* Translation from our friends as DeepL
** reposted from Diaspora* since Friendica only post a link through Mastodon, I mean, uh, it's not that seamless, that activitypub thingy.
There was a discussion on Facebook that Tesla was not started by #Musk, but by Martin #Eberhard and Marc #Tarpenning (2003-2008), and that Musk was the investor who got the company for his investment (and $8 million); and that Musk did nothing to make #Tesla what it is.
I disagreed like hell. I got a response of "but come on, he barely added anything technically!". And I wrote this reply.
What has Elon Musk given us?
...no no no NO NO. Musk has added nothing of technical value. That's not the guy's superpower.
- He said he has a vision for the electric car. When everyone said it was stupid, impossible, no way, look around and wake up. Electric cars will never be sold or usable! He single-handedly created the residential electric car industry. Beat that.
- He put money in when it looked hopeless. A LOT of money. (In fact, he gathered a lot of it, by whatever means. By EVERY method he had.)
- He pushed money into the charging network when it seemed totally pointless in the short to medium term.
- He made a financial plan that was decades in the making (release the sports model, use it to pay for the high end model, use it to pay for the people's car at an absurd $35k).
- If the financial plan had been a bit optimistic he have topped it with excellent marketing pushing on all fronts, where the car became not just a status symbol, but a gadget. TOUCH SCREEN! In the car!!!! Cameras! IN CAR!!!! FREE CHARGING!!!!!1111oneoneONEONE
- He kept to the fact that it had to go, even though there were a few downhill slopes (and then there are some).
- He put personal energy into it, and a lot of that.
That's his superpower. That's what he put in. Because he's a narcissistic aggressive autistic asshole, and all of those are excellent superpowers for this particular task. He can't give up, he can push anyone down to do it and he does it no matter what anyone thinks, says or does.