Elon Musk is a nice chap

[Ed.Kloonk]

Musk pretty much tweeted, that this stock will be worth 420 USD in the future, because a private investor will buy it. Which was a higher price than what the stock was worth then.

If you look on actual historic data, share price boost when he tweeted is not noticeable compared to general volatility of TSLA. And it did not affect long term investments. Only some stupid daytraders may got burned because of this.
To pump and dump you need to profit from that. If anything, he only pumped DOGE as a joke for no actual profit.

It has only made the Musk h8trs look even more pathetic. And shown that they shouldn't be investing alongside the adults in the room. Only a moron risks a significant amount of dough based on a dumb tweet from that idiot?

[SiliconWizard]

And if they actually make financial decisions based just on some tweets which did not even claim it will actually happen, they're idiots

I couldn't agree more. I'm constantly pointing out how much people are trying to be waived any responsibility these days and are by default identifying as victims whatever happens. It's always the fault of some very nasty, and how-so-powerfully-manipulative person that is impossible to resist. And investing is per se a risky game, losing is an integral part of it.

Oh well, idiocracy.

[PlainName]

Only some stupid daytraders may got burned because of this.

Isn't that victim-blaming? Does someone have to spend 20 years as a full-time (including weekends) trader before you'll consider them being worthy of trading? I bet you didn't spring into being as a fully-formed EE before you made some circuits.

[Ed.Kloonk]

Only some stupid daytraders may got burned because of this.

Isn't that victim-blaming? Does someone have to spend 20 years as a full-time (including weekends) trader before you'll consider them being worthy of trading? I bet you didn't spring into being as a fully-formed EE before you made some circuits.

I think some of you are missing the whole point.

I'm not sure about the day-trading part, rather they were folks who had FOMO (fear of missing out). It stems from the bogus belief that Musk and Co. are the next Microsoft or Apple in terms of return on investment, risk and reward.

[tszaboo]

Only some stupid daytraders may got burned because of this.

Isn't that victim-blaming? Does someone have to spend 20 years as a full-time (including weekends) trader before you'll consider them being worthy of trading? I bet you didn't spring into being as a fully-formed EE before you made some circuits.

Yeah, I have read countless comments, where people talk about how they lost their children's college savings because they listened to Musk or the Paul brothers or Do Kwon or other of these people who defraud their followers.

[Electro Detective]

Only some stupid daytraders may got burned because of this.

Isn't that victim-blaming? Does someone have to spend 20 years as a full-time (including weekends) trader before you'll consider them being worthy of trading? I bet you didn't spring into being as a fully-formed EE before you made some circuits.

Yeah, I have read countless comments, where people talk about how they lost their children's college savings because they listened to Musk or the Paul brothers or Do Kwon
or other of these people who defraud their followers.

In the defence of awesome fraudsters,

rolling over greedy followers and generic suckers is hard to resist 

Why work a real job and battle the system for a living like most normal people

when there's so many cashed bunnies around looking to get ahead the fast buck way,

and relieve them of their investment savings, and rainy day funds when chances are rain may not come ? 

Also most bunnies and wood ducks just don't get how planned 'bad luck' works in the financial universe
and they have to 'pay to learn'
like most things in life people are too lazy and overconfident to 'research' for themselves, and then take calculated risks.

Bring on the next Dud-Coin from ~Pyramids Are Us 2023 Inc.~
...get a cash advance on the credit cards and offset the 22% interest with the earnings made, using the old 'other peoples money' trick, yay   


 

[EEVblog]

This kind of reply is disturbing..

https://twitter.com/_Melbourne_82/status/1621544701479485441

Rakesh
@_Melbourne_82
·
13h
Replying to
@elonmusk
Musk poured $44 billion into Twitter. The global population is 8 billion people. He could have given $5 billion to each individual and still had money left over. Most people's lives would be changed if they received a $5 billion check. But he squandered it all on Twitter.

That's certainly some funny math going on there. 

It's off by many orders of magnitude, but $44B is still a LOT of money to spend on something.

It's a running bot joke troll on Twitter. Been going for years now in one varaition or another, designed to get enagagement at people raging about how wrong it is.

[Ed.Kloonk]

This kind of reply is disturbing..

https://twitter.com/_Melbourne_82/status/1621544701479485441

Rakesh
@_Melbourne_82
·
13h
Replying to
@elonmusk
Musk poured $44 billion into Twitter. The global population is 8 billion people. He could have given $5 billion to each individual and still had money left over. Most people's lives would be changed if they received a $5 billion check. But he squandered it all on Twitter.

That's certainly some funny math going on there. 

It's off by many orders of magnitude, but $44B is still a LOT of money to spend on something.

It's a running bot joke troll on Twitter. Been going for years now in one variation or another, designed to get engagement at people raging about how wrong it is.

Ah. Good to know. Thanks.

[wraper]

Only some stupid daytraders may got burned because of this.

Isn't that victim-blaming? Does someone have to spend 20 years as a full-time (including weekends) trader before you'll consider them being worthy of trading? I bet you didn't spring into being as a fully-formed EE before you made some circuits.

I'll elaborate on that. About 97% of daytraders eventually lose their money and only 1% actually end with profit in long term. And it sucks all of the life out of you. Yet there is no end to those who want to proft this way. That's why dayreaders and daytrading are stupid.

[PlainName]

I don't see that it makes much difference. If you buy used stuff, for instance, off Ebay you expect it to work. You may pay far more than it's worth (see, you're not very clever at Ebay) but it should work. Let's say you pay $1m for a 'used' Apple II and get it only to find it doesn't work and all the caps have leaked everywhere corroding the board. Your stance would  be akin to saying well, you paid stupid money and therefore you deserve to be scammed since you'd've been $999,000 down on the true worth anyway. That's all beside the point - the vendor scammed you be implying it worked, and even though you'll lose that $1m on some other frivolous thing, that's irrelevant.

Musk, who was in charge and had the inside info and control, more or less said he was going to go private. It wasn't a "maybe sometime if I make up my mind" thing - he gave a specific price and said funding was there. You may consider him a two-faced lying git, but the fact is he is an authoritative source and the SEC fined him (and forced his removal) for mouthing off because of that.

[wraper]

I don't see that it makes much difference. If you buy used stuff, for instance, off Ebay you expect it to work. You may pay far more than it's worth (see, you're not very clever at Ebay) but it should work. Let's say you pay $1m for a 'used' Apple II and get it only to find it doesn't work and all the caps have leaked everywhere corroding the board. Your stance would  be akin to saying well, you paid stupid money and therefore you deserve to be scammed since you'd've been $999,000 down on the true worth anyway. That's all beside the point - the vendor scammed you be implying it worked, and even though you'll lose that $1m on some other frivolous thing, that's irrelevant.

Musk, who was in charge and had the inside info and control, more or less said he was going to go private. It wasn't a "maybe sometime if I make up my mind" thing - he gave a specific price and said funding was there. You may consider him a two-faced lying git, but the fact is he is an authoritative source and the SEC fined him (and forced his removal) for mouthing off because of that.

You miss the fact that what he tweeted about taking it private is not a company inside but his personal thing. It was not up to him to single handedly decide to take it private but rather voted by shareholders. All he could do was personally get the funding and make an offer. Of course he had the voting right too but he had about 20% IIRC. He did basically the same thing with twitter. Bought 9% of their shares and then publicly annouced for how much he wants to buy it and take private.

SEC fined him (and forced his removal) for mouthing off because of that.

It wasn't a fine per se. It was settlement. As he later explained, he agreed to it because litigating with SEC would be very harmful for Tesla due to banks withholding the funding during the time when Tesla was really short on finances. Look into this from patent troll analogy standpoint and why they thrive in US and often get paid right away or through court settlement instead of respondent litigating to the end and winning the case. It's because litigation is way more expensive/harmful than simply paying the ransom even if you are not actually at fault.

[james_s]

I'll elaborate on that. About 97% of daytraders eventually lose their money and only 1% actually end with profit in long term. And it sucks all of the life out of you. Yet there is no end to those who want to proft this way. That's why dayreaders and daytrading are stupid.

You can't save everyone from themselves. While I agree that one should not blame the victim in lieu of blaming the perpetrator, in many cases the victim does deserve some blame. There are loads of people out there looking to victimize someone, bad things are always going to happen, we can all make choices that lessen the chance of bad things happening to us.

[SiliconWizard]

I'll elaborate on that. About 97% of daytraders eventually lose their money and only 1% actually end with profit in long term. And it sucks all of the life out of you. Yet there is no end to those who want to proft this way. That's why dayreaders and daytrading are stupid.

You can't save everyone from themselves. While I agree that one should not blame the victim in lieu of blaming the perpetrator, in many cases the victim does deserve some blame. There are loads of people out there looking to victimize someone, bad things are always going to happen, we can all make choices that lessen the chance of bad things happening to us.

Again we're not talking about people threatening others with a gun here. It's all 100% voluntary, people game, and they lose. For whatever reason.
This is what adult life is all about.

[tszaboo]

Musk, who was in charge and had the inside info and control, more or less said he was going to go private. It wasn't a "maybe sometime if I make up my mind" thing - he gave a specific price and said funding was there. You may consider him a two-faced lying git, but the fact is he is an authoritative source and the SEC fined him (and forced his removal) for mouthing off because of that.

Apparently the SEC charges were not brought up during the trial.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-07/tesla-judge-rules-sec-deal-off-limits-in-musk-tweet-fraud-trial
"But the judge ruled that telling jurors that the probe resulted in a lawsuit and a settlement more than a month later might create “unfair prejudice” against Musk and Tesla." Kangaroo court.

[EEVblog]

Musk, who was in charge and had the inside info and control, more or less said he was going to go private. It wasn't a "maybe sometime if I make up my mind" thing - he gave a specific price and said funding was there. You may consider him a two-faced lying git, but the fact is he is an authoritative source and the SEC fined him (and forced his removal) for mouthing off because of that.

Maybe the funding was there and he genuinely thought so, how do you know? Deals fall through all the time.
The SEC did not find him guilty and fine him, it was still an allegation when they agreed to settle:
"Musk and Tesla have agreed to settle the charges against them without admitting or denying the SEC’s allegations." is the SEC's own wording:
https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-226

[PlainName]

From the NYTimes today:

More than three years after Elon Musk stunned the auto industry with an electric pickup truck that looked more like a stealth fighter than a way to haul two-by-fours and drywall, Tesla said last month that it would begin building the vehicle by the end of 2023.

The announcement has helped fuel a recovery in Tesla’s share price, ...

So all those who have figured the shares are (or will be) worth investing in are stupid idiots, right? All of them?

And why are Tesla promoting this now? Surely the ideal would be to just make the thing and then, ta-da, show it off and have people buy it when they leave the arena. That's pretty much what Apple do, right? But Tesla, it's almost as if they need to keep their share price up (maybe some insider with a bunch of shares has some large bills to pay).

[TomKatt]

Any time you need to qualify someone's actions with a disclaimer like "he doesn't really mean what he says" or "you just need to understand what he means", you've lost my respect.

And from what I can tell, very little of his success has been a result of his own actions.  Serendipity seems to play a larger role.  Plus a good understanding of "social engineering" (aka manipulation).

Put simply, I have absolutely no respect for the man other to admire how easily he can swoon others (which I think says more about modern society than it does Musk).  The irony of so many people choosing to believe "alternative facts" in this "information age" is astounding.  I suspect more people put effort into researching their next smart phone purchase than they do important decisions that affect society in general.

[TomKatt]

“If Elon can learn how to put a bit more thought into some of the decisions, and fire from the hip a bit less, it might do some good,” the employee said. “He needs to learn the areas where he just does not know things and let those that do know take over.”

At the same time, “he really doesn’t like to believe that there is anything in technology that he doesn’t know, and that’s frustrating,” the employee said. “You can’t be the smartest person in the room about everything, all the time.”

[tooki]

That is precisely what made Steve Jobs V2.0 (i.e. 1997 onward, after being ousted as a young snot in the 80s) such an effective leader: he deliberately surrounded himself with people who knew more than him.

Despite his very confident outward appearance, and in many areas above-average knowledge (like of industrial design), he absolutely knew his limitations and knew he wasn’t an engineer or artist. His skill was in finding the best people in every discipline needed and getting them to work together. He pushed people (hard), but apparently, he really did defer to his experts when push came to shove.

What he didn’t do was fire everyone who disagreed. (At least with Jobs 1.0, he would simply take the expert advice, think about it a while, and then present it at the next meeting as if it was his idea all along. Toxic, but at least he was actually doing what they said in the end.)

[tooki]

Great little example of Jobs very much acknowledging his limitations (at 1:13:07)

[HuronKing]

So just after the peak of the pandemic, I was contacted by Tesla as a candidate for a mid-level field engineering role. I went through 4 levels of interviews (including an aptitude test and a presentation) that culminated in a phone call with the VP of engineering.

The recruiter was excited to draft up an offer for me - promised to be forthcoming within a few days.

Almost 2 weeks later, they still hadn't contacted me back with an offer. At the same time I also interviewed for a role as a government EE which they did decide to extend me an offer (I took it and then quit 3 months later but that's another story).

Anyways, I decided to give Tesla a call and find out what happened. The recruiter told me they were still waiting to formalize the offer and to give them a few more days to get an offer together.

I then called back a few days later. At this point my interest in working for them had evaporated but I wanted to see what such an offer would look like. They STILL couldn't extend me a formal offer - even though the recruiter desperately wanted to and begged me to give them more time.

I eventually got him to tell me what the hold up was.

Elon Musk has to personally review the dossier of every... single... engineer they hire.

So, the CEO of several multi-billion dollar companies, who has never met me, has to rubber stamp a specially prepared dossier on the candidate after that candidate has already been vetted by recruiters, staff engineers, managers, and even the VP of engineering before the company can hire a mid-level field engineer.

On top of that, the compensation was less competitive than the government job and the relocation package was an absolute joke (not even enough money to rent a moving van, let alone make a deposit on an apartment near Fremont, California).

And where I'm at now, the place is getting flooded with ex-Tesla engineers fleeing a chaotic and capricious work environment.

[Bud]

I would feel insulted if a company that contacted me on its own would put me through 4 levels of interviews.

[Ed.Kloonk]

I would feel insulted if a company that contacted me on its own would put me through 4 levels of interviews.

Yeah. WTF?

[TomKatt]

Elon Musk has to personally review the dossier of every... single... engineer they hire.

Perhaps you missed a Tweet ?

Seeing how Musk fires staff by public Tweets, perhaps he hires them that way as well 

Also, I get the sense that Musk feels it's a privilege for you to be employed by his company.

[HuronKing]

Elon Musk has to personally review the dossier of every... single... engineer they hire.

Perhaps you missed a Tweet ?

Seeing how Musk fires staff by public Tweets, perhaps he hires them that way as well 

Also, I get the sense that Musk feels it's a privilege for you to be employed by his company.

Hah! This was before his acquisition of Twitter but it was during the time he was price-manipulating Dogecoin and gearing up for his appearance on SNL. So, I'm sure he was much too busy to deal with doldrum stuff like hiring engineers.

And yes, Musk absolutely feels that way about his companies. The recruiter straight up told me that Tesla has no work-life balance because "our life is working for Elon to change the world."

To be clear - I do think Tesla Motors did a lot to make EVs 'cool' in the United States because I remember when even the concept of an EV in the USA was a joke (like this Simpsons bit):


What's irritating to me about MuskFanBois is them thinking that Musk invented systems engineering:


Nothing Musk says here is wrong... but this is like... basic systems engineering you can find in any introductory text - like the INCOSE handbook (which itself combines lessons developed by Lockheed and NASA):
https://www.incose.org/products-and-publications/se-handbook

Based on what I've read and my own experiences, the success of SpaceX and Tesla is more a case of it happening with careful handlers of Musk's ego and a team of very, very dedicated people working behind the scenes to achieve success in spite of his whims and promises (how many times has the Cybertruck been delayed, exactly?)

Meanwhile, Musk's acquisition of Twitter is what he's really like when no one is involved to keep his ego in check. Worse, it shows what happens when one TechBro with an Ego comes crashing into another TechBro with an Ego:


This top comment is pretty funny,

Someone should take him at his word and actually start from scratch:
Musk: "Yesterday, I could use Twitter. Today it just says Apache Default Page and Hello World. What's going on?"
Dev: "We're starting from scratch, just as you asked.