This guy would be considered a genius, admired and respected worldwide, a living legend.. if he'd never opened that Twitter account. But he did, so he's just another eccentric rich idiot.
I think he needs the twitter hype and bots to boost his brands and stock value. I wouldn't be surprised if he were funding these bots to boost himself.
The attention he got because of Twitter has always been overwhelmingly negative, by his own doing. Do you think the guy who founded Tesla and SpaceX needed any more media attention?
There was a legal agreement that allows him to call himself that:
> The company was incorporated as Tesla Motors, Inc. on July 1, 2003, by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.[12][13] Eberhard and Tarpenning served as CEO and CFO, respectively.[14] Eberhard said that he wanted to build "a car manufacturer that is also a technology company", with its core technologies as "the battery, the computer software, and the proprietary motor".[15]
> Ian Wright was Tesla's third employee, joining a few months later.[12] In February 2004, the company raised US$7.5 million (equivalent to $12 million in 2022) in series A funding, including $6.5 million (equivalent to $10 million in 2022) from Elon Musk, who had received $100 million from the sale of his interest in PayPal two years earlier. Musk became the chairman of the board of directors and the largest shareholder of Tesla.[16][17][14] J. B. Straubel joined Tesla in May 2004 as chief technical officer.[18]
> A lawsuit settlement agreed to by Eberhard and Tesla in September 2009 allows all five – Eberhard, Tarpenning, Wright, Musk, and Straubel – to call themselves co-founders.[19]
In Ireland, Kilkenny is legally not a city, but there is actual legislation saying that it is _allowed to call itself a city_. This seems a similar principle, and it’s rather silly; ‘founder’ has a commonly-understood meaning.
SpaceX, Tesla, Starlink, Neuralink, Boring Company, are you serious that because of some dumb tweets and a questionable personality or political views not everyone agrees with, you think history will overlook all of this? Not a chance, sorry.
He's the CEO of six companies and still finds time to tweet throughout the day. I'm more inclined to believe that these companies are successful despite him, not because of him.
It clear he's a great 'salesman' in terms of raising capital and spruiking up share prices, and he's turned that toward some interesting concepts.
What is also interesting is part of the act is pretending he is the genius behind the ideas and has a hand in the novel engineering of them, which makes some of his fans love him, and anyone with subject matter expertise on whatever technical things he's saying realise he's half a moron or at least shameless.
It's not only that he's raised capital for/funded interesting concepts, it's that he's (mostly) successfully spent money on interesting concepts that the majority of people in the media and in those industries said were not viable.
Even if these insights into specific industries aren't his own, he's savvy enough to recognize their validity and bring together other people who can make those insights reality.
At the same time, he has his fair share of boneheaded boondoggles.
> pretending he is the genius behind the ideas and has a hand in the novel engineering of them
Musk has always been brutally transparent with investors. The personal genius schtick isn't one he pulls when raising capital. (It does play well to a lay audience.)
It's a bit of both, isn't it? I do remember the "production hell" perspective, but also many over-optimistic predictions along the lines of "I swear we'll have full self driving by the end of the year" for 5 years.
I’m actually starting to believe that the more companies he is a CEO of, the better they will do, as he will have his attention divided between them all and less time to negatively impact them on an individual level.
You can simultaneously accept that these organizations Musk, and others, built are remarkable while accepting that his current personal behavior is unacceptable and is not in his self interest.
History is littered with entrepreneurs and inventors who lost thier marbles.
Agree. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Tweeting is some sort of energy/mental/payxhological outlet for him i.e we may not be able to have one without the other? :)
A person can be remembered for the companies they founded, professionally, and at the same time be remembered as, personally, "just another eccentric rich idiot".
