Elon Musk on The Joe Rogan Experience

[Krugerrand]

“Elon has no life .... sleeping on the factory floor ... needs to relax and have more fun.” He does that and gets slammed! No wonder he wants to go private. I didn't see anything on that podcast which would change my view of Elon or TSLA.

I believe they want him to relax by doing macrame or paper tole, though the latter requires the use of a knife so maybe not.

Last time he tried to relax and have fun he went wing walking. That sent a few people sideways.

So yeah, Elon, relax, have fun but don’t actually do anything relaxing or fun outside of coloring and blowing soap bubbles. Oh crap, you might inhale or choke on a soap bubble so scratch that.

 

[JRP3]

The video clips just go to show that even a genius bazillionaire looks dumb when he smokes pot...

Actually it shows how dumb people sound when they comment on something they obviously didn't understand.

As a shareholder and (soon to be) Model 3 owner, I hope Musk isn't make business decisions while under the influence. Whether people think he is cooler, hipper, or more approachable after the interview isn't of interest to me. I also find it hard to believe that he can be easily manipulated or led as some posters have suggested.

Anyone who watched the video and paid attention knows that Elon is not a pot smoker, said it doesn't do much for him, took one hit, did not inhale it, and blew it out. That was a smart move since the combination of pot and tobacco can lead to a pretty good coughing fit if one is not ready for it. Clearly he is not making business decisions while under the influence, (unless maybe it's alcohol and/or Ambien, which is actually more concerning if true). Elon was not manipulated, he just went with the flow of the situation and handled it perfectly.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

he just went with the flow of the situation and handled it perfectly.

He handled it perfectly fine, but only in the eyes of a certain subset of his customers and investors. From this thread it's clear that most customers, and investors are fine with it. I would be fine with it as well if I wasn't paying attention to the thoughts/opinions outside of this club.

What a lot of people outside of this "club" were looking for from Musk is some restoration of solid decision making skills, and that was not one of them.

Sure you can say it's clear from the video that he's not a pot smoker, and I agree with that 100%. But, the problem is most people won't see that. They instead form opinions on GIFs, tweets, memes, and other quick impressions. It's not too surprising that sites that skew older tend to be ones questioning Elon Musk, and sites that skew younger are excited by the guy. I'm not surprised at all that YouTube would be mostly positive as that's where a person would see a lot more of the video which obviously paints an entirely different picture. The demographics of YouTube also skew way younger than the average news site.

If my first exposure to it was from the video itself it's entirely possible I wouldn't have even thought about it as I would have a very similar view as you did. Where I saw him as a non-smoker who went with the flow.

But, that wasn't my first exposure.

My first exposure was on Ars Technica where all the promoted comments are against it.

There is the one that mentions it's still a Federal Crime
There is the one that talks about the context of it. The fact that the funding was secured at 420, and now we see him smoke weed.

The entire thread on Ars Technica saw his action in a negative light, and the vast majority of up votes are for people with comments that are anti-Musk.

Tesla stock falls on executive departures, Musk smoking weed

 

[ohmman]

He handled it perfectly fine, but only in the eyes of a certain subset of his customers and investors. From this thread it's clear that most customers, and investors are fine with it. I would be fine with it as well if I wasn't paying attention to the thoughts/opinions outside of this club.

What a lot of people outside of this "club" were looking for from Musk is some restoration of solid decision making skills, and that was not one of them.

Sure you can say it's clear from the video that he's not a pot smoker, and I agree with that 100%. But, the problem is most people won't see that. They instead form opinions on GIFs, tweets, memes, and other quick impressions. It's not too surprising that sites that skew older tend to be ones questioning Elon Musk, and sites that skew younger are excited by the guy. I'm not surprised at all that YouTube would be mostly positive as that's where a person would see a lot more of the video which obviously paints an entirely different picture. The demographics of YouTube also skew way younger than the average news site.

If my first exposure to it was from the video itself it's entirely possible I wouldn't have even thought about it as I would have a very similar view as you did. Where I saw him as a non-smoker who went with the flow.

But, that wasn't my first exposure.

My first exposure was on Ars Technica where all the promoted comments are against it.

There is the one that mentions it's still a Federal Crime
There is the one that talks about the context of it. The fact that the funding was secured at 420, and now we see him smoke weed.

The entire thread on Ars Technica saw his action in a negative light, and the vast majority of up votes are for people with comments that are anti-Musk.

Tesla stock falls on executive departures, Musk smoking weed

Negative comments on a negative article? Fascinating.

 

[JRP3]

I'll put it this way, investors who sold because of the "hit" were stupid, those who held or bought were smart. I don't care about the stupid.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

Negative comments on a negative article? Fascinating.

I don't see it being negative, but mostly informational. Sure like any Timothy article there is some negative bias against Tesla with what he chooses to include, and how he presents it. At least that's how I've perceived his coverage over the last 6 months or so. I only know this because I had a beef with him in how he was interpreting the NHTSA study of autopilot where he was making assumptions on things the NHTSA never clarified.

This article mostly covers the departure of an executive who was likely hired under the expectation of taking it private. That deal didn't happen so it's not too surprising he's leaving. The article hardly even mentions the pot smoking so I don't think the article/author is really the cause of the negative comments.

Plus it's a tech site, and tech people tend to be pretty opinionated regardless of the slant of the article.

 

[ohmman]

I don't see it being negative, but informational. Sure like any Timothy article there is some negative bias against Tesla with what he chooses to include, and how he presents it. At least that's how I've perceived his coverage over the last 6 months or so. I only know this because I had a beef with him in how he was interpreting the NHTSA study of autopilot where he was making assumptions on things the NHTSA never clarified.

This article mostly covers the departure of executives which is necessary since one of them was likely hired with the intention of taking it private.

There are lots of articles/comments/etc on various news sites. I picked that one since there are a lot of people in technology that read it.

Mostly what struck me is that you somewhat dismissed the comments on the actual raw video as being biased by age, but then pointed to the comments of an article focusing on some of the negative effects as being somehow more representative of the population at large. Or maybe you weren't saying that, and were instead saying those were older people. But I read it as you trying to invalidate the YouTube comments and trying to provide some validity to the Ars Technica piece.

Comments online tend to follow the content pretty well. We have a near unlimited selection of content, and as humans we are going to typically choose content that confirms our biases. Even the best among us will still lean this way. So when you go to Fox News, you're going to see mostly conservative commentary - certainly if you sort by highest rated. If you go to MSNBC, it'll be liberal commentary. Here at TMC, the highest rated posts are going to be pro-Tesla. So trying to gauge a broader reaction by selecting comments is worthless unless you're doing it from the original source. And even then, it's probably worthless, but it's as accurate as you can get. Selecting comments from an analysis of something is taking the second derivative of the original content. You're too far gone at that point.

We here in this thread don't represent the population at large. There have been a few people mentioning that people might second guess buying a Tesla given what's going on with Elon. I have a friend who is looking at a 3 and asked me just that question: "What's the deal with Elon? Is that going to cause issues with Tesla?" But that wasn't really the question he had in his mind. As I've walked along this process, I realize that no matter what I said, the decision was more about the car than it was about Tesla. It was a minor concern that filled the hole created by all of the other concerns with buying a new vehicle. A placeholder, of sorts.

You are fresh off of a negative experience with Tesla. So you are gravitating towards the negative. That's natural. But you should incorporate your awareness of that bias when you're looking at things. Ask if you're seeing the negative articles and comments because that's how you feel, or if that's really what's going on.

It's related to my own personal rule (of which I have to often remind myself): When I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with a news article, I should immediately question it. Because I'm going to question one I disagree with, and I should give the same level of skepticism and analysis to both sides or fall victim to confirmation bias.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

I'll put it this way, investors who sold because of the "hit" were stupid, those who held or bought were smart. I don't care about the stupid.

I don't think many investors sold because of the "hit".

The timing of it coincided with information of management departures so it's impossible to separate the two events though.

If I was an investor (I'm not or else I would have a disclaimer because it would bias my views on here) I would be more concerned with Elon's credibility. The continued attack on the cave diver (who isn't a cave diver) would concern me a lot more than a silly "let's pretend to smoke it for a second".

I strongly believe Tesla's valuation is tied to Elon Musk, and his credibility.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

Mostly what struck me is that you somewhat dismissed the comments on the actual raw video as being biased by age, but then pointed to the comments of an article focusing on some of the negative effects as being somehow more representative of the population at large. Or maybe you weren't saying that, and were instead saying those were older people. But I read it as you trying to invalidate the YouTube comments and trying to provide some validity to the Ars Technica piece.

Comments online tend to follow the content pretty well. We have a near unlimited selection of content, and as humans we are going to typically choose content that confirms our biases. Even the best among us will still lean this way. So when you go to Fox News, you're going to see mostly conservative commentary - certainly if you sort by highest rated. If you go to MSNBC, it'll be liberal commentary. Here at TMC, the highest rated posts are going to be pro-Tesla. So trying to gauge a broader reaction by selecting comments is worthless unless you're doing it from the original source. And even then, it's probably worthless, but it's as accurate as you can get. Selecting comments from an analysis of something is taking the second derivative of the original content. You're too far gone at that point.

We here in this thread don't represent the population at large. There have been a few people mentioning that people might second guess buying a Tesla given what's going on with Elon. I have a friend who is looking at a 3 and asked me just that question: "What's the deal with Elon? Is that going to cause issues with Tesla?" But that wasn't really the question he had in his mind. As I've walked along this process, I realize that no matter what I said, the decision was more about the car than it was about Tesla. It was a minor concern that filled the hole created by all of the other concerns with buying a new vehicle. A placeholder, of sorts.

You are fresh off of a negative experience with Tesla. So you are gravitating towards the negative. That's natural. But you should incorporate your awareness of that bias when you're looking at things. Ask if you're seeing the negative articles and comments because that's how you feel, or if that's really what's going on.

It's related to my own personal rule (of which I have to often remind myself): When I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with a news article, I should immediately question it. Because I'm going to question one I disagree with, and I should give the same level of skepticism and analysis to both sides or fall victim to confirmation bias.

I don't feel like I was being dismissive of the YouTube comments. It wasn't just age that skewed younger on YouTube, but that people on YouTube saw the "hit" within it's proper context. Those two things combined meant the vast majority of people were going to be positive of Elon Musk.

Where the Arstechnica article skews older, and is likely a good representation of a Tesla car buyer in terms of demographics. They didn't watch the "hit" within context, and most of them have been primed from previous Elon "incidents". So I wasn't surprised it skewed negative, but I was surprised it was that negative. Anything on Ars has felt more, and more negative over the last 6 months. It mirrors pretty well the study that's shown the opinion of Musk overall has gone down considerably in recent months.

I wasn't trying to be dismissive of either view point, and was mostly pointing out the Ars one because it was being dismissed from this thread. It also seemed to be more representative of the views of friends/family/coworkers.

The funny thing about confirmation bias is the other day I totally fell for a satire article on Tesla. It was kinda embarrassing because it should have been really obvious. But, it confirmed by own bias and impression to such a degree that I fell for it. Where I could totally see people inside Tesla trying to defend it from Elon.

My own negative experience with Tesla just reinforces a lot of what other Model 3 buyers have faced. So I'm sure it's put me in a position where I tend to try to defend their experiences. But, I wouldn't rule out all the positive experiences I've had with Tesla. So maybe it just helps balance me out. I view the Model S I had as my favorite car of all time because it's hard to overstate what kind of adventure it really was. To have the opportunity to have that experience is something I'll always remember. It wasn't just an EV, but the supercharging experience along with the AP experience. The being a kid the night before Christmas before a release would roll out.

One thing that I have noticed that has been a big part of my feelings towards Tesla, and it's owners is the idea that the Germans are coming.

Sure on one hand I like that the Germans are coming to give Tesla some healthy competition, but on the other hand there is fear. There is fear that Tesla simply won't keep up in terms of reliability. So part of me feels like owners like myself have to push harder to keep us, and especially those like me from going to the dark side.

 

[ohmman]

I don't feel like I was being dismissive of the YouTube comments. It wasn't just age that skewed younger on YouTube, but that people on YouTube saw the "hit" within it's proper context. Those two things combined meant the vast majority of people were going to be positive of Elon Musk.

Where the Arstechnica article skews older, and is likely a good representation of a Tesla car buyer in terms of demographics. They didn't watch the "hit" within context, and most of them have been primed from previous Elon "incidents". So I wasn't surprised it skewed negative, but I was surprised it was that negative. Anything on Ars has felt more, and more negative over the last 6 months. It mirrors pretty well the study that's shown the opinion of Musk overall has gone down considerably in recent months.

I wasn't trying to be dismissive of either view point, and was mostly pointing out the Ars one because it was being dismissed from this thread. It also seemed to be more representative of the views of friends/family/coworkers.

The funny thing about confirmation bias is the other day I totally fell for a satire article on Tesla. It was kinda embarrassing because it should have been really obvious. But, it confirmed by own bias and impression to such a degree that I fell for it. Where I could totally see people inside Tesla trying to defend it from Elon.

My own negative experience with Tesla just reinforces a lot of what other Model 3 buyers have faced. So I'm sure it's put me in a position where I tend to try to defend their experiences. But, I wouldn't rule out all the positive experiences I've had with Tesla. So maybe it just helps balance me out. I view the Model S I had as my favorite car of all time because it's hard to overstate what kind of adventure it really was. To have the opportunity to have that experience.

Thanks for the time to respond. I can totally see where you're coming from, and appreciate that we can discuss things civilly. And you and I both share the same opinion of our respective Model S. I still have mine, and I continue to have that same love for the car that I had when I first test drove one. I've said this before a few times here at TMC, but not infrequently I still say to myself out loud in the car, "I love this car." That's both crazy person-like and a bit euphoric at the same time.

 

[Electroman]

but not infrequently I still say to myself out loud in the car, "I love this car."

I thought I was the only one...

 

[jbih]

My first exposure was on Ars Technica where all the promoted comments are against it.

There is the one that mentions it's still a Federal Crime
There is the one that talks about the context of it. The fact that the funding was secured at 420, and now we see him smoke weed.

The entire thread on Ars Technica saw his action in a negative light, and the vast majority of up votes are for people with comments that are anti-Musk.

Tesla stock falls on executive departures, Musk smoking weed

I want to ask everyone what you think about Ars Technica. I really don't get it. I used to respect Ars Technica for their reporting on science and climate change. Then I noticed negative Tesla articles, but the comments were positive towards Tesla. Recently both the articles and the comments became purely negative.

When I read the articles and comments on Ars Technica, I have to question myself. Do I myself live in a bubble? Surely all those people can't be wrong? The answer is obvious because Tesla is executing beautifully. But how can such a formerly respected community be swayed into hating the single most important company that can mitigate climate change? I really don't get it. I mean, who can I still trust on objectively reporting about matters I'm not familiar with?

 

[Mobius484]

I want to know how rogan likes his model S P100D. So much PR here....

 

[Mobius484]

Read a lot of articles, remember journalists names, watch video clips, remember names... arm yourself with knowledge. Then very hesitantly buy a Tesla, and let the “results” help you decide who to trust.

 

[Mobius484]

I love how musk mutters, after a long rant, the results will speak, or something like that...

 

[jbih]

On another note, I rewatched the Rogan interview and I though it was awesome. It just made me feel good! I wouldn't want any part of it taken out to appease investors hovering their mouse over the sell button and clicking as soon as Elon says something that they interpret as non-ideal marketing. That just doesn't feel right. If something needs to be fixed, it's not Elon Musk, it's the people freaking out! It's the investors that should have a glass of good whiskey to relax! The stock price will be fine, if not today then in a few months for sure.

 

[JRP3]

If something needs to be fixed, it's not Elon Musk, it's the people freaking out! It's the investors that should have a glass of good whiskey to relax!

And a blunt

 

[ggies07]

This song came on the radio this morning and thought it fit perfectly as Elon's song:

From my heart and from my hand
Why don't people understand
My intentions?

 

[Artful Dodger]

This song came on the radio this morning and thought it fit perfectly as Elon's song:

 

[Dr. J]

even a genius bazillionaire looks dumb when he smokes pot...

Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, the kid that runs Facebook--many of them look dumb all the time, weed or no weed.