The Worldview of Elon Musk | Ones and Tooze Ep. 176 | An FP Podcast

For decades, billionaire Elon Musk has only had the kind of power that comes with great wealth. Now he has political power, as well. What is he after? And what does he truly believe? Adam and Cameron spend the episode talking about Musk and his role in the Trump administration.
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[@markusgreger]

Clausewitz uses physics analogies heavily. Same with Freud, e.g., "depression".

[@Jon-en7lv]

Tesla isn't so valuable because of hype, but because - according to Musk - it's a software company. The "cars" (there's no car independent of the software) are a byproduct. He charges thousands of dollars for the self-driving code plus a hundred dollars a month for mandatory updates. If there are ten million Tesla's that's a billion a month for just the updates. The reason he's trying to unsettle European governments is that they've been slightly successful at regulating the type of rent seeking software business models that have made the tech billionaires so immensely wealthy.

[@Nate.H]

I wish this included fewer generalities. Specifically, I think a deep dive into his relationship with Peter Thiel and the increasingly influentia political l tech-bro mindset that Musk embodies.

[@siliconandsteel]

There would be nothing wrong with his physics envy and love of disruption, if he had any idea about macroeconomics. Running a business, a good one or a ruthless one, does not give you any insight about the nature of fiat money or central banking. His ideas are logical consequences of thinking about the world as a zero-sum game. He is not a disruptor of mainstream thought, he just takes it to its logical extreme. If he read Pettis, he could be a very different force. But nothing in his life challenged his views, extended his ideas beyond accumulation of power and money. He lacks systems thinking so inherent in good engineering, but often disregarded in business for short-term profits or replaced with pure hype. Meanwhile, he can become a one-man Spacing Guild. Starship, Starlink and Twitter make him a one-stop shop for shaping information flow with a future potential for sub-orbital interventions anywhere in the world in a matter of hours.