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Comment by sonnyblarney | Hacker News Reader

Absolutely not. CEO's particularly those in more traditional industries with traditional customers do not go on popular TV shows and smoke up.

There are many odd/interesting/unique things CEO's can do, Musk has done many of them, mostly positive - this is definitely not one of them.

Given all of the negative vibe out there about erratic behaviour, making false statements on Twitter that literally put him under investigation by the SEC - this is just bad.

It adds to the narrative that something is really wrong and he's not listening to more responsible people around him.

Sending a Tesla on a rocket to Mars was a very expensive PR stunt that was 'out there' but frankly was probably worth it. It's aspirational, quirky, got tons of press coverage.

There are some that suggest he's actually trying to get the boot, I can't imagine why though.

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I watched the podcast.. I found it pretty normal. He doesn't come across as unstable. They are basically discussing technology and related things at an intellectual and philosophical level (one could say geeky). Elon states that he's not a business magnate, or whatever wikipedia says he is, and that he's an engineer. His day to day is solving engineering problems. His tweets are a distraction, probably regrettable and play out of his limbic system.. the adage that you should not tweet/email/post when drunk, high etc... we see that play out everywhere. My take on why he got involved in the submarine thing was because it could be viewed as a hard engineering problem that they could help solve... even though the situation didn't necessitate new equipment per se. He's got a team of crack engineers and wants to use them to solve problems... much like Tony Stark. He wants to fix LA traffic which is unfixable unless you dig tunnels. Basically a bunch of smart engineers solving problems outside of the box.

Yes these things are often take out of context - but it doesn't matter that much that he's lucid and reasonable - the 'headline' will be 'Musk smokes pot in live broadcast'.

It's just a bad bit of PR from a guy who's usually on point.

I watched it too. I watch JRE all the time. I guess now by default I'm an Elon defender because I hate slanted news and clickbait lol. He's a decent dude that I would love to sit down with.

The only thing immature is the reaction, it's not a professional setting and he's not abusing the substance. It's purely just down to shock media reaction. Nobody mentioned the whiskey they were drinking either but that doesn't make a headline.

They did mention it in TFA but regardless CNBC clearly thinks smoking pot is “bizarre” which I suspect is actually a pretty mundane and socially acceptable thing.

> It's purely just down to shock media reaction.

It's more than that. Journalists hate Elon Musk because he called them out a few months ago.

The same media outlets ranting and raving about how terrible our marijuana/drug laws are and how we need to legalize them are whining about musk smoking weed in california ( where it is legal BTW ).

It's just your routine biased hit piece by the media.

> Nobody mentioned the whiskey they were drinking either but that doesn't make a headline.

Drinking whiskey is not a federal crime. Smoking pot is.

https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/federal-marij...

These articles talk little to nothing about the legality of it. Not one article claims that Musk has broken the law and should be in federal prison right now. I'm talking about the general attitude to something that is clearly no more harmful than the drink on the table or the tobacco in the joint. Everyone knows several states have decriminalized it and many celebrities and business people that have even openly supported it.

I'm pretty sure the federal government will do nothing about this, as the resource implications, political will, and the reaction from other business leaders who will look on skeptically at the governments actions over what has already been deemed to many as a victimless crime (with regards to the actual possession).

That's a legit distinction, especially for a company that wants to work with/stay in the good graces of the Federal government (e.g. now the Air Force is pondering how to respond, given their relationship with Space X).

But it's apparently too sophisticated a point for the article, which is pure clickbait.

...

Agree. He can do whatever he wants in private, but before doing something stupid like this in public, he should think about the 100s of 1000s of people who bet their 401k money on Tesla stock. Public behavior matters for public company CEOs.

> Sending a Tesla on a rocket to Mars was a very expensive PR stunt that was 'out there' but frankly was probably worth it. It's aspirational, quirky, got tons of press coverage.

They would've used a chunk of lead to test the payload capacity, instead Musk sent his car. It didn't cost them anything it otherwise would've to prove Falcon Heavy's lift capacity. It was free PR.

While I get your point, Musk is pretty far from a traditional CEO. It's also important to point out that people investing in Tesla are also very likely pretty far from your traditional investor investing in a traditional industry.

> people investing in Tesla are also very likely pretty far from your traditional investor investing in a traditional industry.

Source? A lot of people invest in growth stocks, and really don't care about corporate missions. TSLA is held in some mainstream funds (https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/090215/4-mut...) which sends some strong signals to traditional investors.

Yeah but he's the cool bro CEO of a tech company. TECH COMPANY.

Losing money, it's okay because Tesla is a tech company.

Fail at core parts of a car manufacturing business, it's okay because Tesla is a tech company.

Call a pedophile, then triple down on it and... actually no that's just okay. Hope he loses that lawsuit.

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