3 ms·

I find it interesting that just the flu was the one that opened your eyes. To me that's not the most black and white instance, because after all it could be tha

I find it interesting that just the flu was the one that opened your eyes. To me that's not the most black and white instance, because after all it could be that he actually believed it. The one that first gave me pause to think was calling that diving guy a pedo. That's because, even if you believe it, you don't say it if you have millions of rabid followers, as that amounts to destroying someone's life without evidence. The fact he did that shows his questionable character, his beliefs aside. After this instance I started paying attention and noticed something also mentioned in the article - he never bothers addressing negative claims, he just attacks the person making the claims. That's when my opinion of him went from bad character to bullshiter and bad character.

dm319 4y ago
The thing that gets me is the way he propagates the idea that one person is responsible for his successes. There are many brilliant people and teams that work for his companies, but he doesn't promote them like they clearly deserve, instead wearing this persona of "of course I'm a bit weird, but I'm so amazing because I'm so successful at these things". To me this strikes me as narcissism/egocentrism, and I'm not surprised that he flew into a rage when the diver told him where to stick it because that seriously impacted on his ego.
- tommiegannert 4y ago
  While I agree with you, he's had plenty of help by media. I noticed a few years ago that headlines went the pattern of "Intel says", "Twitter says" and "Google says." With Tesla, though, it was always "Elon Musk says..." Media made a character out of him as much as his own Twitter feed did. Perhaps that was him playing the media fiddle perfectly. Perhaps they also wanted to craft a personal cult around someone, and he was just there at the right time.
  - seunosewa 4y ago
    That's because he's usually the one talking on Tesla's behalf. He tweets.
FullyFunctional 4y ago
You are exactly right, both about how he deals with criticism, takes credit, and I should have caught on at the time (I didn’t - due to unrelated reasons). It was apparent from very early on that I would never want to work for him. Later I have met ex-Tesla employees who confirmed my concerns (“you work on whatever is his most reason pet idea, dropping everything else”).

dm319 4y ago

The thing that gets me is the way he propagates the idea that one person is responsible for his successes. There are many brilliant people and teams that work for his companies, but he doesn't promote them like they clearly deserve, instead wearing this persona of "of course I'm a bit weird, but I'm so amazing because I'm so successful at these things". To me this strikes me as narcissism/egocentrism, and I'm not surprised that he flew into a rage when the diver told him where to stick it because that seriously impacted on his ego.

tommiegannert 4y ago
While I agree with you, he's had plenty of help by media. I noticed a few years ago that headlines went the pattern of "Intel says", "Twitter says" and "Google says." With Tesla, though, it was always "Elon Musk says..." Media made a character out of him as much as his own Twitter feed did. Perhaps that was him playing the media fiddle perfectly. Perhaps they also wanted to craft a personal cult around someone, and he was just there at the right time.
- seunosewa 4y ago
  That's because he's usually the one talking on Tesla's behalf. He tweets.

FullyFunctional 4y ago

You are exactly right, both about how he deals with criticism, takes credit, and I should have caught on at the time (I didn’t - due to unrelated reasons). It was apparent from very early on that I would never want to work for him. Later I have met ex-Tesla employees who confirmed my concerns (“you work on whatever is his most reason pet idea, dropping everything else”).