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In a wild and wide-ranging interview at The New York Times DealBook Summit with Andrew Ross Sorkin, Elon Musk addressed the controversy over his recent posts that have been interpreted as antisemitic. "Of all the posts I've done on the platform--there might be 30,000--once in a while, I might say something foolish," Musk said. "I'm sorry for that tweet or post, it was foolish of me."
Musk was referring to his reply to a message that spread an anti-Jewish conspiracy theory. The post generated immense pushback, including from advertisers, which have fled the platform. It's unclear whether his apology will change the minds of any of his advertisers, which seem to have largely decided that the reputational risk of advertising on X just isn't worth the potential return.
When asked about the effect this has had on X, the company formerly known as Twitter, Musk's response was defiant.
"If someone's going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go f--- yourself," said Musk. "Including Bob," he added, referring to Disney CEO Bob Iger who was onstage earlier during the event. When Ross Sorkin attempted to follow up, Musk doubled down, repeating again, "Go f--- yourself."
Musk went on to claim that advertisers are going to kill the company. Ross Sorkin attempted to push back, claiming that advertisers might argue that it was Musk's decisions and public actions that could kill the company. Musk disagreed, and suggested that "Earth will be the judge."
The interview went a lot of places, including a tangent about whether there are really aliens. Despite all of it, there was a powerful lesson best illustrated by a follow-up by Ross Sorkin.
"You're saying I don't care if anyone likes me or they hate me," Ross Sorkin responded. "But given your power, and given what you have amassed, and your importance you have, I would think you want to be trusted."
Musk suggested that being trusted personally is irrelevant if the rockets made by SpaceX are the most reliable in the world, or if the cars made by Tesla are the best in the world. The thing is, I don't think that's true. I think Musk greatly underestimates the long-term importance of being trusted.
Sure, Musk has been incredibly successful despite his personal flaws and drawbacks.
As the interview neared its conclusion, Musk talked about the importance of humans becoming a multiplanet species, meaning, in his view, that the survival of the human race depends on our ability to eventually colonize other planets. It certainly seems like trust is a pretty valuable asset if the thing you're trying to do is convince people that they should get on a rocket ship and leave Earth.
In fact, that might be the most important lesson of all, and the one Musk doesn't seem to understand. For all of his success, there are growing numbers of people who simply don't trust him. So far, that hasn't seemed to be a barrier to making cars or launching rockets. It's true that his companies have been not only successful, but transformational in their industries. Make whatever argument you want about Musk, but Tesla is the most successful car company of the past decade, and it has influenced every electric vehicle made during that time.
It's becoming clear that Musk's tremendous business achievements come at a cost, however. I don't know how to measure that cost, but I'm sure that at some point, Musk will discover it. The only question will be how many more of his companies fail by that point. That would be the most brutal lesson of all.
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Elon Musk Just Accused Advertisers of Blackmail. Then He Told Them How He Really Feels
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30.11.2023
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In a wild and wide-ranging interview at The New York Times DealBook Summit with Andrew Ross Sorkin, Elon Musk addressed the controversy over his recent posts that have been interpreted as antisemitic. "Of all the posts I've done on the platform--there might be 30,000--once in a while, I might say something foolish," Musk said. "I'm sorry for that tweet or post, it was foolish of me."
Musk was referring to his reply to a message that spread an anti-Jewish conspiracy theory. The post generated immense........
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