I’m interested in seeing this movie. Let me know if you are interested in going after October 26.
I’m sympathetic to that idea and I do think there’s an element of truth to that when it comes to Elon Musk, but I wouldn’t go back and then try to sell you on this podcast that actually I did the cinematography, [laughter] I did the editing, I did the visual effects, I did all of those things or if I didn’t do them, the the tasks were so menial because I had already outlined everything that needed to be done that they were just, you know, essentially NPCs and I’m player one.
Cuz cuz there’s two things about that. I mean, one is okay, let’s admit every CEO is a credit grabber. You know, that’s just a fact. And clout chaser, credit hoarder. Absolutely. Whatever. And many of us are in some ways and can’t help ourselves. Well, I think I was responsible for that. You know, whatever. We get that.
But in this case, there’s something peculiar that goes on in Silicon Valley. And in Silicon Valley, to the founder goes the spoils. And also by creating this image of this extraordinary Leonardo da Vinci like polymath, you’re able to attach value in the stock market that’s way out of proportion to any kind of economic fundamentals.
That money ends up giving you power that is out of proportion to what you actually contributed but now gives you leverage to do things that may be—particularly if you’re not a character of some moral uplift—it may be dangerous for the rest of us. So that was kind of the some of the stuff that that I ended up being interested in, and it’s a complicated story because unlike Elizabeth Holmes, the Tesla is a real car. Some people love their Teslas. For a while I like my solar panel system, but still, you know, the valuation of Tesla is more than all other car companies on planet Earth combined. And1 frankly, it’s a number 16 car company. And the Cybertruck is an appallingly bad car. And Toyota is a much better car company than Tesla is.
But Elon Musk, because people invest in this mythical idea that he created, has access to extraordinary amounts of power and money.
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Chapter 6: Saving the World as an Excuse
Okay, that’s a character with which I’m very familiar and it’s a character who’s afflicted with something that the cops call noble cause corruption. So the idea is look, it would be a really good thing for the planet if there was an electric car company and that would challenge the big three and force everybody to go electric. In order to get there, I’m going to have to become the person. So I’m going to have to create this fraud. I’m going to have to sue my partners and make them make them say stuff that isn’t true in order to be able to become this kind of larger than life superhero that we’ll invest in.
And by the way, you know, every step along the way and it starts early. You know, Tesla in order to succeed was always cash starved because they didn’t really make money for a long time. And at some point, the VCs were running out of gas in terms of how much cash they were going to dispense on this mission. But there was always the stock market. And for the stock market, what do you do? Well, you can create this image for yourself.
But then once you decide, okay, I’ve got to lie about myself. I’ve got to lie about my accomplishments. What if I lie about what the company actually does? And what if I lie about what the products actually do? Uh I mean, after all, I I have this noble cause and it’s important that we succeed. And if a lot of people start dying because of autopilot or full self-driving, well, collateral damage.
Well, now you’re making moral calculations that are getting worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. And the fraud is becoming bigger and bigger and bigger. And I’m using fraud in a kind of colloquial sense, not proven fraud. But and now you’ve got trouble because now you’re selling a lie and a really big lie. And weirdly, you’re actually undermining the values of the product you claim to represent. Now you’re getting into the Cydro notion of enshittification.
So for all those reasons, what started out as something good starts to turn to something very bad.
TIM’S COMMENTS:
It may be wishful thinking, but I see the opportunity for the pendulum to change and a new approach emerging that reigns in the impunity. It will reign in the free-wheeling companies and attempt to satisfy people under 50.