<story><title>Elon Musk, master promoter</title><url>https://keith404.medium.com/elon-musk-the-master-promoter-a-case-study-3b8eae65b8f7</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tailspin2019</author><text>My cognitive dissonance is strong when it comes to Elon.  I have trouble sometimes reconciling the obvious flaws in his character on the one hand (though none of us are without flaws) and his extraordinary achievements on the other.&lt;p&gt;He can be a bit of a dick, yes.  He exaggerates, yes.&lt;p&gt;He&amp;#x27;s also in my view one of the most talented and inspirational entrepreneurs of our generation.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t see how people can call him an outright fraud with a straight face when you look at what he &lt;i&gt;has&lt;/i&gt; delivered through Tesla and SpaceX.&lt;p&gt;But he seems to elicit strong polarised opinions.  And I get it.  Lot&amp;#x27;s of noise about FSD, his constantly slipping timelines etc.&lt;p&gt;I guess it depends what you choose to focus on.</text></item><item><author>nnamtr</author><text>Is his stuff really that good? I can&amp;#x27;t shake the feeling that he has a strong tendency to exaggerate.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theverge.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;5&amp;#x2F;7&amp;#x2F;22424592&amp;#x2F;tesla-elon-musk-autopilot-dmv-fsd-exaggeration&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theverge.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;5&amp;#x2F;7&amp;#x2F;22424592&amp;#x2F;tesla-elon-musk-a...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.forbes.com&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;johnbbrandon&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;13&amp;#x2F;elon-musks-the-boring-company-is-starting-to-look-like-a-dumb-idea&amp;#x2F;?sh=2e65b2d17562&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.forbes.com&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;johnbbrandon&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;13&amp;#x2F;elon-mu...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>totololo</author><text>I believe this article completely ignores the product side of the story. 
Elon doesn&amp;#x27;t pitch, he builds. His products are significantly better than market alternatives, with a steady momentum of improvement over time.
In the unofficial biography there&amp;#x27;s the story of how Tesla pulled an unlikely funding from Daimler. The Daimler executives visiting Tesla were unimpressed, skeptical and bored to death by the PowerPoints. Then the Tesla team took them for a ride in the electrified Smart they had built in a hurry. All the executives stepped out of it with a smile. The check arrived later. It was about the product, not the &amp;quot;save the earth&amp;quot; narrative.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>6gvONxR4sf7o</author><text>He might be a very effective marketer and manager, but he gets credit for so so much more than that. Like he singlehandedly made electric cars a thing. It&amp;#x27;s the Great Man theory of history.&lt;p&gt;Even then, effective marketing are often lies, so why value effective marketing? Effective management is so often toxic, so why value effective management? As far as I can tell, he&amp;#x27;s full of BS and his employees are treated poorly, so I really don&amp;#x27;t care so much that he&amp;#x27;s first to market.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Great_man_theory&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Great_man_theory&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Elon Musk, master promoter</title><url>https://keith404.medium.com/elon-musk-the-master-promoter-a-case-study-3b8eae65b8f7</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tailspin2019</author><text>My cognitive dissonance is strong when it comes to Elon.  I have trouble sometimes reconciling the obvious flaws in his character on the one hand (though none of us are without flaws) and his extraordinary achievements on the other.&lt;p&gt;He can be a bit of a dick, yes.  He exaggerates, yes.&lt;p&gt;He&amp;#x27;s also in my view one of the most talented and inspirational entrepreneurs of our generation.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t see how people can call him an outright fraud with a straight face when you look at what he &lt;i&gt;has&lt;/i&gt; delivered through Tesla and SpaceX.&lt;p&gt;But he seems to elicit strong polarised opinions.  And I get it.  Lot&amp;#x27;s of noise about FSD, his constantly slipping timelines etc.&lt;p&gt;I guess it depends what you choose to focus on.</text></item><item><author>nnamtr</author><text>Is his stuff really that good? I can&amp;#x27;t shake the feeling that he has a strong tendency to exaggerate.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theverge.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;5&amp;#x2F;7&amp;#x2F;22424592&amp;#x2F;tesla-elon-musk-autopilot-dmv-fsd-exaggeration&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theverge.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;5&amp;#x2F;7&amp;#x2F;22424592&amp;#x2F;tesla-elon-musk-a...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.forbes.com&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;johnbbrandon&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;13&amp;#x2F;elon-musks-the-boring-company-is-starting-to-look-like-a-dumb-idea&amp;#x2F;?sh=2e65b2d17562&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.forbes.com&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;johnbbrandon&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;13&amp;#x2F;elon-mu...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>totololo</author><text>I believe this article completely ignores the product side of the story. 
Elon doesn&amp;#x27;t pitch, he builds. His products are significantly better than market alternatives, with a steady momentum of improvement over time.
In the unofficial biography there&amp;#x27;s the story of how Tesla pulled an unlikely funding from Daimler. The Daimler executives visiting Tesla were unimpressed, skeptical and bored to death by the PowerPoints. Then the Tesla team took them for a ride in the electrified Smart they had built in a hurry. All the executives stepped out of it with a smile. The check arrived later. It was about the product, not the &amp;quot;save the earth&amp;quot; narrative.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fossuser</author><text>I think it’s political tribalism more than anything else? It’s become more clear after this SNL thing.&lt;p&gt;On Twitter people on the left claim vaguely that Elon is bad and why is SNL doing this etc.&lt;p&gt;People on the right say Elon is great and SNL is normally unfunny.&lt;p&gt;In the former case I think it’s just because people associate Elon with the right for some reason.&lt;p&gt;The latter is easier to understand since a lot of SNL’s humor is explicitly political (not in a bad way imo).&lt;p&gt;Part of me wonders if the irreverent tweets were an intentional way to broaden his appeal. He needed EVs to go from “liberal” Prius symbols about the environment to cool.&lt;p&gt;That’s a Herculean task when you think about it. Even now there are still coal rolling truck drivers yelling at EVs, but the sentiment &lt;i&gt;has&lt;/i&gt; definitely changed in a positive way.&lt;p&gt;He did this without having to embrace trump (unlike Thiel for instance).&lt;p&gt;I think his biggest miss was on covid, but he seems to agree that he was wrong.&lt;p&gt;I suspect a part of the left dislike is also around the progressive anti-billionaire&amp;#x2F;anti-capitalist sentiment, it makes Elon an easy “enemy”.&lt;p&gt;Putting all this aside and looking at what he’s building - it’s an exciting time to be alive. Most companies are fairly dull doing fairly dull things. Elon takes huge risks to try to pull the future down earlier. For the most part, he succeeds.</text></comment>