It's terrible philosophy — basically the philosophical outlook of assholes. Also rules like traffic laws certainly aren't "recommendations".
The point is that recommendations are exactly what they are.
The recommendation is "Drive no faster than 45mph on this road unless you want to risk getting a ticket (or killing someone or whatever)."
But who's physically preventing you from driving 60mph? If you were taking your dying relative to the hospital would you drive 45mph?
Perhaps a law of physics is involved and you are physically prevented from going over 45mph because of a governor on your engine, but you could pay someone to remove it (or do it yourself). Speedbumps may increase the danger and consequence of going 100mph and that is something of a physical limitation.
You can think it's asshole philosophy (and perhaps it is), but you're not seeing the world the way it really is, which I think is heart of the matter.
It's like the clip of the guy talking about the German who can't drive because they don't have a license:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3EBs7sCOzo
It's just a recommendation!
Laws can be broken, so why are they different than a recommendation?
I can tell you, "don't touch that hot pan" and it's a recommendation but you can still do it. The government can say "don't speed" and it's a recommendation but you can still do it.
The 'Recommendation' quote just sounds typical of the edgy posturing we've seen Musk fall into. Once the pithy zing fades, we have an idea scales poorly.
There are a lot of dumb laws, but they are typically there to protect us and our fellow citizens from human beings (you and me) doing dumb shit. They are hardly recommendations. If anything, laws are the network protocol of society that allows us a semblance of reliability and stability in our operating environment.
Laws are just recommendations that some people see as more serious than others. If you’re willing to take the risk and accept the consequence, it’s your choice.
> By their very definitions, laws are not "recommendations". There's nothing deeper here