Elon Musk, the billionaire we can't get enough of!

Let’s get in to the recent interview Elon Musk gave to The New York Times at the DealBook Summit conducted by Andrew Ross Sorkin. It’s about an hour and half long so here’s the Cliff Notes version.

Andrew opens the interview listing some of Elons' accomplishments and disclosing a story about the first time they met 16 years ago. After meeting Elon, Mr. Ross Sorkin recalled the day, saying “I think I just met the next Steve Jobs.”

He goes on to say a lot has happened since then. And that a lot of folks called him up asking if he was really going to host Elon Musk.

Before Andrew Ross Sorkin could even get a question out Elon says “I have no problem being hated, by the way. Hate away. Hahah.”

“It’s a real weakness to want to be liked, a real weakness. And I don’t have that” Musk continued.

Sorkin then redirects the question about trust and asks if he was ultimately a good and decent human. Elon seemed annoyed with the formation of the question.

Mr. Ross Sorkin was clearing trying to virtue signal with the formation and opening statements of the question.

“I think I am, but I am certainly not going to do some sort of tap dance to prove to people that I am” said Musk.

We need more of this.

“I will certainly not pander.”

“The only reason I'm here is because you are a friend. Like what was my speaking fee?” Elon said.

Andrew answers “you’re not making anything.”

Love a zero dollar speaking fee from a billionaire.

Andrew continues the interview by insinuating Elon could be anti-semitic, referring to a post on X, referencing the Israel Hamas conflict. The legacy news outlets ran with the idea that Elon was anti Jewish.

Elon later clarified his post. Stating he was sorry and was probably his worst tweet.

In the post made on X, Musk agreed with a social media post accusing Jewish people of pushing “dialectical hatred” against white people. Musk’s remarks received condemnation in the United States from the White House for being “abhorrent”. Many big advertisers pulled advertisements from X like IBM and Apple.

Andrew then references this public perception that Elon went on an apology tour to Israel to clear his name and make up for his behavior. Elon claims the trip to Israel was not relevant to his previous post on X.

By the way, all this semitic talk was made okay by Andrew Ross Sorkin disclosing he is in fact an American Jewish person. He goes on to ask Elon about the advertisement losses. This is the exchange.

Elon: “I hope they stop. Don’t advertisement.”

Andrew: “You don’t want them to advertise”?

Elon: “No”.

Andrew: “what do you mean?”

Elon: If somebody is going to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money. Go fuck yourself.”

Andrew: “But?”

Elon: “Go fuck yourself. Is that clear?”... “I hope it is" “hey Bob if you’re in the audience”.

This exchange is absolutely epic. Is there anything better than a rich guy executing his “fuck you” money. He refers to Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney pulling his ad money.

I salute any guy who tells the bully to go fuck himself.

Elon goes on to say the advertisement boycotts will ruin the companies boycotting not the company being boycotted. “Let the chips fall where they may.”

This was the highlight of the interview. Sorkin keeps it moving by bringing up Elons confidence in business ,and some of his motivations.

Elon goes on to discuss our need to be a multiplanetary species, and what we need in order to become a space traveling civilization. He even salutes Jeff Bezos attempts to make rockets, saying he hopes he can do it and wishes he would spend more time on it.

He emphasizes the importance of this multiplanetary goal. Elon explains how none of his companies engage in anti-competitive behavior. The only thing that matters is becoming a multi planetary species. Nothing else. Patents aren’t going to get use there and closed source code isn’t going to get us there.

Andrew Sorkin ties this discussion into the frame of why Elon deserves to make those decisions; and raises the question of how big of an impact Elon has. Referring to Starlinks' use within wars, and the power he holds as it pertains to the U.S and Chinese governments. Elon defends himself with good ole' capitalism.

“I think it’s important for the audience to understand that the reason I have this power is not because some anticompetitive actions. It’s simply because we’ve executed well?"....“There are other satellites out there”.

Sorkin comes back with “but as a result that gives you enormous leverage”.

Elon responds “okay…” then asks

“How is it a bad thing to make better products than other companies?”

Andrew Ross Sorkin seems to get exactly what he saying but can’t back him into a corner. He now moves the line of questioning to Open AI.

Elons explain how him and Sergey Brin(co-founder of google), would stay up late talking about AI dangers. Elon believed Sergey did not take the threat seriously. Elon founded Open AI to keep artificial intelligence in the right hands. He wanted to make it not for profit so the incentives would be aligned with. He called It Open AI because it was open source. Something Elon has pioneered at Tesla and Space X.

He clarifies that Open AI is now closed source and for profit. Emphasizing the dangers again.

Then conversations turn to regulation and why we must regulate AI. He talks about the need to regulate things that could be danger to the public.

Andrew asks Elon why he is in favor of regulation when the perception of him is that he does not abide to regulation.

Elon makes it clear that he complies with millions of regulations, both within his car company and rocket company. The few times he has disagreed with laws and regulation is when the complies law is not in favor of the public. And in fact, a danger to the public. Elon feels like it is honor to stand up to that kind of regulation.

Next, the interview moves on to politics. Andrew Ross Sorkin asserts that Elon has moved much further to the right. Elon clearly does not agree with the assertion.

Andrew brings up Elons documented frustration with the Biden Administration.

Musk goes on to explain how he has done nothing to provoke the Biden administration yet they purposely left Tesla out of the electric vehicle summit they hosted. Tesla inquired about the event asking why they could not attend as they make more electric vehicles than all other invitees combined. The Biden administration iced them. They did allow Ford, GM, Chrysler, and UAW(United Auto Workers) all attend, GM even got a shoutout from Biden saying General Motors is leading the EV revolution. Elon notes this is in the same quarter that Tesla produced 300 thousand EVs and GM produced 26.

“Does that seem fair to you?” Elon asks. As he notes his great relationship with Obama saying he waited in line 6 hours to shake his hand.

“It doesn’t seem fair” the interview responds. He digs deeper noticing Elons emotion on this topic.

“I can see it in your face, this hurt you personally.”

Elon responds “and it hurt the company too… Tesla has 140 thousand employees, half of them are in the United States. Tesla has created more manufacturing jobs than all of them combined”

Its evident Elon Musk would like some props for that. And damn right he deserves it. It is quite astounding to hear Musk’s anecdote from his Biden story.

Andrew keeps the politics going asking him about attending a fundraiser for Vivek Ramaswamy and if he shared the same opinion on the climate hoax as he does. Elon said he does not agree with Ramaswamy about climate change and only went to hear what he had to say.

Andrew then brings up Nikki Haleys' ideas to dox all names on social medias. Elon says that would be outrageous and that he would never vote for a pro censorship candidate.

Elon goes on to defend freedom of speech describing its importance. Andrew probes for Elon to answer who has a better grasp of this importance. Republicans or Democrats?

Elon states that today the censorship comes from the left generally but in years past it would come from the right. He goes on to plug X.com saying it’s the best place to find the truth. It's not the arbiter of truth but it tries its best with Community Notes.

Andrew Ross Sorkin moves on from politics and asks Elon about other electric companies doing a good job. Followed up by asking about how worried he is of the unionization that took place recently at Ford and GM.

Elons answers by commenting on the Chinese electric vehicle markets. The Chinese are the only real league of competitors, noting he has big Tesla business in China. Also noting he would not be surprised if Tesla and 9 other Chinese companies were the biggest producers of EVs in the word.

As for the second part of that question Elon talks about his dislike for unions and the need to avoid adversarial relationships between different groups at a company. “I don’t like anything that creates a Lords and peasants’ situation.” At Tesla he describes employees that have worked on the line that make it into senior management. Everyone eats at the same table and parks in the same parking lot. This is not the case at General Motors he points out. At GM there is a separate elevator for the executives. “We have no such thing at Tesla.” “And the thing is I actually know the people on the line, because I worked the line and I walked the line and I slept in the factory, and I worked beside them. So, I'm no stranger to them.”

Andrew seems to sweep this under the rug by then asking how do you have the time to tweet?

Maybe an hour a day. Andrew asks Elon to share in iPhone screen time. Elon reluctantly agrees taking out his phone and showing his Twitter screen time which came in a whopping 4 minutes. Elon discloses that its not accurate as he just got a new phone in typical billionaire fashion.

This is where the interview comes to a close. In conclusion, this is what I think of the interview.

Andrew Ross Sorkin is a class act. He could definitely ask some questions without the moral high ground in his framing, but he is quite the professional. Keep it up old sport. On the Elon front, I can’t get enough of this guy. The energy level is off the charts, he has to be one of the most productive humans to ever graze earth. Don’t ever take that away from him. Yeah, the guy’s tweets shit. Like every other guy you know. But the man knows how to get shit done. If anyone gets a pass on their tweets it him. Compared to Trumps' timeline, this guy a blast. We need more Elon. We need more people not giving a shit what others think of them. More people with fuck your money. More people risking their life to fight evil. More of whatever created Elon Musk.