I do think it's VERY funny (in a pathetic way) that Elon is still mad 23 years later that people thought PayPal was a better name for an online bank than X, so he's trying to reskin twitter into his online banking idea with some social media features. I also think it's funny (in an amusing way) how everyone still hates the name X for a platform and are letting him know in the millions.
It's probably because the name "X" is the only thing he's ever tried to do that was actually his own idea so he can't let it go and will spend billions in lost money to try to maintain his ego. 😂
X sounds to me like something a 14-year-old boy would think was super cool. I think odds were just as good that it would have been given a name like "Chaos" or "NightRaven" or something ;)
This podcast is amazing to listen to now, seems like he had a pretty frequent pattern of trying to run companies, and then scaring all the talented people off. I had to check the date and cant believe this came out 3 years ago!
I’ve been to Cape Canaveral and it’s a HUGE, empty space with nothing but laboratories and launch pads for miles around. It incidentally serves as a nature preserve and NASA tries to conduct launches and tests in ways that won’t disturb more delicate species. For example, they won’t do anything during sea turtle nesting season and the darkness on those shores make it a perfect nesting site. If you want to watch launches then you have to be waaaaayyyy on the other side of the bay with binoculars. All this to say that Musk’s method of making his own “Cape Canaveral” was wildly irresponsible and contrary to how NASA conducts themselves.
I am reminded of a particularly socially inept programmer I once knew who defined generosity as "paying more than I absolutely have to" and then wanted not just whatever he paid for, but also extra indulgence out of "gratitude". So, if he paid $100 when you would have taken $90, you owe him extra time and special privileges. Getting the absolute most for himself out of any concatenation of circumstances obsessed his idly moments, which I realized only later must be driven by his terror of being utterly deserted by anyone with a choice.
Strauss has totally recanted his earlier "The Game" era work, and even published a book called "The Truth" about how he was incorrect. He has repeatedly tried to get his publisher to pull The Game from print but it's very profitable and they own the rights so they have so far refused. Strauss himself is probably the best qualified person out there to tell Elon that his relationships are failing because he's a fuckhead, he's been there and come back.
I mean even in 'The Game' the message is mixed. I read it in college, and I came out of it with a hey these guys aren't the greatest at what they do. I mean the most healthy relationships that developed in the book were ones were where 'the method' is kind of just dropped. Self building and improvement were more key than any 'trick' And the Method is a pitiful figure at the end of the book while everyone else has moved on.
Really funny that this came out right before Elon tripled down into being an awe inspiring piece of shit. Fantastic duo of episodes, really glad to be introduced to this podcast through such an entertaining series.
The big thing RE his Zip2 business is the fallback, not the 28K. Elon at ANY TIME could fail without repurcussion and get back to eating and having medical care etc. Not HAVING to succeed is a major advantage that the rich often fail to recognize; they are insulated from real consequences.
Zip2 wasn't just $28k from dad... there was a whole bunch of "angel investors" and the grand total was over $200k. I saw somewhere once that mom also donated $5k or something like that.
Yep. And the $28k was during the final fundraising round, not an early round. In the first round, it was the three founders, with Elon contributing his computer and the other two cash, with Greg Kouri contributing the most.
18:44 Robert... this is insanely insightful... It's personally helpful in gaining perspective into something I haven't considered/ been largely dismissive of 🙌
Has he done a Waco episode or a Ruby Ridge episode? Would like to hear the crew's thoughts on those 2 incidents. Agreed about Waco. The irl and the Paramount Plus show.
In the documentary "Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World", Werner Herzog asked Elon Musk what he dreamt about. Musk took a second, then replied, "I don't think I have good dreams. I'm sure I have good dreams, sometimes, but I don't seem to remember the good dreams. The ones that I remember are the nightmares." It's hard to describe the expression on his face, but it was really a moment.
So glad that this came out at the low point of Musks behaviour, and that he learned humility and to recognize and appreciate the work of the people who actually make the companies he owns work.
50:24 to be fair to Musk, all rockets use explosives... That's how they go up... To be fairer, Musk is a hobbyist with enough money to pay other people to do the actual work of the hobby. Like if you wanted to be a woodworker so you bought an industrial woodshop and then told them to make you cool furniture, and then made your whole personality taking pictures of yourself in front of the furniture "you" made
Hearing this after seeing how actually useless and completely out of his depth he is daily on twitter, I don't get how y'all also got suckered into the propaganda that he was an asshole but a really smart and effective one.
There's a mistaken impression that being good at one thing means you're good at everything, and being bad at one thing means you're bad at everything. Elon has been a pretty effective CEO of *tech/manufacturing* companies (barring recent brand damage). But - shock of all shock - the guy who lacks empathy or understanding of human interactions - is awful at running a *social media* company.
@@JackgarPrime TBC seems to be doing fine. The Las Vegas transit commission keeps giving it glowing reviews and approving expansions, and new casinos keep signing up. I have no clue what their finances are like, mind you, and I doubt anyone outside the company does either. Honestly, their main problems seem to be on the Tesla side - (A) automation not being ready (despite it being an easier challenge than for surfacestreets), and (B) no larger transit vehicles, only having to use existing cars. TBC's needs seem to be a bottom-of-the-shelf priority for Tesla.
45:21 one thing I do find very funny about this is the character who namedrops Musk turns out to actually be from the mirror universe lol. I kinda doubt this was a deliberate gag on the writers' part but it's still kinda amusing.
The thing is, Elon isn’t a genius OR an inventor in any capacity. He has 2 patents to his name, one of which is entirely inconsequential, but the other is the plug used to charge his Teslas. These plugs use far more energy than they produce, offsetting the burden of gasoline to the power grid by a massive margin. In my state, the power grid is fueled mostly by oil and coal, and I’m sure nearly every state in the US still uses some fossil fuel or another as their primary power source. I don’t know the exact statics for my state, but the trade off from gas-powered cars to electric grid-powered cars is worse in terms of carbon footprint. A standard economy car is actually less bad for the environment than a Tesla. The dumbest part of this is, a very energy-efficient plug for electric cars already existed, but through Elon’s massive wealth and influence, every charging station in the US only has adapters for his shitty plug, meaning all other electric car manufacturers had to change their models to fit his. Ergo, Elon has actually made electric car technology WORSE rather than better, which is totally counteractive to what he claims he wants to do.
Sooo. Not a musketeer or anything but almost everything you said was nonsense. NACs is just a superior charging standard. It's less weight, cheaper, and more reliable. That's why nearly every north American auto manufacturer is utilizing this over CCS and now the almost defunct CHAdeMO. On the US average energy grid, the "crossover point" is between 13,500-20,000 miles driven. Meaning every mile driven past that (and Teslas can last 300k+ on the original batteries) produces a net smaller CO2 impact than a comparable ICE. This crossover point gets pushed out in areas completely devoid of renewable, but it will still get there. (Tesla contributes meaningfully to solar and energy storage, but I don't think we can blame them for lack of investment in renewables amongst politicians). Just to be clear. Not a Musk fan, not a Tesla fan boi, but EVs are genuinely better for the environment and your wallet vs ICE.
This episode apparently dates back to maybe 3 years ago, and Renner had a scuffle with his wife back then. She said he came home coked up and threatened her and their daughter with a gun. It's all very he-said-she-said. Hard to say how much was known back when this episode aired. But basically she sued for divorce and sole custody, but they ended up settling on a joint custody later on, which the now ex-wife doesn't seem happy with. There's also some mild stuff from this year, but it's not in the scope of this episode. He just seems kinda like a volatile guy.
I think it's less that he found something to justify his bad management practices and more that he's very self important, and believes that whatever he's working on is important and/or revolutionary.
At 10:35 - from the future - boy were you on the money about him being terrible at naming companies. He just threw away Twitter's globally recognized name and symbol (and lexicon, really) and renamed it X. A name he can't even trademark because multiple other conflicting entities and companies already own it.
21:53 Wait that’s really funny, does he have PDA(Pathological Demand Avoidance/Pervasive Drive [for] Autonomy)? Never though I’d say this but he’s just like me fr.
I know this has very little to do with the episode, but, while I think Robert may be overstating how much Taylor Kitsch looks like Koresh, he did look a good deal like him in that show. I don't know what pictures they were looking at, but it can't have been Kitsch with the mullet and glasses from the show if they think they look nothing alike. What I'm saying is they're all wrong, but I think Robert is less wrong.
Also, even if one engineer had forgotten to tighten a bolt (he hadn’t), there should be a system in place to double-check. And that’s down to management. If it’s mission critical you have a system in place to double, triple and quadruple check it.
I wish it was true that billionaires would commit suicide going to mars, but. Musk has supported the initiative to create indentured servants to go to Mars. Again, a great example of how utterly awful Musk is.
Yes., exactly! It's just a modern continuation of "The Great Man Fallacy" where the narrative of history gets built around powerful guys and ignore practically everyone else, whether the contributed or were destroyed by them. It's frustrating that we still elevate and want to emulate these awful people.
Wealth and selfishness have protected Musk from the realization of his own profound immaturity and essential mediocrity. Like so many scions of enormous wealth and social privilege, he equates wealth with evidence of genius. And, constantly, mistakes his own luck for merit, as though whatever he actually did was therefore The Way It's Done by Those Who Know. Since he liked chasing "wins" 22 hours a day, therefore every employee of any business he buys owes him the same total expenditure of all their lives serving his orders and interests. The Platonic Form of good coincides, as he sees it, with whatever quarry Elon presently pursues, according to his immediate preferences; if he wants his factory open, America needs "freedom"! "Secret Superhero Protagonist" is very familiar as one mechanism or route open to a kid bullied by peers, in which instead of developing empathy for other abuse victims he decides to "transcend" such considerations by acquiring enough power. The loneliness of little Elon can be denied, his pangs of humiliation or rejection banished forever, buried under technicolor dreamscapes of future fame and influence, once the pathetically stupid world is fixed! He'll save/conquer the world, be the father of the future species, his own dad depending on him for genetic survival!-- all through his "special" genius, too advanced for the comprehension of the mere generality! Nobody else is superior enough to recognize him as the mental Ubermench disguised as a dorky teenager, the superior specimen favored by evolution to defeat all rivals!..., if only human females could be found "hot enough" to desire yet smart enough to flatter him with her swift concurrence with his views! Being rich enough, he did eventually locate a female psycho enough to see herself, as he wished to see her, as the rare "exception" to normal female stupidity, the Queen Bee of this men-only VIP-club (the position is always tasked with venomously despising other women, for the members' amusement and entertaining validation. I know the role well, as traditional and easily recognizable in late-20th-century Texas as any commedia-dell'arte Harlequin to a medieval theatre. Having identified himself with the REAL super duper power-masters of the Universe (to provide psychological cover for his fear and hurt and vulnerability) he must be Super-Elon, the Ultimate Smart-Guy, always in every mirror of every mind perceiving him-- any declarative sentence must be an insult, presuming to factual knowledge not already possessed by the Nerd! He will thus pursue the acquiescence of other people to his generous self-evaluation, testing them for "smarts" by various means, snooping to discover their real opinion of him. When his emotions are engaged, pursuing some urge or fearing some exposure, he will wield whatever threatening or punitive or manipulative methods occur to him might ""work", which means not cooperation or compromise but submission to his wishes as naturally because anyone who isn't agreeing should suffer to "teach them a lesson" the point of which is to indulge Elon. His own abuse of others is utterly invisible to him no matter how blatant and obviously outrageous, because everyone else and their feelings ought to conform to his needs, being whatever he requires if he exercises sufficient leverage. All the bullies' repetoire is his: mockery to his coterie of fans,, threatening or committing physical violence, eager wielding of economic leverage, casual deceit practiced on whoever he can trick for a quick buck and hit of that sweet, sweet endocrine high of "winning" over someone else, anyone else, from his own children and their mothers to the shareholders of his companies or their workforce or client base or anybody else not "performing to Elon's high standards" for satisfying Elon; roughly, you're making him a fortune taking his wise advice and giving him all the credit, which it is so obvious to him everyone owes him for his gnomic pronouncements' "influence". Any smidgen of power, he'll abuse to its fullest extent serving his psychological hungers.... testing other people's resistance to his tantrums, always casting himself as the hero/victim, persecuted by morons. Only his own fans can "get" the obvious truth clear to only his great Brain: only He can be the perfect utopian tyrant, once he takes over the world from his supervillain lair! Then he will choose among the world's loveliest nubile females, eager to bear the next generation of his "special" genes, plus indulge his fantasies of two-girl three-ways! (rumored to be the extra bait Amber Heard trailed, along with lots of frozen embryos... poor orphans, with neither parent even remotely fit for the job. It's *astonishing* you haven't mentioned his self-narrative's resemblance to Ayn Rand's fashy protagonist, superbly above the pathetic interference of parasitic inferiors whose opinions disguise their purpose, nefariously sucking the life/profits/credit/reputation the "real" productive genius' hard work and "innovation". brings into existence. (retching noises)
Kind of off-topic, but I knew exactly one honest gun nut in my life. He owned an AR-15 (and I assume still does; I haven't talked to him in over a decade) because he could, and because it was essentially a toy. He never claimed it was anything more to him than that, or that he had some God-given right to use it to blow up tannerite.
I think you still give Musk more credit than he's due. He is *not* a good or even competent engineer. The only things patented to him in Tesla are aesthetic choices and a custom charging port that won't accept chargers from any other electric vehicles. Good for cornering a market, but not particularly innovative. To those of us with a science background, it's pretty clear that Musk either has absolutely no freaking idea what he's talking about in almost every situation or he's a massive pathological liar who's knowingly weaving the most inane BS to try to grift money out of his little cult of personality and gullible venture capitalists. Some examples: The Hyperloop was not only an idea Elon cribbed from blueprints made nearly a century ago, but was also a physics nightmare that would have been practically impossible to pull off with our current level of technology. Neuralink was another company that Musk invaded and took over like some kind of parasite. They started with a reasonable plan to create a cerebral implant designed to alleviate certain neurological disorders and possibly allow people to control robotic prosthetics. Then Musk came along and started talking about the implant giving you telepathic powers, the ability to download information into your brain like in The Matrix, and the ability to see into the infrared and ultraviolet spectra, despite the human eye not having that ability no matter how much the brain is modified. His point-to-point rocket transport system was also laughably impractical and would have dramatically worsened climate change if any government was stupid enough to greenlight it. I'm sorry, but Elon Musk's only talent is his ability to bamboozle people with his BS. Tesla and SpaceX are only as big as they are because of his hype. Both are valuated WAAAY above their market share and are infamous for shoddy craftsmanship, employee abuse, and a mile-long list of broken promises and failed goals. The fact that Elon is also a genuinely evil person is just the icing on this terrible cake.
It was right around the time he fired that assistant that I realized he was a piece of shit. I have a feeling she would have kept his biggest, most recent mistakes from happening.
The only thing I agree with Elon Musk about is the color yellow. BUT I'm not such a defective human that I'd ever even imagine changing safety equipment because of it.
just wanted to say, this is my 3rd bastard podcast after kissinger and jordan peterson... my partner put me onto it and asked me what I thought; initially I liked Rob for the straight up info but found the rest of the guffawing gang in the background to be kinda irritating... but on this one I think Sofiya's input was great, brought a really nice balance to the show. 👏👏👏
Someone once sent me an ornate straight razor in the mail unprompted on my birthday. No note, no card. ...to this day im still not sure if it was a gift or a threat
@28:45 ...Ironic... Do you know why techbros keep talking about revolutionizing finance, when they're literally just trying to make a less secure of the system we already have? It's because when they talk about liberation from banks, by "banks" they mean Jews. It's an antisemitic dog whistle, so unless you were trying to point that out and did a really bad job of it, the joke about if he were a Jew was in extremely bad taste.
To be fair, Neil Strauss did walk the walk on his relationship advice after writing The Game. He's probably the perfect person to tell Elon all this now.
Have to disagree on a particular point. I detest Peter Thiel but Musk is worse. Thiel is capable of intelligently defending his noxious political positions (see his civil debate with the late David Graeber) and there are limits to his perniciousness (see his recent expression of frustration with Republican culture wars). Musk lacks these minor graces.
Thiel can fly under the radar, you can't take him at face value. Hell, I've spoken with nazis who were polite to trans people. They do it because they understand the value of optics, not because they respect trans people's humanity. If I had to guess, Thiel probably hates the Republican engagement in the culture wars probably because it's a distraction, but if you look into the opinions he expresses when he thinks you're not looking, he's a hardcore authoritarian. And quite possibly a fascist, which is different from authoritarian.
Robert is so close to seeing the reality of these people but he still for some inexplicable reason holds onto the fantasy that they’re truly unique for some ethereal reason beyond their wealth. They’re rich and lucky and you’re a self aware dude but clearly not quite self aware enough. An example being when you praise him for making everything in house at spaced. “This is a weird thing to do in the rocket industry” but it’s not a weird thing to do for a man you just spend two hours expressing as being obsessed with control. It’s not some genius insight into how to operate a business it’s just selfish and he got lucky. You’re blind my boy! Blind!
@@Writkin not at all, I was more thinking that Robert wouldn’t feel the way he does about the musk rat if he wasn’t a cis man. Not that all cis men simp for him, just that they’re more vulnerable to it.
When it comes to space technology you need redundancy for the redundancy, because if shit breaks there is no service technicians that fly out to you in the next hour to deliver spare parts. More likely than not, if you have no redundancy you are just dead. So no it isn't a bloated system, it's a system designed to safe lives. Musk did not remove bloat from space tech, he removed safety and unnecessarily added complexity where there should be none. This is so infuriating to listen to. You'd think that you saw all the shit he did that you mention that you'd also be sceptical of the accolades you attribute to him instead of going "yeah, people used to over engineer and he fixed that" you could have done a little research and figured out why for space you want redundancy for the redundancy... because f-ing nobody can help you up there... Maybe a few less ATV jokes that nobody cares about and a bit more research.
One day, my ex randomly said that he thinks union is a mob like organization. I thought he read a story about a corrupt union leader or watched too much of the Irishman. I know he loves Tesla and is a Elon Musk fan, but I did not know at that time Elon is also against union. Similarly, he seems to think Toyota is a crapy car manufacturer. Oh and both of his twitter account have the blue checkmark. I guess I really put on some heavy shaded rose colored glasses back then🤣🤣🤣But also it's partially my fault that I did not pay more attention to investigate his favorite tech CEO and fact check his statements.
I know we uz just jokin' around, but Mars is a toxic rock, and it costs billions for a one-way trip. And the rocketeers hanging out with the self-important money child knew that.
Around the 1:01:00 point. no no no no no no. Every wedding is boring and the open bar doesn't make up for it. What is the point of getting drunk around people who bore you when you can do it at home? Plus in most cases, the liquor you're being served is the worst liquor. Go panhandle $9 and buy a fifth of bowman's vodka. That's what you're drinking. And now that you're drunk, around people you either don't know or hate, now how can this experience go well? It's not only shit booze, but shit people too. Worst possible company completely out of your element. Better to stay sober in that scenario. I speak from experience. Do this instead. Get a minimum wage job. Work the amount of time you would have wasted at that wedding, buy some liquor (or seltzer) you actually like then quit that job as soon as the check clears. Use that liquor or otherwise booze to throw a party of your own with people you like, listening to music you like. Bonus is, you don't have to watch a boring ass wedding or wear uncomfortable clothes. It's like your own wedding type event except without all the pretentiousness of pretending that people who are fucking deserve some kind of special recognition. Fuck for 2 years or fuck for 50 years, I don't give a single shit. I do not care that you found a sexual partner pathetic enough to commit to a (edit: legally binding) relationship with practically no boundaries or guarantees. I really wish this practice would end. I understand that you get to dodge taxes and one of you will get better health insurance, but that's not a reason for me to celebrate. Your new insurance contract and healthcare power of attorney is not all that exciting to me, regardless of the fact there is some type event organized around it. I'll stay home.
I'm sorry to hear people treat any of the three of you shittily. I admit to being a bit of an Elon fan boy, but I also know other are allowed to think poorly of the man and have good reason to do so. Regardless, none of you should get shit for your opinions or your jokes. People are... yuck. Anyways, thanks for the podcast of your point of view. I will probably ignore it and keep being a fan Boi but it's always good to listen to other opinions. So, again, thank you.
It is hilarious listening to non-technical people fantasize. Physics is a harsh mistress, that doesn't give a shit about what you would like to accomplish.
Get this man the Internet Iconoclast Syndrome Award for August. He REALLY stuck it to the professional journalist/podcaster with his trenchant sarcastic comment. So cutting that Robert Evans... Is just gonna keep on doing what he's doing without even noticing anonymous social media farts in the wind.
I dislike Musk, but to be fair Boca Chica is complicated. They wouldn't need to be doing all the environmental problem shit, but they need to be as far south as possible on the Texas coastline. Cape Canereval can't support enough launches and because of orbital mechanics you should be as close as possible to the equator. And you want to be able to drop rockets and astronauts in the ocean if needed instead of on land (they are almost always exploded on purpose anyway) but you don't want the rain of debris over land
Uh, sending mice to Mars and back is NOT a cool idea. Send a spaceship to Mars and back. If there's air left, great. I don't know why the "genius" musk doesn't try his rich libertarian utopia in a sealed facility in a Mars-like environment on Earth (there are several used for research already). See how it works out before risking all this effort on colonizing Mars.
"I think Musk is a bad namer"
Listening to this the day after announcing the Twitter "X" rebrand.
What, that was real?
I do think it's VERY funny (in a pathetic way) that Elon is still mad 23 years later that people thought PayPal was a better name for an online bank than X, so he's trying to reskin twitter into his online banking idea with some social media features. I also think it's funny (in an amusing way) how everyone still hates the name X for a platform and are letting him know in the millions.
It's probably because the name "X" is the only thing he's ever tried to do that was actually his own idea so he can't let it go and will spend billions in lost money to try to maintain his ego. 😂
@@TerribleTom113 What a fuckin' dork. It's literally one letter, and also the most cliche single letter on earth.
@@TerribleTom113 his ideas are shit, pathetic, grandiose, and unoriginal. The sooner he gets that jammed into his frontal lobe the better.
X sounds to me like something a 14-year-old boy would think was super cool. I think odds were just as good that it would have been given a name like "Chaos" or "NightRaven" or something ;)
@@karenrobertsdottir4101 It would be "Kaos" lol, but yesssss
This podcast is amazing to listen to now, seems like he had a pretty frequent pattern of trying to run companies, and then scaring all the talented people off. I had to check the date and cant believe this came out 3 years ago!
Yeah, it's called "failing upward."
I’ve been to Cape Canaveral and it’s a HUGE, empty space with nothing but laboratories and launch pads for miles around. It incidentally serves as a nature preserve and NASA tries to conduct launches and tests in ways that won’t disturb more delicate species. For example, they won’t do anything during sea turtle nesting season and the darkness on those shores make it a perfect nesting site. If you want to watch launches then you have to be waaaaayyyy on the other side of the bay with binoculars. All this to say that Musk’s method of making his own “Cape Canaveral” was wildly irresponsible and contrary to how NASA conducts themselves.
That "early history of sucking at naming companies" now seems a lot like a Chekhov's gun with a big stylized "X" printed on the side...
I am reminded of a particularly socially inept programmer I once knew who defined generosity as "paying more than I absolutely have to" and then wanted not just whatever he paid for, but also extra indulgence out of "gratitude". So, if he paid $100 when you would have taken $90, you owe him extra time and special privileges. Getting the absolute most for himself out of any concatenation of circumstances obsessed his idly moments, which I realized only later must be driven by his terror of being utterly deserted by anyone with a choice.
Strauss has totally recanted his earlier "The Game" era work, and even published a book called "The Truth" about how he was incorrect. He has repeatedly tried to get his publisher to pull The Game from print but it's very profitable and they own the rights so they have so far refused. Strauss himself is probably the best qualified person out there to tell Elon that his relationships are failing because he's a fuckhead, he's been there and come back.
I mean even in 'The Game' the message is mixed. I read it in college, and I came out of it with a hey these guys aren't the greatest at what they do. I mean the most healthy relationships that developed in the book were ones were where 'the method' is kind of just dropped. Self building and improvement were more key than any 'trick' And the Method is a pitiful figure at the end of the book while everyone else has moved on.
i think its important to note, in star trek discovery, the guy who lists elon as a genius is also a mirror universe plant
Really funny that this came out right before Elon tripled down into being an awe inspiring piece of shit. Fantastic duo of episodes, really glad to be introduced to this podcast through such an entertaining series.
The big thing RE his Zip2 business is the fallback, not the 28K. Elon at ANY TIME could fail without repurcussion and get back to eating and having medical care etc. Not HAVING to succeed is a major advantage that the rich often fail to recognize; they are insulated from real consequences.
Boca Chika is also one of the HISTORIC surfing locations. Taking that beach away from people takes away that break forever. History, now lost to ages.
Zip2 wasn't just $28k from dad... there was a whole bunch of "angel investors" and the grand total was over $200k. I saw somewhere once that mom also donated $5k or something like that.
Yep. And the $28k was during the final fundraising round, not an early round. In the first round, it was the three founders, with Elon contributing his computer and the other two cash, with Greg Kouri contributing the most.
RE the handles popping out; it also makes the car a death trap in the event of a crash or fire.
18:44 Robert... this is insanely insightful... It's personally helpful in gaining perspective into something I haven't considered/ been largely dismissive of 🙌
Oh, it's a rerun. That's why it's so (comparatively) positive towards Elon.
If Brendan Frasier isn’t the perfect person to play Robert in a live action movie, I just don’t know how to finish this sentence.
From Daddy jokes to Dad jokes... The whole gamut from A-B..
Seriously, loving these podcasts having just found the channel
Has he done a Waco episode or a Ruby Ridge episode? Would like to hear the crew's thoughts on those 2 incidents. Agreed about Waco. The irl and the Paramount Plus show.
He has discussed Ruby Ridge, I believe it was talking about White Nationalists. Can't remember the specific episode though.
I think it’s worth stating that Neil Strauss completely apologized and regrets writing that book.
In the documentary "Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World", Werner Herzog asked Elon Musk what he dreamt about.
Musk took a second, then replied, "I don't think I have good dreams. I'm sure I have good dreams, sometimes, but I don't seem to remember the good dreams. The ones that I remember are the nightmares."
It's hard to describe the expression on his face, but it was really a moment.
So glad that this came out at the low point of Musks behaviour, and that he learned humility and to recognize and appreciate the work of the people who actually make the companies he owns work.
50:24 to be fair to Musk, all rockets use explosives... That's how they go up...
To be fairer, Musk is a hobbyist with enough money to pay other people to do the actual work of the hobby.
Like if you wanted to be a woodworker so you bought an industrial woodshop and then told them to make you cool furniture, and then made your whole personality taking pictures of yourself in front of the furniture "you" made
Just stumbled onto this podcast, a week ago, I'm glad to hear more from Sofia 😊
I stumbled upon it too and was curious... then sat through 7 minutes of drivel until the "buy the book!" plug and decided this is not it.
15:13 the saga of Elon & Kimble's fighting days LOLOL
The Waco show was good but I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought it was a bit too sympathetic to David.
This needs a part 3 unfortunately
It is MIND-BLOWING listening to the stuff about Elon's obsession with naming PayPal X in 2023.
Hearing this after seeing how actually useless and completely out of his depth he is daily on twitter, I don't get how y'all also got suckered into the propaganda that he was an asshole but a really smart and effective one.
There's a mistaken impression that being good at one thing means you're good at everything, and being bad at one thing means you're bad at everything.
Elon has been a pretty effective CEO of *tech/manufacturing* companies (barring recent brand damage). But - shock of all shock - the guy who lacks empathy or understanding of human interactions - is awful at running a *social media* company.
@@karenrobertsdottir4101I mean The Boring Company is kind of an embarrassment, too, and that's sort of a tech company.
@@JackgarPrime TBC seems to be doing fine. The Las Vegas transit commission keeps giving it glowing reviews and approving expansions, and new casinos keep signing up.
I have no clue what their finances are like, mind you, and I doubt anyone outside the company does either. Honestly, their main problems seem to be on the Tesla side - (A) automation not being ready (despite it being an easier challenge than for surfacestreets), and (B) no larger transit vehicles, only having to use existing cars. TBC's needs seem to be a bottom-of-the-shelf priority for Tesla.
45:21 one thing I do find very funny about this is the character who namedrops Musk turns out to actually be from the mirror universe lol. I kinda doubt this was a deliberate gag on the writers' part but it's still kinda amusing.
There really should be a part three, given how much he's fucked up even since this was recorded. I'd watch it in a heartbeat.
Mark my words: someday someone will get an Oscar for playing Elon Musk in a movie.
The thing is, Elon isn’t a genius OR an inventor in any capacity. He has 2 patents to his name, one of which is entirely inconsequential, but the other is the plug used to charge his Teslas. These plugs use far more energy than they produce, offsetting the burden of gasoline to the power grid by a massive margin. In my state, the power grid is fueled mostly by oil and coal, and I’m sure nearly every state in the US still uses some fossil fuel or another as their primary power source. I don’t know the exact statics for my state, but the trade off from gas-powered cars to electric grid-powered cars is worse in terms of carbon footprint. A standard economy car is actually less bad for the environment than a Tesla.
The dumbest part of this is, a very energy-efficient plug for electric cars already existed, but through Elon’s massive wealth and influence, every charging station in the US only has adapters for his shitty plug, meaning all other electric car manufacturers had to change their models to fit his. Ergo, Elon has actually made electric car technology WORSE rather than better, which is totally counteractive to what he claims he wants to do.
Sooo. Not a musketeer or anything but almost everything you said was nonsense.
NACs is just a superior charging standard. It's less weight, cheaper, and more reliable. That's why nearly every north American auto manufacturer is utilizing this over CCS and now the almost defunct CHAdeMO.
On the US average energy grid, the "crossover point" is between 13,500-20,000 miles driven. Meaning every mile driven past that (and Teslas can last 300k+ on the original batteries) produces a net smaller CO2 impact than a comparable ICE.
This crossover point gets pushed out in areas completely devoid of renewable, but it will still get there.
(Tesla contributes meaningfully to solar and energy storage, but I don't think we can blame them for lack of investment in renewables amongst politicians).
Just to be clear. Not a Musk fan, not a Tesla fan boi, but EVs are genuinely better for the environment and your wallet vs ICE.
I liked the bit where Sophie said, 'Robert and Elon sitting in a tree, etc'. (or words to that effect). True dat! 😉
I feel like there was some backstory about the Jeremy Renner joke that I haven't seen yet
This episode apparently dates back to maybe 3 years ago, and Renner had a scuffle with his wife back then. She said he came home coked up and threatened her and their daughter with a gun. It's all very he-said-she-said. Hard to say how much was known back when this episode aired. But basically she sued for divorce and sole custody, but they ended up settling on a joint custody later on, which the now ex-wife doesn't seem happy with.
There's also some mild stuff from this year, but it's not in the scope of this episode. He just seems kinda like a volatile guy.
It’s shocking how people think luck and historical placement is actually “genius”
1:30:00 get a registry on some store website, then add all and only their knives to it.
Let's be fair to Star Trek: Discovery -- the guy that put Elon Musk up there with Zephram Cochrane turned out to be a villain
I think it's less that he found something to justify his bad management practices and more that he's very self important, and believes that whatever he's working on is important and/or revolutionary.
Little did they know, he would later buy Twitter, then change the name to X
"Jared Leto Eyes" by Kim Carnes, great song
There needs to be a t-shirt that says, "Hurt me again, Podcast Daddy".
Sorry Elon, you can't have a soulmate if you don't have a soul.
Don't blame me. I didn't make the rules.
And here we are now 2 months after this was uploaded, and what is Musk doing? Renaming Twitter to X.
He really just cannot learn.
And the actual recording was 3 years ago!
At 10:35 - from the future - boy were you on the money about him being terrible at naming companies. He just threw away Twitter's globally recognized name and symbol (and lexicon, really) and renamed it X. A name he can't even trademark because multiple other conflicting entities and companies already own it.
21:53 Wait that’s really funny, does he have PDA(Pathological Demand Avoidance/Pervasive Drive [for] Autonomy)? Never though I’d say this but he’s just like me fr.
Can we bring back the term “robber baron”?
It sounds like he doesn’t understand why employees are unwilling to hyper-focus on what he does to the extent they let self care go by the wayside 🙄
I know this has very little to do with the episode, but, while I think Robert may be overstating how much Taylor Kitsch looks like Koresh, he did look a good deal like him in that show. I don't know what pictures they were looking at, but it can't have been Kitsch with the mullet and glasses from the show if they think they look nothing alike. What I'm saying is they're all wrong, but I think Robert is less wrong.
I heard tell that the only actual patent Elmo has is the connector for the Tesla's power cable.
That bit about him firing his wife and taking over her job was gold
After seeing the CyberTruck I question how much input he really had in Tesla …
Also, even if one engineer had forgotten to tighten a bolt (he hadn’t), there should be a system in place to double-check. And that’s down to management. If it’s mission critical you have a system in place to double, triple and quadruple check it.
What gets me is if Space X actually manages to colonize Mars the 1% are the only people getting on those rockets.
Golgafrincham "B" Ark
I wish it was true that billionaires would commit suicide going to mars, but. Musk has supported the initiative to create indentured servants to go to Mars. Again, a great example of how utterly awful Musk is.
Damnit Robert, stop making me like Raytheon
Killing people with self-driving cars is also part of saving humanity!
To be fair the superman fallacy is one that is committed by most media about most businessmen going back to Edison and Ford.
Yes., exactly! It's just a modern continuation of "The Great Man Fallacy" where the narrative of history gets built around powerful guys and ignore practically everyone else, whether the contributed or were destroyed by them. It's frustrating that we still elevate and want to emulate these awful people.
Wealth and selfishness have protected Musk from the realization of his own profound immaturity and essential mediocrity. Like so many scions of enormous wealth and social privilege, he equates wealth with evidence of genius. And, constantly, mistakes his own luck for merit, as though whatever he actually did was therefore The Way It's Done by Those Who Know. Since he liked chasing "wins" 22 hours a day, therefore every employee of any business he buys owes him the same total expenditure of all their lives serving his orders and interests. The Platonic Form of good coincides, as he sees it, with whatever quarry Elon presently pursues, according to his immediate preferences; if he wants his factory open, America needs "freedom"!
"Secret Superhero Protagonist" is very familiar as one mechanism or route open to a kid bullied by peers, in which instead of developing empathy for other abuse victims he decides to "transcend" such considerations by acquiring enough power. The loneliness of little Elon can be denied, his pangs of humiliation or rejection banished forever, buried under technicolor dreamscapes of future fame and influence, once the pathetically stupid world is fixed! He'll save/conquer the world, be the father of the future species, his own dad depending on him for genetic survival!-- all through his "special" genius, too advanced for the comprehension of the mere generality! Nobody else is superior enough to recognize him as the mental Ubermench disguised as a dorky teenager, the superior specimen favored by evolution to defeat all rivals!..., if only human females could be found "hot enough" to desire yet smart enough to flatter him with her swift concurrence with his views!
Being rich enough, he did eventually locate a female psycho enough to see herself, as he wished to see her, as the rare "exception" to normal female stupidity, the Queen Bee of this men-only VIP-club (the position is always tasked with venomously despising other women, for the members' amusement and entertaining validation. I know the role well, as traditional and easily recognizable in late-20th-century Texas as any commedia-dell'arte Harlequin to a medieval theatre.
Having identified himself with the REAL super duper power-masters of the Universe (to provide psychological cover for his fear and hurt and vulnerability) he must be Super-Elon, the Ultimate Smart-Guy, always in every mirror of every mind perceiving him-- any declarative sentence must be an insult, presuming to factual knowledge not already possessed by the Nerd! He will thus pursue the acquiescence of other people to his generous self-evaluation, testing them for "smarts" by various means, snooping to discover their real opinion of him. When his emotions are engaged, pursuing some urge or fearing some exposure, he will wield whatever threatening or punitive or manipulative methods occur to him might ""work", which means not cooperation or compromise but submission to his wishes as naturally because anyone who isn't agreeing should suffer to "teach them a lesson" the point of which is to indulge Elon. His own abuse of others is utterly invisible to him no matter how blatant and obviously outrageous, because everyone else and their feelings ought to conform to his needs, being whatever he requires if he exercises sufficient leverage.
All the bullies' repetoire is his: mockery to his coterie of fans,, threatening or committing physical violence, eager wielding of economic leverage, casual deceit practiced on whoever he can trick for a quick buck and hit of that sweet, sweet endocrine high of "winning" over someone else, anyone else, from his own children and their mothers to the shareholders of his companies or their workforce or client base or anybody else not "performing to Elon's high standards" for satisfying Elon; roughly, you're making him a fortune taking his wise advice and giving him all the credit, which it is so obvious to him everyone owes him for his gnomic pronouncements' "influence". Any smidgen of power, he'll abuse to its fullest extent serving his psychological hungers.... testing other people's resistance to his tantrums, always casting himself as the hero/victim, persecuted by morons. Only his own fans can "get" the obvious truth clear to only his great Brain: only He can be the perfect utopian tyrant, once he takes over the world from his supervillain lair! Then he will choose among the world's loveliest nubile females, eager to bear the next generation of his "special" genes, plus indulge his fantasies of two-girl three-ways! (rumored to be the extra bait Amber Heard trailed, along with lots of frozen embryos... poor orphans, with neither parent even remotely fit for the job.
It's *astonishing* you haven't mentioned his self-narrative's resemblance to Ayn Rand's fashy protagonist, superbly above the pathetic interference of parasitic inferiors whose opinions disguise their purpose, nefariously sucking the life/profits/credit/reputation the "real" productive genius' hard work and "innovation". brings into existence. (retching noises)
Kind of off-topic, but I knew exactly one honest gun nut in my life. He owned an AR-15 (and I assume still does; I haven't talked to him in over a decade) because he could, and because it was essentially a toy. He never claimed it was anything more to him than that, or that he had some God-given right to use it to blow up tannerite.
What's this antiphở I keep hearing about!? Is it like antipasto?
I think you still give Musk more credit than he's due. He is *not* a good or even competent engineer. The only things patented to him in Tesla are aesthetic choices and a custom charging port that won't accept chargers from any other electric vehicles. Good for cornering a market, but not particularly innovative. To those of us with a science background, it's pretty clear that Musk either has absolutely no freaking idea what he's talking about in almost every situation or he's a massive pathological liar who's knowingly weaving the most inane BS to try to grift money out of his little cult of personality and gullible venture capitalists.
Some examples: The Hyperloop was not only an idea Elon cribbed from blueprints made nearly a century ago, but was also a physics nightmare that would have been practically impossible to pull off with our current level of technology. Neuralink was another company that Musk invaded and took over like some kind of parasite. They started with a reasonable plan to create a cerebral implant designed to alleviate certain neurological disorders and possibly allow people to control robotic prosthetics. Then Musk came along and started talking about the implant giving you telepathic powers, the ability to download information into your brain like in The Matrix, and the ability to see into the infrared and ultraviolet spectra, despite the human eye not having that ability no matter how much the brain is modified. His point-to-point rocket transport system was also laughably impractical and would have dramatically worsened climate change if any government was stupid enough to greenlight it.
I'm sorry, but Elon Musk's only talent is his ability to bamboozle people with his BS. Tesla and SpaceX are only as big as they are because of his hype. Both are valuated WAAAY above their market share and are infamous for shoddy craftsmanship, employee abuse, and a mile-long list of broken promises and failed goals. The fact that Elon is also a genuinely evil person is just the icing on this terrible cake.
It was right around the time he fired that assistant that I realized he was a piece of shit. I have a feeling she would have kept his biggest, most recent mistakes from happening.
20:00
So... he doesn't have any empathy? This tracks.
The only thing I agree with Elon Musk about is the color yellow. BUT I'm not such a defective human that I'd ever even imagine changing safety equipment because of it.
elon just renamed twitter to X lol
The gift of prophecy
Elon Musk's brain is a flat circle.
The firing of Mary Beth really sucked. He sees everyone, regardless of talent, like his dad's household servants.
just wanted to say, this is my 3rd bastard podcast after kissinger and jordan peterson... my partner put me onto it and asked me what I thought; initially I liked Rob for the straight up info but found the rest of the guffawing gang in the background to be kinda irritating... but on this one I think Sofiya's input was great, brought a really nice balance to the show. 👏👏👏
Someone once sent me an ornate straight razor in the mail unprompted on my birthday. No note, no card.
...to this day im still not sure if it was a gift or a threat
Elmo is a hairball coder. He couldn’t block code a calendar.
I love Sophie. :(
I live in the city they mentioned. Hes ruining my home
So ... More of an Edison than a Tesla I'd say.
@28:45 ...Ironic... Do you know why techbros keep talking about revolutionizing finance, when they're literally just trying to make a less secure of the system we already have?
It's because when they talk about liberation from banks, by "banks" they mean Jews. It's an antisemitic dog whistle, so unless you were trying to point that out and did a really bad job of it, the joke about if he were a Jew was in extremely bad taste.
She is a Jew. I think her point was more, "If one of my people had done this..."
E-Lawn is not an engineer.
Fucking Priceless. Love You 'guys':)
To be fair, Neil Strauss did walk the walk on his relationship advice after writing The Game. He's probably the perfect person to tell Elon all this now.
Have to disagree on a particular point. I detest Peter Thiel but Musk is worse. Thiel is capable of intelligently defending his noxious political positions (see his civil debate with the late David Graeber) and there are limits to his perniciousness (see his recent expression of frustration with Republican culture wars). Musk lacks these minor graces.
I'd argue that makes Thiel worse because he can stealthily destroy the world.
@@rawalshadab3812Exactly. At least El9n gives us 5he grace that he is a total POS, fraud, and the greatest welfare queen in US history.
Thiel is much more insidious and competent than Musk.
Thiel can fly under the radar, you can't take him at face value. Hell, I've spoken with nazis who were polite to trans people. They do it because they understand the value of optics, not because they respect trans people's humanity. If I had to guess, Thiel probably hates the Republican engagement in the culture wars probably because it's a distraction, but if you look into the opinions he expresses when he thinks you're not looking, he's a hardcore authoritarian. And quite possibly a fascist, which is different from authoritarian.
I just like how Rob was so incredulous that DISCO compared Musk to Zephram Cochran. That’s a real fan, there.
I mean, at the time Elon hadn't publically lost his fucking mind.
Robert is so close to seeing the reality of these people but he still for some inexplicable reason holds onto the fantasy that they’re truly unique for some ethereal reason beyond their wealth. They’re rich and lucky and you’re a self aware dude but clearly not quite self aware enough. An example being when you praise him for making everything in house at spaced. “This is a weird thing to do in the rocket industry” but it’s not a weird thing to do for a man you just spend two hours expressing as being obsessed with control. It’s not some genius insight into how to operate a business it’s just selfish and he got lucky. You’re blind my boy! Blind!
I’ve only ever seen cis men simp for Elon like this.
@@aviendha1154 Who is simping? Im saying he's not going far enough in his trashing of Elon.
@@Writkin . . . He clearly admires the man, if that’s not simping i don’t know what is.
@@aviendha1154 Oh my bad I thought you meant my post was simping. I agree with your assessment on who musk fans are (other than his literal mother)
@@Writkin not at all, I was more thinking that Robert wouldn’t feel the way he does about the musk rat if he wasn’t a cis man. Not that all cis men simp for him, just that they’re more vulnerable to it.
Sophiya: [Says something painfully unfunny]
Sophie: "Hahahahahaha! That is so funny!"
When it comes to space technology you need redundancy for the redundancy, because if shit breaks there is no service technicians that fly out to you in the next hour to deliver spare parts. More likely than not, if you have no redundancy you are just dead. So no it isn't a bloated system, it's a system designed to safe lives. Musk did not remove bloat from space tech, he removed safety and unnecessarily added complexity where there should be none. This is so infuriating to listen to. You'd think that you saw all the shit he did that you mention that you'd also be sceptical of the accolades you attribute to him instead of going "yeah, people used to over engineer and he fixed that" you could have done a little research and figured out why for space you want redundancy for the redundancy... because f-ing nobody can help you up there... Maybe a few less ATV jokes that nobody cares about and a bit more research.
Dang the failed x brand wrecks this guys soul.
It kills me watching this and just seeing very autistic traits taken to extremes by somebody who refuses any self-reflection.
One day, my ex randomly said that he thinks union is a mob like organization. I thought he read a story about a corrupt union leader or watched too much of the Irishman. I know he loves Tesla and is a Elon Musk fan, but I did not know at that time Elon is also against union. Similarly, he seems to think Toyota is a crapy car manufacturer. Oh and both of his twitter account have the blue checkmark. I guess I really put on some heavy shaded rose colored glasses back then🤣🤣🤣But also it's partially my fault that I did not pay more attention to investigate his favorite tech CEO and fact check his statements.
👍
It’s a master class how this guy handles the annoying try-to-be funny. Just agree with whatever she said and make it completely ridiculous 😂
I know we uz just jokin' around, but Mars is a toxic rock, and it costs billions for a one-way trip. And the rocketeers hanging out with the self-important money child knew that.
Around the 1:01:00 point.
no no no no no no. Every wedding is boring and the open bar doesn't make up for it. What is the point of getting drunk around people who bore you when you can do it at home? Plus in most cases, the liquor you're being served is the worst liquor. Go panhandle $9 and buy a fifth of bowman's vodka. That's what you're drinking.
And now that you're drunk, around people you either don't know or hate, now how can this experience go well? It's not only shit booze, but shit people too. Worst possible company completely out of your element. Better to stay sober in that scenario. I speak from experience.
Do this instead. Get a minimum wage job. Work the amount of time you would have wasted at that wedding, buy some liquor (or seltzer) you actually like then quit that job as soon as the check clears.
Use that liquor or otherwise booze to throw a party of your own with people you like, listening to music you like. Bonus is, you don't have to watch a boring ass wedding or wear uncomfortable clothes. It's like your own wedding type event except without all the pretentiousness of pretending that people who are fucking deserve some kind of special recognition.
Fuck for 2 years or fuck for 50 years, I don't give a single shit. I do not care that you found a sexual partner pathetic enough to commit to a (edit: legally binding) relationship with practically no boundaries or guarantees.
I really wish this practice would end. I understand that you get to dodge taxes and one of you will get better health insurance, but that's not a reason for me to celebrate. Your new insurance contract and healthcare power of attorney is not all that exciting to me, regardless of the fact there is some type event organized around it.
I'll stay home.
6:00 Episode basically starts for real.
Nevermind...
7:25
Pimp My ATM Card
Original Air Date: JUNE 2020!!! It just keeps devolving from there lol
I'm sorry to hear people treat any of the three of you shittily. I admit to being a bit of an Elon fan boy, but I also know other are allowed to think poorly of the man and have good reason to do so.
Regardless, none of you should get shit for your opinions or your jokes. People are... yuck.
Anyways, thanks for the podcast of your point of view. I will probably ignore it and keep being a fan Boi but it's always good to listen to other opinions. So, again, thank you.
And with that Waco comment all those ATF fans unsubscribed 😱
It is hilarious listening to non-technical people fantasize. Physics is a harsh mistress, that doesn't give a shit about what you would like to accomplish.
This is my favorite "guy reads wiki entries to two women who are funnier than him" podcast!
Get this man the Internet Iconoclast Syndrome Award for August. He REALLY stuck it to the professional journalist/podcaster with his trenchant sarcastic comment. So cutting that Robert Evans... Is just gonna keep on doing what he's doing without even noticing anonymous social media farts in the wind.
Thanks for the award! It's good to know that even good-hearted nice guys with annoying podcasts have bootlickers!@@miguelvelez7221
I dislike Musk, but to be fair Boca Chica is complicated. They wouldn't need to be doing all the environmental problem shit, but they need to be as far south as possible on the Texas coastline. Cape Canereval can't support enough launches and because of orbital mechanics you should be as close as possible to the equator. And you want to be able to drop rockets and astronauts in the ocean if needed instead of on land (they are almost always exploded on purpose anyway) but you don't want the rain of debris over land
The Netflix/Koresh zinger was nice, but it wasn't worth waiting until 5:30 to get back to the topic
Edit: Shit, nm it's 7:30, fml
Uh, sending mice to Mars and back is NOT a cool idea. Send a spaceship to Mars and back. If there's air left, great. I don't know why the "genius" musk doesn't try his rich libertarian utopia in a sealed facility in a Mars-like environment on Earth (there are several used for research already). See how it works out before risking all this effort on colonizing Mars.
(gasp) set... 44.... billion.... USD... on... fire......