Dare ObasanjoJul 2, 2023

I believe Elon Musk’s superpower is that he is really good at convincing smart people to do work for him where he takes the majority of the credit and financial rewards.

The Twitter debacle is because he drank his own kool aid about being a tech genius and purchased it on impulse with no exit plan.

Show threadJeff AtwoodJul 2, 2023
@carnage4life oh 100% if you can be incredibly persuasive and charismatic in this world you can do almost literally anything you want. And enough money often substitutes for the "persuasive and charismatic" part, unfortunately for all of us.
Show threadLucinda CatchloveJul 2, 2023
@codinghorror I'm sure he just lies to people and waves money at them. I've seen him talk, he's not a charismatic narcissist at all so people are being "charmed" by something other than actual charm, powers of persuasion (other than your basic conman mix of lies and promises of wealth) or charisma. @carnage4life
Show threadJeff AtwoodJul 2, 2023
@Lucinda @carnage4life basically this https://time.com/4654406/america-trump-con-man/
America Loves a Con Man

So much so that they might even make him President

TIME
Show threadLucinda Catchlove
@codinghorror Yep, I guess when you build your nation on a lie about freedom it's inevitable that you'll have a population that loves a lie and a conman. @carnage4life
Jul 2, 2023 at 9:52pmWeb
Show thread❓ucblockheadJul 2, 2023
@Lucinda @codinghorror @carnage4life For someone like Musk, there is a positive feedback loop in that it seems like he's the sort working on amazing stuff and attracting smart people, so his companies draw smart people who in turn do amazing stuff. That's the story SpaceX. As long as that cycle continues, it can be rational self interest to attach yourself to the train as long as no points out that the emperor is wearing no clothes.
Show threadLucinda CatchloveJul 3, 2023
@ucblockhead He seems to have mainly bought companies, inflated their value and then run them into the ground to various degrees. SpaceX seems to have all kinds of ludicrous protocols in place to try to prevent him from interfering (obviously not always successfully). Musk is basically a hype man who sells to corporate and lobbies government the lies they want to hear. @codinghorror @carnage4life
Show threadAlex LevensonJul 2, 2023
@Lucinda @codinghorror @carnage4life he’s also charming to the worst kind of nerd, so I think that does play into it