Three Quotes That Suggest Penn Alum Elon Musk Doesn’t Fully Understand Humans Yet
Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks with members of the media at Tesla’s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., Thursday, April 30, 2015. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Penn alum Elon Musk has always seemed a bit out there — literally: The Tesla and SpaceX founder has long cast his eyes to the stars. But now there’s a new biography of him being published next week — Elon Musk: Tesla, Spacex, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future — and the early reviews suggest it portrays Musk as … well, let’s say, not fully comprehending the humans that he lives among.
Three examples:
• Musk reportedly dressed down an employee who skipped work for the birth of his child:
“That is no excuse. I am extremely disappointed. You need to figure out where your priorities are. We’re changing the world and changing history, and you either commit or you don’t.”
Vox’s Matt Yglesias responds: “As a new father, I find it rather astounding that Musk managed to write that without getting punched in the face.” Musk, via Twitter, denied that account this morning.
It is total BS & hurtful to claim that I told a guy to miss his child's birth just to attend a company meeting. I would never do that.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2015
• Dating seems to be an algorithm to be conquered:
“I would like to allocate more time to dating, though. I need to find a girlfriend. That’s why I need to carve out just a little more time. I think maybe even another five to 10 — how much time does a woman want a week? Maybe 10 hours? That’s kind of the minimum? I don’t know.”
Which reminds us of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYQp0Ui35RU
• He wants to put a roller coaster in Tesla’s factory.
“Everybody around here has slides in their lobbies. I’m actually wondering about putting in a roller coaster — like a functional roller coaster at the factory in Fremont. You’d get in, and it would take you around [the] factory but also up and down. Who else has a roller coaster? … It would probably be really expensive, but I like the idea of it.”
Which, no kidding, would be awesome. It also reminds us of this:
It’s good to be a visionary rich guy.
