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Watching Elon melt down in real time while pissing away $44 billion dollars is not something I ever expected. That it is happening is a testament to the notion

Watching Elon melt down in real time while pissing away $44 billion dollars is not something I ever expected. That it is happening is a testament to the notion that wealth is not bequeathed upon the "worthy" so much as it is the "lucky." That said, in my experience, these kinds of moves are also made by employees who want to "impress the boss." This was one of the more interesting things I learned from the VP of sales at Sun when I was there, he said that he had to be careful to be really clear about the principles around what was considered "good selling" versus "what he wanted" because people with way fewer scruples than he had, that worked for him, would "make that happen" and be proud of the fact that the boss "didn't have to get his hands dirty." If you ever find yourself in an organization where that sort of thing is going on (you'll recognize it if you keep an eye out for it) my advice is to leave it as soon as you can.

maxbond 4y ago
> Watching Elon melt down in real time while pissing away $44 billion dollars is not something I ever expected. I don't think you can have the kind of wealth Musk has without it changing who you are. I don't think his worthiness is even worth consideration, if you transferred that wealth to any of us we may handle it better or worse but it would invariably distort our decision making and worldview. When you change someone's opportunity set to include exercising arbitrary authority over others, their decisions will become more & more domineering. When he decided he was going to take over Twitter and start cracking skulls, he was indulging his worst instincts, and we've seen him slide further into an authoritarian frame of mind. Not to excuse Musk's actions, but he's a victim here too. I think he's had a rough few years; the pandemic was hard on all of us, and his divorce was presumably quite painful. The other day he was booed by a huge crowd; I don't care who you are, I believe such disdain by so many people has an effect on your mind. And of course his child was harassed immediately after - this seems to have been the last straw to trigger some kind of paranoid episode. It seems like he's convinced that there's a danger to himself and his family, and that he's gone into a really authoritarian headspace. I think the lesson we should take from this is that no single person should be trusted to have this sort of power.
- iakh 4y ago
  That's quite the generous interpretation even if the OP wasn't a posting about mastodon, a social network that directly competes with Twitter, and had nothing to do with any of the reasons you think Elon Musk is a victim in all of this.
  - maxbond 4y ago
    I'm not defending him. I am a vocal Musk critic. I'll edit my comment to try to make that more clear. ETA: After taking a stab at it, I feel like the strength of my comment is in it's empathy to Musk; I feel that turning up the volume on it's criticism would damage it's purpose of expanding the critique from Musk to the systems that enabled him. I think the sibling comment with the Caro quote does a better job than I'd do with an edit, so I've upvoted that comment and left mine as is. If you have any suggestions though, I'm listening & willing to incorporate them. ETA2: I've also added a quote to make it clearer why I felt this was relevant to the parent comment.
    - dntrkv 4y ago
      I think that’s a reasonable and charitable interpretation (which is not a bad thing imo). I haven’t been much of a Musk fan for a while now, but I still think it’s important to recognize that he’s still human and he’s definitely going through some shit.
    - kybernetikos 4y ago
      Having to hedge basic humanity with a "while I'm not a fan" gets tiring. I think your comment is thoughtful and useful and not enabling as is.
- igorkraw 4y ago
  While I agree with your last paragraph I would like to quote Robert Caro talking about power: "But although the cliche says that power always corrupts, what is seldom said ... is that power always reveals. When a man is climbing, trying to persuade others to give him power, concealment is necessary. ... But as a man obtains more power, camouflage becomes less necessary." Elon is definitely a victim of capitalism and patriarchy to some degree, as are other billionaire. But they are also the main beneficiaries ans can wipe away their tears with hundred dollar bills, blackjack and hookers, so my empathy has limitations.
rvieira 4y ago
If there's anything that the tech industry History taught us, is that it's a rise and fall of empires speed-run. Everything is transitory and there's no recipe for eternal success.
thefz 4y ago
> Watching Elon melt down in real time while pissing away $44 billion dollars is not something I ever expected. That it is happening is a testament to the notion that wealth is not bequeathed upon the "worthy" so much as it is the "lucky." If anything, another example of how a decent tech/engineer may not be the best spokesperson or decision maker.
- feet 4y ago
  He's not an engineer though, not even close. He isn't a tech person either. He never even got that physics degree he claims to have
  - wolfram74 4y ago
    I have modest to high levels of contempt for ol' muskie, but a piece of paper isn't the deciding factor for me, and I'm a formally trained physicist. Heck, Freeman Dyson never got a PhD and you'd have a hard time arguing he didn't significantly contribute to 20th century physics.
    - monocasa 4y ago
      There's a difference between "my work speaks for itself; I haven't seen the need to finish my degree" and claiming a degree that you don't have.
    - feet 4y ago
      He hasn't actually done any physics or engineering work though, that's my point. He throws money at problems, it's the spaghetti method of hiring engineers to work on problems. The only thing he contributes is capital That's not even mentioning that half or more of his projects fail
NDizzle 4y ago
Why do you think he is melting down? The use of this word may be surprising, but things aren't often as binary as they appear. I bet this decision wouldn't make a polygraph needle move.
schwartzworld 4y ago
> the notion that wealth is not bequeathed upon the "worthy" so much as it is the "lucky." Rich kid with rich dad uses wealth to get richer. Pretty obvious luck is the main factor.
amazon_illegal 4y ago

maxbond 4y ago

> Watching Elon melt down in real time while pissing away $44 billion dollars is not something I ever expected. I don't think you can have the kind of wealth Musk has without it changing who you are. I don't think his worthiness is even worth consideration, if you transferred that wealth to any of us we may handle it better or worse but it would invariably distort our decision making and worldview. When you change someone's opportunity set to include exercising arbitrary authority over others, their decisions will become more & more domineering. When he decided he was going to take over Twitter and start cracking skulls, he was indulging his worst instincts, and we've seen him slide further into an authoritarian frame of mind. Not to excuse Musk's actions, but he's a victim here too. I think he's had a rough few years; the pandemic was hard on all of us, and his divorce was presumably quite painful. The other day he was booed by a huge crowd; I don't care who you are, I believe such disdain by so many people has an effect on your mind. And of course his child was harassed immediately after - this seems to have been the last straw to trigger some kind of paranoid episode. It seems like he's convinced that there's a danger to himself and his family, and that he's gone into a really authoritarian headspace. I think the lesson we should take from this is that no single person should be trusted to have this sort of power.

iakh 4y ago
That's quite the generous interpretation even if the OP wasn't a posting about mastodon, a social network that directly competes with Twitter, and had nothing to do with any of the reasons you think Elon Musk is a victim in all of this.
- maxbond 4y ago
  I'm not defending him. I am a vocal Musk critic. I'll edit my comment to try to make that more clear. ETA: After taking a stab at it, I feel like the strength of my comment is in it's empathy to Musk; I feel that turning up the volume on it's criticism would damage it's purpose of expanding the critique from Musk to the systems that enabled him. I think the sibling comment with the Caro quote does a better job than I'd do with an edit, so I've upvoted that comment and left mine as is. If you have any suggestions though, I'm listening & willing to incorporate them. ETA2: I've also added a quote to make it clearer why I felt this was relevant to the parent comment.
  - dntrkv 4y ago
    I think that’s a reasonable and charitable interpretation (which is not a bad thing imo). I haven’t been much of a Musk fan for a while now, but I still think it’s important to recognize that he’s still human and he’s definitely going through some shit.
  - kybernetikos 4y ago
    Having to hedge basic humanity with a "while I'm not a fan" gets tiring. I think your comment is thoughtful and useful and not enabling as is.
igorkraw 4y ago
While I agree with your last paragraph I would like to quote Robert Caro talking about power: "But although the cliche says that power always corrupts, what is seldom said ... is that power always reveals. When a man is climbing, trying to persuade others to give him power, concealment is necessary. ... But as a man obtains more power, camouflage becomes less necessary." Elon is definitely a victim of capitalism and patriarchy to some degree, as are other billionaire. But they are also the main beneficiaries ans can wipe away their tears with hundred dollar bills, blackjack and hookers, so my empathy has limitations.

rvieira 4y ago

If there's anything that the tech industry History taught us, is that it's a rise and fall of empires speed-run. Everything is transitory and there's no recipe for eternal success.

thefz 4y ago

> Watching Elon melt down in real time while pissing away $44 billion dollars is not something I ever expected. That it is happening is a testament to the notion that wealth is not bequeathed upon the "worthy" so much as it is the "lucky." If anything, another example of how a decent tech/engineer may not be the best spokesperson or decision maker.

feet 4y ago
He's not an engineer though, not even close. He isn't a tech person either. He never even got that physics degree he claims to have
- wolfram74 4y ago
  I have modest to high levels of contempt for ol' muskie, but a piece of paper isn't the deciding factor for me, and I'm a formally trained physicist. Heck, Freeman Dyson never got a PhD and you'd have a hard time arguing he didn't significantly contribute to 20th century physics.
  - monocasa 4y ago
    There's a difference between "my work speaks for itself; I haven't seen the need to finish my degree" and claiming a degree that you don't have.
  - feet 4y ago
    He hasn't actually done any physics or engineering work though, that's my point. He throws money at problems, it's the spaghetti method of hiring engineers to work on problems. The only thing he contributes is capital That's not even mentioning that half or more of his projects fail

NDizzle 4y ago

Why do you think he is melting down? The use of this word may be surprising, but things aren't often as binary as they appear. I bet this decision wouldn't make a polygraph needle move.

schwartzworld 4y ago

> the notion that wealth is not bequeathed upon the "worthy" so much as it is the "lucky." Rich kid with rich dad uses wealth to get richer. Pretty obvious luck is the main factor.

amazon_illegal 4y ago