The odd evolution of Elon Musk
Just six months ago, the gushing — largely accurate — descriptors often used for Elon Musk were almost embarrassing in their grandeur: magnate, mogul, inventor, tycoon, engineer, genius, visionary, space pioneer, revolutionary.
At 47, his ideas have already come to life in amazing ways: Spacex, a private company that conquered commercial space travel and is developing crewed interplanetary space flight; Tesla Inc., maker of stylish electric cars; Paypal, a major online payment system; and many other projects.
Musk was the guy stuck in traffic in 2016 who tweeted: “Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging” and, then, actually started the Boring Company to create low-cost tunnel networks beneath congested cities.
But 2018 has been a strange, hard year for Musk. In recent months, the adjectives surrounding Musk have taken a sharp turn toward the less grand: erratic, mercurial, wonky, unpredictable, blowhard.
His latest exploit to raise eyebrows and fuel mocking internet memes was a meandering twohour, live-streamed interview on Youtube with comedian Joe Rogan in which Musk wore a T-shirt with the slogan “Occupy Mars,” smoked marijuana, wielded a samurai sword and a flame-thrower, mused on the end of the world and the future of artificial intelligence and said he wondered as a child if he was insane because of his “neverending explosion” of ideas.
It has left many wondering, what’s up with Elon Musk?
In May, his tetchiness showed through in dramatic fashion with investors, analysts and the media over questions on the financial performance of Tesla.
During a conference call with analysts and journalists, he was dismissive of inquiries about the path to profit, interrupting a question, saying: “Next. Boring bonehead questions are not cool.”
He then went on a rant against the media.
That same month, another Twitter rant against unionization at Tesla — “why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing?” — earned a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board by the United Auto Workers accusing him of illegally threatening to take away benefits from workers if they join a union. (Tesla responded that Musk was only noting that unionized workers at other Uaw-represented automakers do not receive stock options.)
Then, in July, Musk became a figure of some ridicule when the world was transfixed by the treacherous rescue operation of a boys soccer team from a deep, flooded cave complex in Thailand.
With a rescue plan underway, Musk sent Spacex and Boring Co. engineers to help, suggesting an inflatable tube, like a long “bouncy castle,” might help and then started building a “kid-size submarine” to whisk the trapped boys to safety. Early excitement about his involvement soon dampened.
The head of the rescue said Musk’s technology was “not practical for this mission.”
Musk was called a “distraction” by the rescue co-ordinator and a British diver dismissed Musk’s interest as “just a PR stunt.”
Musk then struck back on Twitter, alleging to his 22 million followers that the diver was a pedophile, calling him “pedo guy.” When asked for evidence to support the claim, he responded: “Bet ya a signed dollar it’s true.”
The diver is suing. Musk has not backed down.
But some of Musk’s recent behaviour has teetered closer to his core businesses. In August, Musk stunned the business community when he tweeted: “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.”
A level of chaos seized investors and analysts. The tweet sparked a U.S. securities investigation, a class-action lawsuit from investors, and a dip in share value.
On Friday, two top executives left Tesla. Shares went on another rollercoaster day of trading.