Literally digital opium.

I say as I type into a seperate social network. It's hard to escape, honestly...

Lots of civilizations have struggled with drug problems in the past. The Americas, China, India all had lots of problems with opium addictions during colonial times, IIRC. And of course the USA post-WWII has dealt with a slew of drug problems, from cocaine heroin to meth. How have past civilizations broken free from the yoke of drug addiction? Maybe we can take some cues from the past.

Seeing how smoking cigarettes went from being popular to being rare in a lots of places I would say:

1 - make it uncool (no more james bond smoking in cinemas, packaging that reminds of diseases)

2 - make it expensive (tax the hell out of it)

3 - make it a hassle (no smoking in closed spaces, airplanes, universities etc)

The thing is, both weed and social networks became popular right about when smoking stopped being popular. So maybe there is an extra step, a perverse one:

4 - provide a substitute addiction.

Sin tax is fascism. I don't need you squeezing me because you THINK you know what's best for me.

It is a slippery slope.

What's next?

No more cup cakes because sugar gives you diabetes?

How about no more hip hop music because it largely celebrates violence and influences kids to join violent gangs?

No more cars because AOC might whine with another 24 tweet wall of bar-stool wisdom?

If it is a slippery slope, why have sin taxes have been limited to nicotine and alcohol despite existing for literally centuries?

Internalizing externalities is one of the primary functions of government. I’m incredibly happy I rarely have to smell cigarette smoke.

Many countries and some (mostly left-run) cities in the US have implemented a sugary drink tax:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugary_drink_tax

I like to think that for step 4, you can provide a healthy substitute.

Personally, the thing that got me to quit smoking weed was getting really into brazilian jiu-jitsu.

It may be possible to generalize this.

Besides that, I really like your post, the 1st 3 points are solid. ^_^

that's the thing, they don't break free without some exogenous factor that forces a total reckoning. e.g. China with opium, getting humiliated by western powers in the opium wars. this sort of thing always marks the end of a declining empire. even after the opium wars, it took a century before resurgence. stuff like trafficking drugs in China now are punishable by death, they've learned their lesson for sure.

Or, maybe, and hear me out; you just don't like what he has to say, which in the real world, means absolutely nothing to 99.999% of the planet.

> you just don't like what he has to say, which in the real world, means absolutely nothing to 99.999% of the planet.

Yes, but could mean a lot to the talent pool discussed in the open letter, in the face of growing competition to SpaceX and Tesla, which ultimately will impact the product, revenues and value. Seems shortsighted or almost as if he’s done working on hard problems.

> growing competition to SpaceX

Umm no. Just no. Ignore media hype and look at the numbers - SpaceX is arguably closer to monopoly in all areas of its business than ever before.

> it seems social media has distracted, if not corrupted his line of sight

Social media is the effect, not cause, of his bad behavior.

He was known to be an impulsive bully long before he ranted on Twitter.

He's a hard boss for sure. That's why he is successful. He doesn't take your shit and pushes you to do your job at its maximum potential. Of course, you don't need to work there, McDonalds' is always hiring and I hear they will be nice to you.

No he's just a cunt and you are gullible.

> His accomplishments are long and impressive

What are Elon Musks accomplishments? His ability to get financing? Hiring the right people to push the success of SpaceX and Tesla? His ability to inflate the stock price of his company (above that of a historic bull market).

This isn't a cynical comment, I'm honestly trying to understand his actual accomplishments other then the ancillary praise one gets in America just for getting rich(er).

SpaceX was founded after Blue Origin owned by Jeff Bezos and today, they are ahead of them in terms both technology and volume of launches they handle.

Fisker Automotive and Better Place are two electric car startups that were founded after Tesla that you've probably not heard of, even though between them, they raised close to a billion dollars.

The reason why he gets so much praise is because he tends to do quite well—better than other smart folks that are similarly resourced (i.e. access to VC capital)—in industries notorious for high rates of failure or where it is hard to break even.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisker_Automotive

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place_(company)

> Hiring the right people to push the success of SpaceX and Tesla?

Probably this. Its not easy to do.

I think there is also something to be said about the singularity of vision Musk brought to these companies. Its easy to dismiss (and I haven't been a fan of him much since the whole Thailand incident) but its one of those annoying aspects that eludes the desire of developers' (i.e. the average reader of this site) desire to quantify everything.

It makes me think of the story of Steve Jobs after his return to Apple, where he called a meeting of team leads, made a quadrant on a white board with the edges labeled "desktop" and "portable" on the vertical, "consumer" and "professional" on the horizontal, and demanded the company only produce 1 product to fill each of the four squares, eliminating the rest.

> Hiring the right people to push the success of SpaceX and Tesla?

I'm obviously not a fan but I agree he likely deserves a lot of credit for this. But at the same time, don't a lot of people participate in hiring decisions throughout a company? The board? Other executives?

It irks me that Musk should get all the credit of what is undeniably a team effort.

Today, yes probably a lot of people participate in hiring decisions. But in 2002, not so much.

If you're actually curious there is a good book on SpaceX early days.

Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/53402132-liftoff

If you read the book I think you'll agree, desperate is the correct word in the title of that book and Elon did plenty.

I still can't believe they're landing rockets backwards. When I took control systems it was the canonical example of an unstable system. Guess those books need updating. :)

Yeah - its important to set aside space where we can both recognize Elon has done some impressive things, but also rightfully point out he has consistently been a massive bellend.

Regarding the landing rockets issue, I've found BPS Space's youtube series on trying to land a model rocket in a similar matter very enlightening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miMT44LFUjs

>What are Elon Musks accomplishments? His ability to get financing? Hiring the right people to push the success of SpaceX and Tesla? His ability to inflate the stock price of his company (above that of a historic bull market).

The word we use to describe people-managing at this high level is "leadership".

Musk is a marketing genius. Creating a cult of personality around your companies is not at all an easy thing to do.