Elon Musk Worries Me. Here is What Tech Should Do

For reference, this is the week that the Walter Isaacson biography of Musk was released.

We now know:

  • He is generally not a nice person

  • He makes poor decisions

It is now confirmed he didn’t help Ukraine with Starlink coverage and he has been micro-dosing ket. It’s not a good idea to have this guy in a position of power and I’m worried that some people laud him as a genius in charge of so much power and so many employees.

The Issues

X is the least of our problems

I never worked for Twitter and only have one colleague who worked there. I’ve no investment in the brand and keep forgetting to take photos of my lunch or whatever I should be doing on there.

We can get involved in the legalese and FTC regulations but the point is this. We shouldn’t trust Musk simply because he has money and power.

Relationships gone sour

We are all entitled to a private life. 

However, if your bother describes you as someone who “falls in love with these people who are really mean to him” you have to worry about the stability of the person in question.

When you add that to how he has treated employees in the past, is this the person you want to run your businesses?

PR Mistaeks 

Much of the Twitter takeover has been a PR disaster. Elon’s public image has had to overcome:

  • Accusations of sexual misconduct at SpaceX

  • An alleged affair with the wife of friend Sergey Brin

  • Twins with the director of operations (Sharon Zilis) and special projects at Neuralink, raising questions about his workplace ethics. A side note is that the twins were born weeks before Musk and Grimes had a child via surrogate

  • Smoking weed on the Joe Rogan podcast. Musk claimed after this that he and the whole of SpaceX had to be drug tested for a year. Tesla stocks dipped 9 percent after the incident.

  • Accused by Johnny Depp of having an affair with Heard while she was still married to Depp

“This isn’t a complete list.”

What Tech Should Do

There should be a fit and proper person test before people are allowed to employ others. 

What should that look like?

“I’d say anything that Elon Musk would fail would suffice.”

What We Should Do

If someone gives you an ultimatum on whether you are hardcore or not decide if you are indeed hardcore and if you do want to be treated like that. 

You should then act accordingly, which in most cases is to leave such a toxic position.

Conclusion

There is no formal way to stop people who shouldn’t be being your manager. They might just take over your business so be prepared to manage up and work on what you need to make yourself continually employable.

Why not read my related articles?

How To Change A Culture If You Hate Coders

Elon Musk Will Review Your Code. But There’s A Catch

Elon Musk Is No Genius. He’s An Idiot

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