The ongoing Elon Twitter saga: "insert demographic" melts down

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dowie said:
Without what idea? Build an electric car? That's not novel, Elon had that idea too ergo that's why he teamed up with some likeminded people and backed such a venture.
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In 2003 the idea of a new car company which is technology focused was so novel that it caught all the big players in the market out big time, hence the disruption we have now.

If Musk was able to do this himself back in 2003 then he could have setup his own company rather than latching onto the coat-tails of two others.

The main part of Elons success seems to be derived from surrounding himself with the right people, having cash to to throw around and being very driven no doubt helps.
 
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StriderX said:
Yep middle-class people walk around with emeralds in their pockets all the time, a truly middle-class thing to do.
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I mean if he had some investment that paid off with the delivery of emeralds then he might well have some emeralds in his pocket at some point in time... total revenue (not profit) from the venture was circa $400k in today's money, he later became bankrupt and he's been supported by his kids since.

Of course "emeralds" are going to trigger people's imagination re: riches ditto to a "private plane" which is really a light aircraft.

Doesn't negate that he had what is basically a middle-class upbringing by US standards nor does it answer the question of when he was supposedly handed a fortune?
 
dowie said:
Yeah sounds totally plausible, you could try reading the previous links.

FYI that guy was bankrupt by the 00s and you're still deflecting from the question: When was he handed a fortune without having to lift a finger for it?
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I was taking issue with your comment about him coming from a middle class background, which was clearly ridiculous.

I didn't claim that he was handed a fortune without having to lift a finger for it. That is a notion you have injected.
 
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Firestar_3x said:
In 2003 the idea of a new car company which is technology focused was so novel that it caught all the big players in the market out big time, hence the disruption we have now.

If Musk was able to do this himself back in 2003 then he could have setup his own company rather than latching onto the coat-tails of two others.
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The general idea of building an electric car was not super unique back then, the disruption we have now came years later after two of the cofounders had left.

If you're going to claim he was latching onto the coattails of the other two then perhaps you can substantiate that - I did already ask you, what did they have a few months before he decided to join with them?
 
Jono8 said:
I was taking issue with your comment about him coming from a middle class background, which was clearly ridiculous.

I didn't claim that he was handed a fortune without having to lift a finger for it. That is a notion you have injected.
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No, re-read the post you initially quoted that was the question literally in the quote as another poster made that claim, you answered with some deflection re: the emerald mine story.

How is him coming from a middle-class background clearly ridiculous? All you've done is throw in some hype re: a story already largely debunked.
 
dowie said:
If you're going to claim he was latching onto the coattails of the other two then perhaps you can substantiate that - I did already ask you, what did they have a few months before he decided to join with them?
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If the business was just an empty shell then why invest millions to get it going, what did he like so much, the name?

If Musk didn't need the other two then he could have done it himself with his own team.

So yes, coat-tails of others.
 
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dowie said:
No, re-read the post
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Someone saying Musk didn't create Tesla? Then i said that Musk hasn't "created" much.

and by that i mean that he clearly isn't the creative/academic genius /inventor people like to make him out to be. He is was a good business man though.

If you want to talk about your misguided notion of how average and middle class his upbringing was, maybe you should have quoted the posts before that, which actually touched on that subject.

I am happy to accept an apology if you mistakenly quoted me.
 
Firestar_3x said:
If the business was just an empty shell then why invest millions to get it going, what did he like so much, the name?

If Musk didn't need the other two then he could have done it himself with his own team.
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How are they not his own team? He's got a shared goal with those two guys he's not able to single-handedly run every part of such a venture, the board asked the CEO to step down in like 2007.
 
Jono8 said:
Someone saying Musk didn't create Tesla? Then i said that Musk hasn't "created" much.
[...]

I am happy to accept an apology if you mistakenly quoted me.
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Try again Jono, you're still deflecting here, as I already said my post was in reply to another poster:
dowie said:
When was he handed a fortune without having to lift a finger for it? His father is still alive AFAIK so no inheritance per se. He may have been one of several investors in a seed round but that's hardly fundamental.

He was an ambitious guy from SA who was basically middle class by USA/Canadian standards.
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Jono8 said:
Private planes, emerald mines, smuggling contraband/AK-47's.

Sounds very middle class...
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You ignore the question and then just throw in the hype re: "emeralds mines" and "private planes"

That doesn't negate that he had a middle-class upbringing (unless you're very gullible and the mention of emeralds invokes some scrooge the duck imagery) nor does it answer the question in the post you quoted.
 
dowie said:
He pretty much did though...
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Musk wasn't part of the initial corporation of the company nor was it his idea - the two engineers were already talking about it a handful of years prior with one of them investing in another EV company. But he did help with the first round of investment in 2004 and Musk was certainly vital to Tesla's success, no question about that. Co-founder/creator....

kinda-iffy.gif


Edit - Tarpenning and Eberhard were arguably the cofounders; Eberhard had invested in AC Propulsion in late 90's early 00's.
 
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Musk was easily a bigger contributor than either of those two tbh...



en.wikipedia.org

AC Propulsion tzero - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Tom Gage was contacted by Martin Eberhard about the tZero car which Gage had built, and was currently converting to lithium batteries, similar to those that make up the battery packs of laptop computers. Gage stated that Eberhard had multiple "Schemes" and that he had to explain to Eberhard how unfeasible most of his concepts were.[3][4] The conversion was done over six months from March through September, 2003 and gave the tzero a 300-mile (480 km) range.[5] Lighter than the original version by 500 lb (230 kg), the lithium-ion conversion goes from 0–60 mph (0–97 km/h) in 3.6 seconds. The single gear ratio limits the car's maximum speed to just over 140 mph (230 km/h) at 13,000 rpm with proper gearing, though it has never been tested at greater than the electronic limit of 105 mph (169 km/h). The base price of the car was US$220,000. Elon Musk and Martin Eberhard encouraged Tom Gage and Alan Cocconi to move the lithium-ion powered prototype into production. Eberhard then borrowed the converted tzero for three months and used it as a daily driver.[3][6]

JB Straubel then told Elon Musk about the newly converted, now lithium-ion powered tzero and arranged a test drive. Musk also encouraged AC Propulsion to commercialize the vehicle.[4] Tom Gage, however, again deferred in favor of working on their electrified Scion xB called the eBox. But he put Elon Musk in contact with Martin Eberhard[7] which led to Elon Musk's Series A funding of Tesla Motors in April, 2004 and their hiring JB Straubel.[6]
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Elon was looking at this area and approached the same AC propulsion company the other tesla cofounder approached, he then teamed up with the Tesla guys... they didn't really have much before he joined.

It would be way more understandable to dismiss Elon as cofounder if he'd been able to team up with AC Propulsion instead and built up that company, then the critics would have an actual existing electric car product to point at and claim Elon merely came in later on taking credit... but with Tesla there wasn't much in the few months before Elon joined and their first product (based on a Lotus) only launched after the original CEO was stood down by the board.
 
FishFluff said:
I'm just glad that dowie has found his way back to this thread as it's been sorely missing a daily dose of humour since Roar87 and C Kent tapped out.
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Tapped out or found the thread run it's course a long time ago.. the past few months have been the same 4 or 5 posting anything remotely negative linked to musk, be it Tesla/spacex etc. Hell given the vast majority of the last few pages (with the forum set to 100 posts per page) are deleted posts where the thread was dragged off topic by those same numpties why would I bother reading it? It's just the same crap over and over again with the same people spouting the same rubbish.
 
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