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How much of The Boring Company is an excuse to sell novelty branded merch? Such as the Not-a-flamethrower https://www.boringcompany.com/not-a-flamethrower https

by rexf 4y ago

How much of The Boring Company is an excuse to sell novelty branded merch? Such as the Not-a-flamethrower https://www.boringcompany.com/not-a-flamethrower https://www.boringcompany.com/not-a-flamethrower

XorNot 4y ago
I seriously doubt the merch raised remotely enough money to cover the cost of plant for a company like it.
- harry8 4y ago
  Totally. But consider that maybe they're both implementations of the same strategy. Musk made Tesla one of the most recognised brands with a similar status recognition to (say) Mercedes while not spending a dollar on advertising because Musk himself is news. The flamethrower, so many column inches. Tweeting that he hated traffic and seemingly off-the-cuff that he was going to build tunnels and calling it "The Boring Company" So many column inches. Recall that he literally hired a bunch of the Onion's writers at one point. What do they do? Being a human headline works in America even if most of the coverage is disparaging. Trump is another obvious example in the way he took control of the Republican party (the way Bernie couldn't quite manage to take the Dems) seemingly against the headwinds of relentlessly negative coverage but loads of it. Interesting to see how Musk's blow-hard approach is going to work with twitter now he seems like he's going to call out Apple's monopoly abuses like so many others (spotify, fortnite...) have tried but not really succeeded. Going P.T. Barnum all the way seems to be necessary in the USA. We can idle time by speculating on whether Musk is a blow-hard who failed upwards or whether he's clever enough to know it and use it, playing the Musk character for all it is worth. As far as Musk himself goes I'm not really a fan but that seems utterly beside the point. Does the P.T. Barnum thing work with smaller businesses launching? How? Any examples?
  - XorNot 4y ago
    It didn't work for Epic Games, why would it work for Twitter, which no one pays for? Twitter users don't care.
ninth_ant 4y ago
Less than the amount it was to sabotage high-speed rail in California.
- zeroonetwothree 4y ago
  I think HSR was sabotaging itself well enough
  - femiagbabiaka 4y ago
    HSR is doing fine as far as big American infrastructure projects go. Building highways is typically even more costly and fraught, and yet nobody blinks an eye.
    - Spooky23 4y ago
      Great point. A four lane highway costs $12M/mile, plus about $1.5M to resurface every 8-10 years. Each overpass bridge costs $8-20M. That doesn’t include condemnation, etc. Rail should just be rolled into the normal interstate capital funds. Separate the “meta” infrastructure from the trains and stations and more will get done. Trains are a tough business because it’s such an old business.
  - runarberg 4y ago
    Self sabotage as in numerous ill faith law suites from municipalities, institutions, and private companies; non-cooperative utility companies and freight companies forcing ridiculous requirements such as the Hanford viaduct; a federal governments that only offers a nominal funding (and later withholds it when Trump comes into power); and then powerful people such as Elon Musk lying about having a better and cheaper alternative. I think you are giving CASHR too much credit here.

by rexf 4y ago

XorNot 4y ago

I seriously doubt the merch raised remotely enough money to cover the cost of plant for a company like it.

harry8 4y ago
Totally. But consider that maybe they're both implementations of the same strategy. Musk made Tesla one of the most recognised brands with a similar status recognition to (say) Mercedes while not spending a dollar on advertising because Musk himself is news. The flamethrower, so many column inches. Tweeting that he hated traffic and seemingly off-the-cuff that he was going to build tunnels and calling it "The Boring Company" So many column inches. Recall that he literally hired a bunch of the Onion's writers at one point. What do they do? Being a human headline works in America even if most of the coverage is disparaging. Trump is another obvious example in the way he took control of the Republican party (the way Bernie couldn't quite manage to take the Dems) seemingly against the headwinds of relentlessly negative coverage but loads of it. Interesting to see how Musk's blow-hard approach is going to work with twitter now he seems like he's going to call out Apple's monopoly abuses like so many others (spotify, fortnite...) have tried but not really succeeded. Going P.T. Barnum all the way seems to be necessary in the USA. We can idle time by speculating on whether Musk is a blow-hard who failed upwards or whether he's clever enough to know it and use it, playing the Musk character for all it is worth. As far as Musk himself goes I'm not really a fan but that seems utterly beside the point. Does the P.T. Barnum thing work with smaller businesses launching? How? Any examples?
- XorNot 4y ago
  It didn't work for Epic Games, why would it work for Twitter, which no one pays for? Twitter users don't care.

ninth_ant 4y ago

Less than the amount it was to sabotage high-speed rail in California.

zeroonetwothree 4y ago
I think HSR was sabotaging itself well enough
- femiagbabiaka 4y ago
  HSR is doing fine as far as big American infrastructure projects go. Building highways is typically even more costly and fraught, and yet nobody blinks an eye.
  - Spooky23 4y ago
    Great point. A four lane highway costs $12M/mile, plus about $1.5M to resurface every 8-10 years. Each overpass bridge costs $8-20M. That doesn’t include condemnation, etc. Rail should just be rolled into the normal interstate capital funds. Separate the “meta” infrastructure from the trains and stations and more will get done. Trains are a tough business because it’s such an old business.
- runarberg 4y ago
  Self sabotage as in numerous ill faith law suites from municipalities, institutions, and private companies; non-cooperative utility companies and freight companies forcing ridiculous requirements such as the Hanford viaduct; a federal governments that only offers a nominal funding (and later withholds it when Trump comes into power); and then powerful people such as Elon Musk lying about having a better and cheaper alternative. I think you are giving CASHR too much credit here.