https://twitter.com/0xgaut/status/1770575983650717904?t=yqeVPXfL-wumCsbdNxUG8w&s=19

1. Neuralink functional in a paralyzed patient

2. SpaceX Starship third test flight

3. Grok-1 open source

All in the same week. To the people who voted tool: what did you get done this week that's cool? Genuinely curious. Thanks.

@SimranRahman I feel like you think this question is primarily about his company’s accomplishments but it’s not. It’s about his character. I guess you might think his accomplishments are the same thing, which is fine but that isn’t even close to the entire story mostly because Elon insists on us knowing everything about his entire existence. I believe I tried to explain this once before.

So what did he do that makes him a tool this week:

1– the delicate snowflake threw a hissy fit censorship/firing of Don Lemon;

2- breakfast with Donald Trump;

3- dodging service from Grimes over child custody;

4- refuses to pay rent for Twitter offices;

5- refuses to pay severance to people he fired from Twitter;

6- calls out “Jeff bezos exwife” Mackenzie Scott for giving HER MONEY to things that he thinks are unworthy or too woke or some bullshit like that;

Maybe now you get it?

@BTE I've explained my position below. No where does the resolution state that this market is about his moral character. You've asked a one sentence question that asks the Manifold user "Do YOU think Elon Musk is Cool or a Tool"?

This is obviously a subjective market so there is no "getting it" as you insinuate there is a conclusion. There isn't. I can only understand your subjective position. It's clear to me that you weigh the content of his personal life more heavily in this question, therefore negating the positive impacts of his consistent, large-scale, varied technological advancements, and you are free to do so.

These hijinks and personal transgressions affect you negatively 0%, while the beneficial impacts of his actions have touched many.

I don't think character and accomplishments are the same thing.

I've been very clear below that he's objectivrly out of the norm by his personality/character AND by his achievements. I am of the opinion that his achievements have advanced humanity such that they outweigh his moral transgressions. Every human has moral transgressions (that are not made open to the public to pick apart), very few have achievements that benefit others on a large scale. Humanity runs on the advancements of the few. This is my position. He is one of the coolest humans we've been fortunate to have on the planet.

There are plenty of common variety human tools that do MUCH less for society. By this point, his coolness far outweighs.

@SimranRahman How do you know I am not waiting for my Twitter severance? There was a time I would have agreed with you, but that time is long in the past. As far as I am concerned the coolest thing about Musk is that he wants to leave earth permanently and I hope it’s sooner than later.

@SimranRahman You are correct that I shouldn’t tell you how to evaluate his coolness/toolness, that is entirely subjective and I respect your take. Just giving you mine in response.

He’s definitely not cool

If he's a tool, who is he a tool of? I think if nothing else it's pretty clear that Elon is operating on his own without outside control. It's not particularly clear who's interests he would be serving... it's not always clear he's even serving his own interests... which is probably also true of the rest of us.

@robotnik Tool can be used as an insult, basically as a synonym for moron.

related

I'm honestly consistently surprised that in spaces largely inhabited by the technologically optimistic like Manifold, there is constant criticism on Elon. Yes, we get it. He doesn't say the right thing. He has trouble with managing people, he holds views considered problematic by most. He is by no measure normal — neither in his personalityor his achievements. So then, why do we apply the standards of a typical individual to someone who executes on a level so outside the norm?

Criticism is easy and execution is rare. I don't think you can be both a technological optimist and totally against what Elon has contributed to the world. Be nuanced in your views.

@SimranRahman does he execute now though? Not at twitter, not at x ai, not at boring company, he seems to be a hinderance at tesla. Spacex is executing but its not clear that Elon is personally involved in any useful way at this point, maybe same w/ Neuralink.

@SimranRahman Musk gets shit done, and that matters most, even if the kombucha-class here spill their drinks over his memes. It's funny how susceptible so many are to media manipulation (as Scott Adams correctly points out: "your opinions are assigned to you ").

@SimranRahman "I don't think you can be both a technological optimist and totally against what Elon has contributed to the world."

I mean, I think it's much the reverse. He was, by all accounts, a disaster at paypal, he's been a disaster at twitter. He's been a constant headache for the DoD at starlink. (And there's a very real case to be made that people like him wanting to privatize space travel is the very cause of the problem he's attempting to solve.) The hyperloop is a meme he dreamed up to try and stop California from building high speed rail. Tesla predates him, as much as he tries to pretend otherwise. He had a pretty public break with OpenAI, honestly in a pretty humiliating way.

Like, he's stumbled into a few successful ventures off of other people's work or off of massive government subsidies. And people have taken this and built a cult of personality around it, overvaluing Tesla stock enough to make him one of the wealthiest individuals. Sorry, but I'm not willing to attribute other people's success to him. (Nor am I willing to say that "getting shit done" is a good thing, if what he's getting done is either negative or would have happened without him in the first place.)

@SimranRahman I wonder if by “execute” you mean “systematically destroy”?

@AlQuinn You have no evidence to show that the media has had any impact on people’s opinion on Trump. Maybe be less of a fanboy and avoid the easy / cheap explanations for people’s aversion to Elon.

@JamesDillard Fair point? Probably because "...cool or a tool or both" doesn't like rhyme or flow or whatever? Idk.

Musk's treatment of his workers is appalling. His manipulation of cryptocurrency markets, so that he can line his own pockets, ruins people's lives. His X posts are alarming, and sometimes dangerous.

Finally, if Musk hadn't founded SpaceX or Tesla, someone else - probably someone who is actually a more competent engineer - would have done so.

@SteveSokolowski Couldn’t agree more with your take. Someone else did in fact found Tesla, Musk came along much later as an investor and eventually ran the founders off and gave himself the title.

@SteveSokolowski Maybe Bezos could have founded SpaceX. Oh, wait...

Him being a tool would imply that he's useful for something and couldn't just be swapped out for any other silver spoon baby.

@Pykess "Tool is an internet slang term that refers to an insecure person, usually male, who is controlled by others." Alternate definition just "a fool".

@BTE I know, was just making a joke critique