Also, stray thought: I think there's a very close parallel world where Elon buys Gawker instead of Thiel killing it. And the more I think about it, the more I wish I could quantum tunnel over there...
To the point that Elon's management style works better for products like cars and rockets—I think he's also grown reliant on his engineers quietly ignoring the crazy half of what he promises (mars trips, bipedal robots) or silently downgrading them to "goofy tech demo", which works because the technology 1) takes years to deliver and 2) isn't physically possible.
Whereas with a website, he can say "next week women will have to see your DMs if you pay dogecoin", and it's totally *possible* to do that, even if it's disastrous.
I saw someone else saying (not in these words) that he also is operating from an expectation set by his time at Tesla that weird little freaks will irrationally pay him to prop his company up — and while he’s done a good job cultivating his personality cult, again, that kind of thing works a lot better with futuristic cars! (Plus Tesla owners who bought stock made a killing in the last few years — not gonna be the case with verification.)
Re: “I’d love to see ads for gizmos. And if I saw ads for gizmos -- I love gizmos, of course -- I’d buy them all, click click click.”
I can only read this in the voice of Mr Burns from the Simpsons.
I hear Trump in my head
It’s actually my voice you should hear. I’m talking to a market researcher.
I needed this. Thank you. Now I know what to think.
Also, stray thought: I think there's a very close parallel world where Elon buys Gawker instead of Thiel killing it. And the more I think about it, the more I wish I could quantum tunnel over there...
To the point that Elon's management style works better for products like cars and rockets—I think he's also grown reliant on his engineers quietly ignoring the crazy half of what he promises (mars trips, bipedal robots) or silently downgrading them to "goofy tech demo", which works because the technology 1) takes years to deliver and 2) isn't physically possible.
Whereas with a website, he can say "next week women will have to see your DMs if you pay dogecoin", and it's totally *possible* to do that, even if it's disastrous.
I saw someone else saying (not in these words) that he also is operating from an expectation set by his time at Tesla that weird little freaks will irrationally pay him to prop his company up — and while he’s done a good job cultivating his personality cult, again, that kind of thing works a lot better with futuristic cars! (Plus Tesla owners who bought stock made a killing in the last few years — not gonna be the case with verification.)