Hacker News Reader

Comment by maxharris | Hacker News Reader

Elon has done well by me. Every company he runs turns to gold. I wouldn't have him change a thing.

Seriously, given his performance over the long-term, I hope he tweets even more. It enrages people that can't think past the next quarter, and that's good for long-term shareholders like me!

View on HN

I knew a PayPal alum who would get grumpy if you mentioned Elon in any context. If you implied that he had anything to do with PayPal's success, he would turn red-faced and start to vibrate. It was scary so I only did it once (okay, twice, because I forgot)

X.com was a bust that pivoted into a PayPal clone and merged with them when both companies were nearly out of runway from buying each other's users. He was CEO of PayPal for just months before a mass revolt of the engineering team over his incompetence lead the board of directors to fire him. Tesla has been structurally bankrupt for most of its existence, burning billions of investors' cash and still making no profit selling cars after 12 years [1]. SolarCity was on the verge of bankruptcy so he bailed it out with his other company and is still being sued for that. He's been having Tesla sell car parts to SpaceX (a private company so you can't look at its financials), more shuffling of money around from one company to another to paper over losses. His side gigs -- The Boring Company to build unusable tunnels, Neuralink, etc -- have accomplished nothing. What exactly has he "turned to gold"?

1: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-tesla-burns-cash/

> What exactly has he "turned to gold"?

You wrote him off way too easily.

In my life I have not seen -

1. Two rockets landing simultaneously

2. An electric car that can take off like a plane, and self-drive on free ways

bloomberg for the past 5 years afaik has been trying to kill tesla. bloom energy may be the reason.

You're claiming victory a bit early.

I have 108 shares. I'm not selling TSLA. In fact, I'm going to pick up more the next time it drops!

TSLA is going to make me a millionaire, but it will take a few more years before that happens.

I need to invest with less ethics. If you are in bed with the government, you will make money.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com