kiev push and now are retreating from the Kharkiv region, unable to take a city located mere 25 miles from their own border and next to the major Russian military hub of Belgorod. Three or four months of further attrition warfare like that and they will have nothing left to deploy into battle.
Bud 4y ago
No, he didn't "get there" with this behavior. Elon's unstable erratic mini-Trump phase is relatively recent. Tesla and SpaceX were well-established on their current paths well before then.

by manmal 4y ago

hef19898 4y ago

Musk is the best, or at least among the best, marketers currently alive. That's it. Let's not make more out of this than it is.

manmal 4y ago
I agree, and Elon seems to know - he closed Tesla's PR department a while back to (re)gain full message control. That's a pretty big deal though, since businesses usually run on marketing, and not on raw engineering prowess. Without great marketing, you can't even attract great engineers. Some people argue that the Nazis were as successful as they were due to propaganda (my final thesis at school was about Goebbels) - a sibling of marketing. Marketing rules the world.

basisword 4y ago

>> Evolutionary pressures in our society and markets seem to favor this behavior (also keeping in mind the last US president). Trump was the first president since the 80’s/early 90’s not to get a second term. Acting like an asshole only gets you so far maybe until people grow tired of it.

hef19898 4y ago
Bring an a*hole got T his first term, being an idiot lost him his second. And, I'd argue, all the terms until his death after the second one. Putin is another example. Being a ruthless, smart sociopath got him all his power, being an idiot once lost him almost everything.
- zmgsabst 4y ago
  What has Putin lost?
  - hef19898 4y ago
    His influence on Western politics? A big chunk of the Russian economy? Finnland joining NATO? His ability to divide NATO countries? That list is quite long.
    - zmgsabst 4y ago
      I’m not sure he had any of those to lose (nor that, eg, Finland joining NATO is assured) — except the economy one, where the ruble is faring better than the dollar. The ruble currently trades stronger against the US dollar than September 2021. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RUB=X/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RUB=X/
  - inglor_cz 4y ago
    The situation is still in progress, but if Russia can get out of this mess with just loss of Donbass, Crimea and the Black Sea Fleet, they would have to gratulate themselves for unexpected salvation. That would be akin to the Russo-Japanese war, where their diplomats were able pull off a much more reasonable peace than one would expect from the actual war result. The worst case scenario is a civil war like the one that followed their military collapse in WWI. Only with nukes in the mix. Yuck.
    - zmgsabst 4y ago
      What makes you think that is the likely outcome?
      - inglor_cz 4y ago
        The attrition of Russian military equipment is very high and they are in no position to replenish it fast enough. At the same time, the Ukrainians are receiving enormous amounts of high tech equipment from a coalition of states that, taken together, is about 30 times as rich as Russia and much more technologically capable. The Russians already had to abandon their Kiev push and now are retreating from the Kharkiv region, unable to take a city located mere 25 miles from their own border and next to the major Russian military hub of Belgorod. Three or four months of further attrition warfare like that and they will have nothing left to deploy into battle.

Bud 4y ago

No, he didn't "get there" with this behavior. Elon's unstable erratic mini-Trump phase is relatively recent. Tesla and SpaceX were well-established on their current paths well before then.