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So utterly tired of this man. We all knew he would do this. He's the person that buys some expensive item he knows he won't keep at a store and returns it, ca
by JohnJamesRambo 4y ago
So utterly tired of this man. We all knew he would do this. He's the person that buys some expensive item he knows he won't keep at a store and returns it, causing headaches for everyone associated with it and him.
- jmeister 4y ago[flagged]
- fleetwoodsnack 4y agoPlutocrats, insofar as they exist and insofar as we use their business acumen to measure competence and corruption, have a fairly narrow mandate and lesser legal authority and responsibilities.
- iostream24 4y agoSelf-service is not public service. I also think your relative corruption analysis is so far off base, you might as well be on the moon. Elon Musk is doing his best to ruin something he thought he wanted, and it should be taken in the same bad faith he offered it in.
- iostream24 4y ago
- LMYahooTFY 4y agoOne could say the same of Musk haters, and both would be violating the HN guidelines. Please don't do this here. > Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, bots, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.
- strikelaserclaw 4y agoJust like the Ballmer peak, i think there is an optimal peak for a CEO to be visible, Elon is way beyond that peak and full into "drunk" territory.
- mlindner 4y agoHow visible Elon is is a result of reporting and the clickbait (often with false information) headlines used in that reporting.
- rvnx 4y agoHe is visible because haters make him visible. Then haters complain he is too visible and there is infinite loop.
- iostream24 4y ago
- rvnx 4y agoWell look around in this exact page, how many haters are speaking vs people who don't care.
- synu 4y agoTo be honest, haters and defenders seem to be pretty evenly matched up at the moment. Maybe even slight edge to the defenders if not by number of accounts then by zeal to make lots of replies.
- davidbarker 4y agoTo call those people critical of Musk (with most providing what they perceive as valid reasons) “haters” feels cheap.
- d23 4y ago
- mlindner 4y ago
- exdsq 4y agoIt’s absolutely appropriate as he’s a leader in our industry. And on that note I’d no longer apply for a role at Tesla based on his very annoying behavior.
- mlindner 4y agoDoes your comment on "annoying behavior" relate to him not voting for candidates of your political party any more? The only annoying behavior I've seen of late are the frothing at the mouth vitriol that's being incessantly flung at him for the last weeks/months before and after the news about buying Twitter. That's "annoying behavior". What he's been doing has not been that.
- dekhn 4y ago
- janoc 4y agoMore like he realized he doesn't really have the money, only big mouth. See also the recent news about how he pushes for 10% layoffs at Tesla.
- mlindner 4y agoHe has the money already. And the 10% layoffs were much misreported. The layoffs were only among salaried employees with the release simultaneously saying that they will be increasing hiring for non-salaried production employees. A 10% layoff of only salaried workers isn't that large of a layoff.
- sixQuarks 4y agoToo much Elon hate here, your factual statements goes against the narrative.
- heretogetout 4y ago> A 10% layoff of only salaried workers isn't that large of a layoff. How many people does this amount to?
- mlindner 4y agoGiven that the salaried work force is going to be less than half by economic necessity of a manufacturing company, the actual layoff then would be less than 5%.
- heretogetout 4y agoI'm not sure that assumption is reasonable, especially if a company has to front-load R&D.
- IanCal 4y ago> He has the money already. I thought he had to seek additional funds because tesla stock dropped.
- 4y ago
- qzx_pierri 4y ago
- ekianjo 4y ago> We all knew he would do this. That's just negotiations 101.
- gammabetadelta 4y agoWhy do you hate arrogant people? Or more/less charitably confident. He's playing a game and he's winning. While not all his tactics sit well with me, he's created immense value for the world. We want this man to keep investing and running capital. The alternatives are just so much worse.
- otterley 4y agoSome people value character such as modesty, generosity, and kindness more than they value money. With great power comes great responsibility. The fact that there are enormously wealthy people such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates who provided similar economic value to society without always acting like jerks and demanding the spotlight all the time is an existence proof that other avenues of behavior are possible.
- gammabetadelta 4y agoBill Gates is not without his faults. I agree that some people value modesty, I hope those people won't stop the next ego manic from trying to change the world. I'd equally be happy if we could clone Buffett, Gates, and Musk. We get what we get. Unless you want to build a rocket, we should respect these life enhancing men, despite their character flaws.
- otterley 4y agoIndeed, nobody is perfect. But we have the right to judge people who intentionally place themselves in the public spotlight and insist on leader-like behavior from them. > I hope those people won't stop the next ego manic from trying to change the world. You are describing a super villain here! I certainly hope we would try to stop them. “Advancement at any price” is how we end up with dictators and fascists.
- gammabetadelta 4y agoHa, it does sound like I am. Maybe I'm naive, it doesn't seem like there's a desire for world domination. No political aspiration, unlike Sheryl Sandberg. Not implying she is evil or anything just highlighting another highly successful person.
- boringg 4y agoAre you tired of this man or are you tried of the unrelenting media coverage of every single thing he does? The media uses his name to drive ad revenue - he uses the media for free coverage. I would agree he has had too much time in the limelight and many people are getting exhausted of his coverage. I think that caricature is pretty off base. He bought something that was damaged and its value went off a cliff. What kind of person would pay full freight for Twitter as the tech valuations plummet - only a fool would stay locked into that deal.
- dc-programmer 4y agoHe self-publishes his SEC defying schemes and polemics on Twitter all the time. He also reacts to these media stories you mention in ghastly ways. Truly an awful person.
- hans1729 4y ago>[first paragraph] This post is probably not on top of HN because “the media” uses him for ad revenue, just saying. >[second] That’s not even close to the full picture. Its not like he went into a shop with cash to buy a car. Not saying that the gp is 100% correct either, but gross simplifications don’t help the discourse. Edit - To clarify: if he believed in the purchase as an investment, temporary tech valuations would not matter, what would matter is the quality of the product relative to the changes he wanted to make in the company. Twitter is very much intact, it didn’t materially change since the situation began.
- boringg 4y agoValuations always matter - even if you are temporarily the wealthiest person on the planet.
- gordon_freeman 4y agoI used to admire him until probably a year ago and always liked him for saying what it is but recently I've had enough of him. I feel like he has no empathy for people and he has no class anymore. Just look at the 10% layoff email he sent to Tesla employees and see if you can find any empathy in this email.
- felipellrocha 4y agoTo be fair, at this point the dude is just going through the motions and the media keep blowing things up.
- yucky 4y agoOr was the item broken in the box? How was he to know they would intentionally misrepresent the number of fake users on the platform? Couldn't he argue twitter tried to defraud?
- Twirrim 4y agoThere's a standard due diligence process that companies go through for mergers and acquisitions etc, through which you get access to material data. He chose not to do that. He chose to make the acquisition "sight unseen" in a way that also left the him on the hook for $1bn if he pulled out of the deal. Now he's trying to dodge the $1bn clause, but the contract he signed doesn't give him many ways out.
- dtjb 4y agoMusk waived due diligence in making his offer, and Twitter clearly relied on that waiver when accepting it.
- yucky 4y agoNot a lawyer, but I wonder if the wording on that applies only if there was no attempt to deceive, which would be criminal. It might apply a different standard, since the user count has been used for years in public filings misrepresenting the true value of the company to their shareholders. Could open up twitter to a class action.
- dtjb 4y agoI agree it'll end up being a fight for the lawyers, but Musk cannot credibly claim to be surprised by the bot problem when so much of his and Tesla's twitter presence is propped up by bots (25% of activity due to a recent study - https://today.umd.edu/researcher-studies-teslas-twitter-bot-boost https://today.umd.edu/researcher-studies-teslas-twitter-bot-...)
- sbarbarian 4y agoTired is the right word. He's a complex person doing interesting things, with a lot of noise mixed in. I don't care for how the cult of celebrity has grown to dominate public discourse, particularly since Trump got elected. Keep your celebrities out of my limited attention, particularly if its irrelevant to the actual events at hand. Of course, the fact that Musk is materially affecting Twitter, Trump was president, etc. totally call for their manic actions as newsworthy. Ugh. Too much power concentrated in the hands of too few.