Help needed! Calling any of you brilliant bunch for help converting someone from an Elon (and hence Tesla) hater to a Tesla lover!....
Do any of you have some great links saved for info to give such a person?
I gave a lift to a colleague yesterday who has always hated Elon and never been in a Tesla...spent the whole ride answering the typical questions you would imagine. Made good progress and she would like to know more about Tesla and why they are so good, etc etc.
I haven't yet compiled links to any great articles or have any examples written down, can you share any that you may have please?
Thanks in advance
Good intro would be that first group interview did thanks to Viv (@flcnhvy on Twitter, changed to X after she was harassed by TeslaQ*) who out of the blue once tweeted to Musk, something to the effect that since the mass media wasn't providing truthful information on Elon, why didn't he do one with his fans .. to which out of nowhere and to her surprise he said, "Sure" ..
There's also
Ashley Vance's Elon Musk autobiography; even just reading about how he eventually convinced Elon to allow him access is worth a read if only for entertainment value. This book is widely available in all public libraries. Read the comments there too
And a good compendium of Elon's main interviews - with an English/ German transcript is also available at Karen Mehnert's website (all done on her own time & money, gives you an idea of the strength and depth of Elon's followers) - the one with the new Chief of the US Space Force is notable too, re that general is asking questions useful for any organization - and Elon answers generously - some day soon these precepts will find their place in Harvard's MBS curriculum (revised for the new crop of managers like Tesla's Zach Kirckhorn))
Every Elon Musk Interview
The key 2019 interview mentioned above: Third Row Tesla Podcast – Episode 7 - Elon Musk's Story - Director's Cut
This podcast is quite long, but worth watching in its entirety over time as Elon talks about a huge number of topics
Timestamps (from
UPDATE: This Third Row Podcast Featuring Tesla's Elon Musk Is A Must Watch)
01:21 - Can you talk about the way you engage with customers online?
03:21 - Why do you like Twitter so much?
06:38 - What sticks out to you out of the things you've achieved? Answer somehow get to stocks and money - and economics and other topics.
14:01 - Talking about this location
15:38 - Not enough people understand how Elon tries to make big changes with small products
17:03 - Did you always know you wanted to use business to solve problems?
26:23 - Why go and put your money to SpaceX?
28:32 - Why did you try to get capacitors into EV's back then?
30:31 - Maxwell
31:27 - Other car companies batteries
35:09 - Why was China the place chosen for GF3?
36:39 - How did Tesla manage to get the first fully owned car factory in China?
38:06 - How much have the production hell lessons helped you for the China factory?
41:28 - What are the misconceptions about your personal history that you would want to correct?
43:31 - Share more about your upbringing and why you came to North America.
53:00 - What did people think about Zip2?
58:26 - Kimbal shows up and they talk about Zip2
1:03:45 - Where did you get the technical knowledge to build Zip2?
1:05:14 - Do you still code?
1:19:42 - What made you do PayPal?
1:28:07 - So what made you part ways with PayPal?
1:29:31 - You seem to be attracted to crazy ideas, how do you find the courage?
1:32:57 - You love code but you don't seem to be bullish on Bitcoin, why is that?
1:35:40 - Would there be a direct democracy in Mars? What kind of laws?
1:42:35 - Start of SpaceX
1:49:30 - Did you think you are going to do dozens of launches a year?
1:53:45 - Early SpaceX
1:58:46 - Start of Tesla
A good compendium of Elon's main interviews - with an English/ German transcript is also available at Karen Mehnert's website (all done on her own time & money, gives you an idea of the strength and depth of Elon's followers)
A collected list of all Elon Musk interviews starting in 1999. All publicly available talks and speeches by Elon Musk. Endless knowledge.
www.everyelonmuskinterview.com