Tesla, TSLA & the Investment World: the Perpetual Investors' Roundtable

[Artful Dodger]

I look forward to videos on X of old VW and Toyota factories being demolished.

Meanwhile, the kids know what's hot, even in the depths of a Utah Winter:

Beastmode test roll with TheStradman (4.4M followers on Youtube)

 

[GrandEnigma]

Elon Musk is bad

This article is my submission for the pulitzer prize

www.billym2k.news

If you want a good laugh this morning.

 

[Todd Burch]

Another Alleged Seemingly Mostly Positive v12.1 Experience

 

[Dreadnought]

On the infamous Joe Rogan podcast, Elon said that he doesn't smoke weed because it interferes with productivity. Everybody who knows anything about Musk knows that he's a workaholic. That's his drug. Work, more work and then a few meetings with the engineers before going back to work. The WSJ hit piece is (fortunately?) paywalled, so I couldn't get beyond "Some executives and board members fear the billionaire’s use of drugs—including LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, mushrooms and ketamine—could harm his companies" but most likely, I would've stopped there anyway. This is beyond ridiculous.

Oh, and if drug abuse would ever cause Musk to be only 10% as productive as he is today, he'd still be a decent CEO for five companies at the same time or a great CEO for the two which matter most for the mission.

 

[Max Plaid]

Is there a background on this 'Craig Irwin' that adds color to his piece on defending Elon ? Who is he?

A few years back he was smack-talking Tesla/TSLA like crazy and I made this photoshop to express my feelings...

In the interim he has become more progressively positive about Tesla, while trying to talk-down TSLA, and seems very uncomfortable trying to combine the two narratives

 

[Max Plaid]

This really is ridiculous. It makes all our hair-pulling about ... everything fighting against TSLA ... into perspective.

Here's a post by Cern himself that puts a positive humanist spin on the crazy-tunes economics for TSLA:

https://twitter.com/CernBasher/status/1743692151366484441

https://x.com/CernBasher/status/1743692151366484441

View attachment 1007170

My primary question is what does this guy have against particle accelerators?

 

[Unpilot]

The story had intimate knowledge of multiple board members expressing concern, including one who effectively quit the Tesla board because of the issue. It’s likely that at least two board members were sources which would be good enough

This is a fine example of what passes for "proof" these days.
Kinda like "people familiar with the matter"

Maybe these folks did a pinky swear as proof.

 

[Right_Said_Fred]

The highly speculative discussion on Elon's alleged drug use has run its course. Let's move on.

 

[mongo]

I wonder if the reduction in Model Y RWD speaker count and smaller amplifier etc would have any impact on range

Yes, the depopulation would improve range due to mass reduction and power savings, but possibly not in any easily noticeable amount (esp for highway driving).
Mass: removes 6 speakers, 1 sub, 1 amp, and a lot of wire harness
Power: removes amp idle power and music power

Larger impact is cost: part elimination, interior trim simplification (if they make versions without speaker holes), installation labor, warranty

Likely candidates for removal (speakers that powered by the rear amplifier): rear doors, front door non-tweeters, liftgate pair, and the dual voice coil sub.

 

[joh01652]

Playing Devil's advocate here:

Cannabis remains illegal, as a Schedule 1 drug at the federal level. The executive branch of the federal government hasn't done much to enforce the law since the Obama administration, but it is still enforced for defense contractors such as SpaceX. Personally I thought the overreaction to Elon's puffing Joe Rogan's blunt was hilarious but at the same time it was definitely an unwise decision and put SpaceX contracts at risk.

Regarding the other alleged drugs Elon has supposedly used...

Many "professionals" (engineers, lawyers, doctors, managers, academics, etc.) use illicit drugs, but choose not to openly admit it in public, for obvious reasons. It's not crazy unlikely that any given person has used these substances.

During an interview at CodeCon 2021, Elon explicitly said that "people should be open to psychedelics" and that he anticipates "greater receptivity to the benefits of psychedelics" in the future.



He expressed similar opinions on the Full Send podcast last year.

San Francisco was the epicenter of the late 1960s counterculture revolution in the United States. No shortage of LSD at that time. The Bay Area remains on the extreme end of the political spectrum regarding drug legalization, especially psychedelics. The Bay Area cities of Oakland and Santa Cruz, in 2019 and 2020 respectively, became the first two jurisdictions in the US to decriminalize most types of psychedelics, and they remain some of the only jurisdictions in the US and the world to have done so. In 2022, California's state Senate had a bill proposed that would have decriminalized all psychedelics statewide. The bill's lead proponent was Senator Wiener, who represents the district encompassing San Francisco. It didn't go anywhere, but the fact that it was proposed at all should say something about local acceptance of these substances. Also, University of California - Berkeley, UC San Francisco and Stanford are currently among just a few universities in the world conducting scientific research into psychedelic pharmacology and medicine.

Psychedelic usage remains widespread in Silicon Valley as well. Steve Jobs, for example, said:



Back in 2014, Elon was among those getting a sneak preview of the HBO show Silicon Valley, and he criticized it for failing to accurately portray the culture:


Elon goes to Burning Man almost every year. Does attending Burning Man mean he himself has used? Not necessarily, and "guilt by association" isn't fair, but at a minimum it means he's been around other people doing it. It is not physically possible to go to a festival like Burning Man without at least observing some people using MDMA, LSD, psilocybin and ketamine. Solar City's origins started with Elon and his cousin Lyndon talking on their car ride to Burning Man in 2004.

Furthermore, the Musk Foundation in 2012 donated $10k to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), which is the world's foremost philanthropic nonprofit organization whose mission is supporting scientific research, education, and legalization advocacy for psychedelics and marijuana. For example, currently they are undergoing Phase 3 trials with FDA oversight for usage of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as a treatment for severe PTSD. Steven Mark Ryan, of Solving the Money Problem fame, has stated that one of his primary goals for his content creation and TSLA investing revenue is to make a large donation to MAPS, and his very first YouTube video was entitled Elon Musk's Psychedelic Secret, in which he lays out his reasons for speculating that Elon uses, or has used, psychedelics.

Elon also put a rave cave in the basement of a car factory. Nobody does that. Ostensibly it was an appeal to Berliner electronic music culture, but also again it indicates the Mr. Musk is someone who appreciates raves.

Also, two of the substances alleged by WSJ were psilocybin mushrooms and LSD, which are normally not included in drug tests such as those conducted by defense contractors on employees.

Furthermore, Elon is not religious. Statistically speaking, there is a strong negative correlation between religiosity and drug usage.

We also have this:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1171653682154397697

And this:
View attachment 1007257

In light of the context and the breadcrumbs I've seen over the years, I am pretty confident the Elon is at least very aware of MDMA, LSD, ketamine and psilocybin or has people close to him who use them, and fairly confident the he has at least tried most or all of them in the past. Could be wrong, but that's my best guess.

Excellent post. I’d like to add that Michael Pollan wrote a book about psychedelics, “How to Change Your Mind,” where he makes the argument that back in 50s-60s, in Silicon Valley and Pacific Northwest, where microsdosing of LSD/psilocybin, etc, was at the time (and still is in many professional circles) considered performance-enhancing and nearly a job-requirement because of how creative and mind-opening the drugs make a person. He argues that the institutionalization of microdosing at some of the tech companies may partially explain why some of the most innovative, creative, world-changing engineers and technologies came out of those two geographical regions.

A very worthwhile read, as is "The Politics of Ecstasy," by Harvard professor Timothy Leary.

 

[2daMoon]

Elon Musk is bad

This article is my submission for the pulitzer prize

www.billym2k.news

If you want a good laugh this morning.

That was pretty good. Except for the bad parts.

 

[FEERSUMENDJIN]

Recent 'press' coverage of Tesla and Elon has been so ridiculous that TBH I dont think I can trust any website to inform me of anything without bias now. Every single story under a google search for TSLA is bullshit about drugs.
I think its not crazy to call 2024 as the year that Volkswagen, Toyota Ford and GM all start to collapse. Probably Lucid & Rivian too. There are clearly a lot of deep pocketed people watching their business empires get pulverised by Tesla, and they are realizing its just too late to catch up.
I look forward to videos on X of old VW and Toyota factories being demolished.

Stories of them being bought in Brazil by BYD are already here.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

That was pretty good. Except for the bad parts.

Curate's egg?

 

[Artful Dodger]

Batman tours SanFran in 30 min bamjam...

Driving the Cybertruck in San Francisco - Gets a lot of Attention! | OCDetailing

Wanna bet Cybertruck becomes the Official Truck of Mars AND Burning Man?

Cheers!

 

[Max Plaid]

Slightly OT before markets kick off, but I know we have a lot of Banks admirers here and I just received this in the post

 

[M|S|M MYP]

A few years back he was smack-talking Tesla/TSLA like crazy and I made this photoshop to express my feelings...

In the interim he has become more progressively positive about Tesla, while trying to talk-down TSLA, and seems very uncomfortable trying to combine the two narratives

View attachment 1007322

He looks better in this pic, did he lose some weight? /s

 

[T@oo]

He looks better in this pic, did he lose some weight? /s

Don't think so. But his skin color looks healthier.

 

[Artful Dodger]

This really is ridiculous. It makes all our hair-pulling about ... everything fighting against TSLA ... into perspective.

Here's a post by Cern himself that puts a positive humanist spin on the crazy-tunes economics for TSLA:

https://twitter.com/CernBasher/status/1743692151366484441

https://x.com/CernBasher/status/1743692151366484441

View attachment 1007170

Folks, if you haven't watch the youtube video yet, it may be the most important hour and seventeen minutes you spend this century. Really. Cern (yes, that's his real name) lays out the business case for 100M teslabots employed world wide at jobs ranging from $5 to $50 per hour, and the win-win-win scenario for his 'robot-tax' concept (a conversation which he thinks we should have now, not later)

Tesla Bot Will Make BILLIONS!️w/ Cern Basher | TeslaFix w. Jan Vogel (2024-01-07)

TL;dw Tesla bot could generate $7T in income for Tesla and Gov'ts worldwide

Cheers!

 

[Big Time]

Pretty great price action. Oh wait my phone was upside down.

 

[GrandEnigma]

Pretty great price action. Oh wait my phone was upside down.

Just invert your screen colors.