<story><title>Elon Musk reopening Tesla factory despite Alameda County order</title><url>https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1259945593805221891</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lettergram</author><text>I think the thought process is generally:&lt;p&gt;- Even if there is a risk, it’s minimal if they follow the guidelines&lt;p&gt;- without money, those workers are going to starve&lt;p&gt;- without cars Tesla goes bankrupt&lt;p&gt;- without Tesla those workers are going to starve&lt;p&gt;The reality is Elon is correct in his assessment. You either open the production in the safest way possible (minimizing risk) or you risk catastrophic loss of jobs and inevitably loss of life &amp;#x2F; livelihood.</text></item><item><author>yibg</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m usually a fan of Elon and fully supportive of the things he&amp;#x27;s trying to accomplish. He&amp;#x27;s also a lot smarter and more informed than I am in many subjects. But his recent antics are really rubbing me the wrong way and it&amp;#x27;s getting harder and harder to stay a fan. This whole covid episode just strikes me as either greed or just a tantrum.</text></item><item><author>GhostVII</author><text>I actually agree with some of what Elon is saying around COVID - it is probably reasonable for the Tesla factory to open up partially this week, and shelter in place has gone on for too long without any proper justification in many areas. But his reasoning and actions surrounding this are completely insane. He spreads conspiracy theories about hospitals overcounting cases for profit, says that COVID is just like the flu, predicted no cases by the end of April, and then does this and opens up without approval, violating the law.&lt;p&gt;His fans seem to think he is some kind of genius, but based on what he has said about COVID he doesn&amp;#x27;t really seem that smart, or at least not well informed at all. Just by looking at the deaths year over year, it is clear that if anything, COVID cases are undercounted. And his claims that the shutdown of his factory are illegal are blatantly false. I don&amp;#x27;t know if he just doesn&amp;#x27;t know what he is talking about, or if he does and is just saying all this stuff for his personal gain. I suspect the former, but idk. This seems like a somewhat common pattern, where very successful and seemingly intelligent people have a few very obviously incorrect beliefs (ex. Steve Jobs and his fruit diet). Maybe they assume that success in one area implies knowledge in unrelated areas (I know I am guilty of this myself sometimes).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hn_throwaway_99</author><text>I think you are &lt;i&gt;greatly&lt;/i&gt; over-estimating Musk&amp;#x27;s concern about his workers &amp;quot;starving.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t think Musk is an evil person, but everything about his past actions and his personality has shown he is singularly focused on his  big dreams: electrifying the automobile industry and getting to Mars. He sees these closures as a threat to his dream, not to his workers.&lt;p&gt;Again, I don&amp;#x27;t really think there is anything wrong with this. It takes people with unique drive like this to bring about big change. But it&amp;#x27;s important to not confuse his drive for something it&amp;#x27;s not.</text></comment>
<story><title>Elon Musk reopening Tesla factory despite Alameda County order</title><url>https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1259945593805221891</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lettergram</author><text>I think the thought process is generally:&lt;p&gt;- Even if there is a risk, it’s minimal if they follow the guidelines&lt;p&gt;- without money, those workers are going to starve&lt;p&gt;- without cars Tesla goes bankrupt&lt;p&gt;- without Tesla those workers are going to starve&lt;p&gt;The reality is Elon is correct in his assessment. You either open the production in the safest way possible (minimizing risk) or you risk catastrophic loss of jobs and inevitably loss of life &amp;#x2F; livelihood.</text></item><item><author>yibg</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m usually a fan of Elon and fully supportive of the things he&amp;#x27;s trying to accomplish. He&amp;#x27;s also a lot smarter and more informed than I am in many subjects. But his recent antics are really rubbing me the wrong way and it&amp;#x27;s getting harder and harder to stay a fan. This whole covid episode just strikes me as either greed or just a tantrum.</text></item><item><author>GhostVII</author><text>I actually agree with some of what Elon is saying around COVID - it is probably reasonable for the Tesla factory to open up partially this week, and shelter in place has gone on for too long without any proper justification in many areas. But his reasoning and actions surrounding this are completely insane. He spreads conspiracy theories about hospitals overcounting cases for profit, says that COVID is just like the flu, predicted no cases by the end of April, and then does this and opens up without approval, violating the law.&lt;p&gt;His fans seem to think he is some kind of genius, but based on what he has said about COVID he doesn&amp;#x27;t really seem that smart, or at least not well informed at all. Just by looking at the deaths year over year, it is clear that if anything, COVID cases are undercounted. And his claims that the shutdown of his factory are illegal are blatantly false. I don&amp;#x27;t know if he just doesn&amp;#x27;t know what he is talking about, or if he does and is just saying all this stuff for his personal gain. I suspect the former, but idk. This seems like a somewhat common pattern, where very successful and seemingly intelligent people have a few very obviously incorrect beliefs (ex. Steve Jobs and his fruit diet). Maybe they assume that success in one area implies knowledge in unrelated areas (I know I am guilty of this myself sometimes).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>enraged_camel</author><text>This &amp;quot;thought process&amp;quot; can be applied to literally every business in America. What makes Tesla special? Other than having an outspoken celebrity CEO with a strong cult of personality at the helm who has gotten more and more unhinged over the past couple of years (I want to believe as a result of stress, but I may be giving too much benefit of the doubt).</text></comment>