The much circulated email was the email sent to the executive team, not the employees.

And the layoff isn't 10% of all workers. It was 10% of salaried workers, a much smaller amount.

This goes exactly to the point of the person you responded to. The media blows up smaller news items into bigger ones for clickbait.

The hoops people will jump through for Musk is continually surprising.

You do realize that he has actually significantly changed the landscape for global warming right? He has lifted off electric vehicle market, changed energy storage, increased global interest in space exploration.

You have to balance his incredibly strong capital manner with the fact that he also is changing our human trajectory. He's tiresome, gets into petty arguments with people but he's also changing our trajectory more than almost all other humans on the planet right now - for better or worse.

Whether his heavy lifts stands the test of time and significantly alter our trajectory is truly the question here. This Twitter buy doesn't really matter in the arc of this century unless it is merely a reflection point which Musk fades to irrelevance.

People will jump through hoops to defend him because he's doing work that no one else is capable of doing.

> You do realize that he has actually significantly changed the landscape for global warming right?

Has he? How do large rockets help with climate change? How does going to Mars, a dead planet that is almost a foreshadowing of where Earth is going with climate change and ecosystem destruction, help fight climate change? Electric cars will improve things a bit, but they are not a one-shot solution to climate change. They are cars after all, and for the first couple years of their life, they contribute more emissions than existing cars, so there's a crossover point. And those emission crossover point calculations do not take into consideration battery recycling or disposal. There are many, many other things that we could be doing. But Musk likes to keep the limelight on him and have his toys.

Many solutions to climate change are actually rather boring and easy in terms of their actionable solutions, but we don't do them. One can't hype up hundreds of millions of dollars of investment for planting native plants or composting or improving ocean ecosystems or reducing plastic use and habitat loss. If Musk truly cared about the climate, he would promote these other things. But he doesn't, because they can't be hyped, they wouldn't get him the attention he craves, and they wouldn't serve his ego.

I have seen it first hand. Young college graduates, apparently concerned about climate change, choosing Tesla over working for a fusion company. These are people whose tech and science influences are Musk and Iron Man.

> ... that he also is changing our human trajectory. ... but he's also changing our trajectory more than almost all other humans on the planet right now - for better or worse.

Comments like these are so hyperbolic that they're tough to even respond to. If I can be frank, they are sort of childish. Even out of billionaires, Musk doesn't contribute as much to these things as people like James Simons, who donates hundreds of millions of dollars to education, climate change research, and other scientific research. But Simons is an actually intelligent person doing actually important things with his money and influence. But funding education and scientific research is boring, apparently according to those obsessed with electric cars and rockets.

> he has actually significantly changed the landscape for global warming

Oh yes, by shilling proof-of-work cryptocurrencies he definitely made a contribution. I'm not even sure if his Tesla venture would offset this damage long term.

These types of comments are equally as tiresome. We get it, you don't like Elon Musk and despise anyone making an argument to the contrary. Glad you could enshrine it in this comment that adds absolutely no value to the conversation.

People who like Musk find them tiresome. I was just simply pointing out that it continues to be the case that no matter what Musk does, someone defends what he does and massages things to be viewed as less despicable. (For example, the original comment didn't even mention it was 10% of all workers, as directly implied by the comment I replied to.) Everything he does is in pure self-interest and with manipulation in mind. There is zero humility and zero honesty. How much of this manipulation does he and Tesla and the other bits of his endeavors have to do before people accept what he is? I'm also tired of people who should know better continuing to help form this little bubble around him while people who don't know better (young people and kids who look up to him) are adversely affected by this.

> Glad you could enshrine it in this comment that adds absolutely no value to the conversation.

These comments are equally as tiresome. You reply to a comment that apparently adds no value (not a sentiment I necessarily disagree with) with a comment that adds even less?

People searching for perfect allies are going to be constantly disappointed. Musk, for all his faults, has enabled some amazing things...all of which seems completely lost on rabid Musk haters. Life is a spectrum and living on either end is subscribing to a warped view of reality.

> You reply to a comment that apparently adds no value (not a sentiment I necessarily disagree with) with a comment that adds even less?

So this is going to be an argument of which comment(s) add less value? We already started very close to 0 with yours so can continue to ride the asymptote as far as our stamina allows.

> And the layoff isn't 10% of all workers. It was 10% of salaried workers, a much smaller amount.

Could you clarify what the set complement of a salaried worker is?

Salaried workers are office-based. Hourly workers are factory-based.

That actually clarifies the whole circus Musk pulled. He announced that anyone not coming back to the office (which obviously does not apply to factory workers) is effectively tendering their resignation. Then Tesla announces just days later that a 10% layoff of salaried workers is going into place. This is typical Musk behavior in that he tries to control narratives by pre-empting them. By sending this email out and then announcing layoffs later, it sets the narrative that it's an employee problem, and not a Tesla or executive problem. From what I saw of some reports of Tesla employees, Tesla doesn't even have enough desks and parking spaces for everyone to come back to. Musk knew what he was doing.