Elon, Maybe Time to Put a Cork in It?
There’s something about wealth and celebrity that activates our nutty-as-a-fruitcake button. Wealth usually isn’t enough, it takes the combination.
So it is with Elon Musk, who simply is unable to keep his egoistic fingers off of Twitter.
What is it about Twitter anyhow?
Well, who would really know, but it’s the go-to site for maxed-out egos like Donald and now Elon. Both are addicted. They have an idea or think of something funny (trigger), tweet it out (behavior) and receive likes and retweets (reward). All those addictive dopamines. As Donald would say...so sad.
But there’s an obligation that comes from being either President of the United States or the wealthiest man in the world. In both these cases, Ego trumped good sense…take the word trumped with a good sense of humor.
Shit happens when Elon tweets
The SEC sued Musk in 2019 (not exactly ancient history) after he tweeted that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420 a share. The agency charged that the tweet sent the share price up as much as 13.3% and violated securities laws.
Indeed it did and cost him $40 million to settle the lawsuit, as well as agreeing to step down as chairman and have the company’s lawyers pre-approve written communications, including tweets with material information about the company.
Which, of course, he ignored
Ego isn’t good at taking orders—or even suggestions and the SEC wasn’t suggesting. Tesla failed to assert any kind of protocol over Musk and now finds itself in a series of overlapping crises, all caused by erratic impulses of an ego whose judgment is being questioned.
The man’s a genius, there’s no question of that, inventing and enabling industries and devices no one thought would even exist over the past several decades. But geniuses are often what we charmingly call oddballs. And Elon is the poster-boy for wealth, oddballability and genius, all in a single package.
And that would be entertaining if he weren’t so powerful
And controlling as well, a micro-manager who can’t keep his most creative designers and engineers, is hell-on-wheels to work and/or live with and whose ego simply won’t let him keep his fingers off the keyboard on Twitter.
And that has consequences.
The price of bitcoin rose a couple weeks ago after Musk said that he was a supporter of the cryptocurrency. He has no business saying that. I can say that because my voice has absolutely no consequence, but he can't. Bitcoin rose above $38,000 after Musk changed his Twitter biography to “#bitcoin,” reaching a high of $38,741.58.
That’s a consequence. That’s a foolish and careless statement that costs investors money—occasionally huge amounts of money, but apparently he can’t help himself.
Musk’s ego basks in his reputation as a powerful market tipster
Which is not at all his job and one he promised the SEC he would avoid. Is the man also a magnet for lawsuits? Apparently.
The price of dogecoin, a cryptocurrency, soared after Elon Musk underlined his power as a market tipster by tweeting about it. Dogecoin’s price rose by 50% on 4 February shortly after Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and the world’s richest person, tweeted that “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto”.
“No highs, no lows, only Doge”, he added. He also tweeted a meme featuring himself and dogecoin dressed as Disney’s The Lion King.
So we get it, Elon, we really do
Now it’s time to lay off Twitter, permanently. You keep prattling on about the environment and should have the sense to realize there are other environments, one of which is called the economy.
You are too loose a cannon for that environment.
Image Credit: telegraph.co.uk