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Comment by cbtacy | Hacker News Reader

Can we now, at long last, kill the myth that Elon Musk is a business genius?

I realized Elon wasn't a scientist or engineer a long time ago. But a good businessman I thought he was and I think it's too early to say in this case whether that holds true. One issue is that since the company is now private, we most likley will not get to see it's profit. All we will have is what employees or musk says. So I still think it's too soon to make conclusions.

Sure, but I’m really interested to see what he does with http://x.com

He wants to make a WeChat, but WeChat can only happen because Apple allows WeChat to bend the rules so it can access the Chinese market.

He’s just a young Donald trump

I’m don’t fall into one camp or the other: I think the guy is human, like everyone else, and riddled with faults.

But one guy has put humans into space, and the other sold steaks on infomercials.

That's quite the slanted framing.

An alternate framing: one was president of the United States and one got pushed down a flight of stairs for making fun of a kid because his father committed suicide.

But as a businessman, Musk has done far more for society with SpaceX and Starlink than Trump ever did as a sketchy real estate developer, or media personality. Let's give that to Musk, not withstanding his dubious personal choices, polarizing public persona, or this questionable decision of buying and then gutting an unprofitable social network.

I framed it this way because GP was make a pejorative comparison.

The twitter bankruptcy will be a very public process.

90% of Twitter's revenue comes from ads. Advertisers are reportedly abandoning the platform en masse, and the rest will follow once Musk does his next stupid thing.

No amount of layoffs is going to cover the dissolution of their revenue basis. Twitter will become a thing of the past, like MySpace.

No good businessperson runs around as half-cocked in bright, broad daylight as this guy. I’ve heard plenty of large fund managers say he’s too overboard to take seriously enough to invest in his businesses.

I agree with you. It's simple - if you're against Musk, you're against the betterment of humanity.

I have very strong, very mixed feelings about Musk and am not sure if he is a great businessmen or not. However, I did appreciate DHH's blog post about Job's returning to Apple. Massive layoffs and Jobs admitted that mistakes will be made, but at least decisions are being made. Short worthwhile read: https://world.hey.com/dhh/apple-fired-4-100-when-steve-jobs-...

Edit: auto-correct typo

I thought the hyperloop was that moment but in fairness he managed to get investment for that shit.

Not just yet.

I wish the Elon anti-fans would wait for Elon fans to say something, then respond to them, rather than posting 900 comments picking fights with people who haven't even posted yet. This obsession with adoring or condemning love-hate branded celebrities as quickly and loudly as possible is unbelievably grating.

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