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The position of being a ketamine addicted narcissist who thinks they know better than everyone? Or the position of being born filthy rich and purchasing stakes

The position of being a ketamine addicted narcissist who thinks they know better than everyone? Or the position of being born filthy rich and purchasing stakes of large existing companies that you didn’t build yourself. You can root for SpaceX and the good it’s doing while also acknowledging it’s ran by a pretty pathetic dude.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
eappleby 3y ago
This is drastically underestimating his contributions to these companies (not including Twitter).
- tarsinge 3y ago
  What was a typical day for him at Tesla or SpaceX? My understanding is his contribution is getting big government contracts, but the companies were essentially run by others.
  - me_me_me 3y ago
    From what I read his contribution to SpaceX is creation of an informal department of people to deal with his idea and deflecting them from being implemented while feeding elon's ego.
  - 0xbadc0de5 3y ago
    You can easily figure that out for yourself without relying on others to Google it for you. But your understanding is incomplete at best.
0xbadc0de5 3y ago
I can acknowledge a man's shortcomings without discounting his positive contributions (which are manifold). Without him, there would be zero EV market. Without him, US space dominance would continue to atrophy into oblivion. Without him, there would be no reusable space launch vehicles (and all of the opportunities that accompany it) in existence. But I will grant that the Twitter acquisition was a pretty clear unforced error.
- 3cats-in-a-coat 3y ago
  The BEV market was already picking up in Asia before Tesla rose to prominence. And Asia prefers small electric cars for the city, and many other small electric vehicles like electric scooters, bikes, motorcycles, which make a lot more sense than the electric sedans, SUVs and trucks, that Tesla is offering. For bigger cars, a hybrid is much superior from engineering perspective with the state of current tech, it uses a lot less Lithium, and still promotes the development of a charging network that could then charge small EVs. And for even bigger vehicles, for industrial transport and public transport, we've had the electric train, tram, subway and trolleybus for decades. Decades. All running without batteries, which vastly reduces their weight and improves their safety and performance. Tesla's contribution to the EV market are overblown. It's by far the most well known EV brand in the West, and it did open many people minds' to the prospect of getting an EV. But Tesla is offering product quality of continuous decline, and is in the process of being replaced by the very competitors in Asia I referred to earlier, who have been in this game for much longer than Tesla, and without peddling vaporware like the always broken FSD. Not to mention Optimus. Tesla seems like they invented something. And changed the world. But they were just a huge distraction that sucked up the capital for other startups coming up with similar products, at a similar time, due to Elon Musk's empty promises and boatsmanship. Tesla is a distraction and will be forgotten, except for two things: their charging plug standard, and their supercharger network. Those will likely stick around. Shame really, because I really liked the Tesla brand, and I really like the look of the Model 3/Y (not the interior nor the quality, but it's a nice looking car, simple, elegant). Unfortunately Tesla is currently in decay and they're putting up increasingly weirder rabbits from their hat to hide that fact (and why the CFO left).
  - jwestbury 3y ago
    Perhaps worth noting, too, that Tesla have gone from >80% BEV market share in the US in 2020 to (probably) below 50% right now. (Probably because they were at just over 50% in January, and analyst predictions had them dropping below 50% within months.) They're still absolutely dominant in the US, but losing ground fast. And, anecdotally, their BEV market share in Europe (based on what I see on the road and whilst shopping for used cars) is much lower. In the UK, I believe it's below 20%.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

eappleby 3y ago

This is drastically underestimating his contributions to these companies (not including Twitter).

tarsinge 3y ago
What was a typical day for him at Tesla or SpaceX? My understanding is his contribution is getting big government contracts, but the companies were essentially run by others.
- me_me_me 3y ago
  From what I read his contribution to SpaceX is creation of an informal department of people to deal with his idea and deflecting them from being implemented while feeding elon's ego.
- 0xbadc0de5 3y ago
  You can easily figure that out for yourself without relying on others to Google it for you. But your understanding is incomplete at best.

0xbadc0de5 3y ago

I can acknowledge a man's shortcomings without discounting his positive contributions (which are manifold). Without him, there would be zero EV market. Without him, US space dominance would continue to atrophy into oblivion. Without him, there would be no reusable space launch vehicles (and all of the opportunities that accompany it) in existence. But I will grant that the Twitter acquisition was a pretty clear unforced error.

3cats-in-a-coat 3y ago
The BEV market was already picking up in Asia before Tesla rose to prominence. And Asia prefers small electric cars for the city, and many other small electric vehicles like electric scooters, bikes, motorcycles, which make a lot more sense than the electric sedans, SUVs and trucks, that Tesla is offering. For bigger cars, a hybrid is much superior from engineering perspective with the state of current tech, it uses a lot less Lithium, and still promotes the development of a charging network that could then charge small EVs. And for even bigger vehicles, for industrial transport and public transport, we've had the electric train, tram, subway and trolleybus for decades. Decades. All running without batteries, which vastly reduces their weight and improves their safety and performance. Tesla's contribution to the EV market are overblown. It's by far the most well known EV brand in the West, and it did open many people minds' to the prospect of getting an EV. But Tesla is offering product quality of continuous decline, and is in the process of being replaced by the very competitors in Asia I referred to earlier, who have been in this game for much longer than Tesla, and without peddling vaporware like the always broken FSD. Not to mention Optimus. Tesla seems like they invented something. And changed the world. But they were just a huge distraction that sucked up the capital for other startups coming up with similar products, at a similar time, due to Elon Musk's empty promises and boatsmanship. Tesla is a distraction and will be forgotten, except for two things: their charging plug standard, and their supercharger network. Those will likely stick around. Shame really, because I really liked the Tesla brand, and I really like the look of the Model 3/Y (not the interior nor the quality, but it's a nice looking car, simple, elegant). Unfortunately Tesla is currently in decay and they're putting up increasingly weirder rabbits from their hat to hide that fact (and why the CFO left).
- jwestbury 3y ago
  Perhaps worth noting, too, that Tesla have gone from >80% BEV market share in the US in 2020 to (probably) below 50% right now. (Probably because they were at just over 50% in January, and analyst predictions had them dropping below 50% within months.) They're still absolutely dominant in the US, but losing ground fast. And, anecdotally, their BEV market share in Europe (based on what I see on the road and whilst shopping for used cars) is much lower. In the UK, I believe it's below 20%.