EQ?

"Elon Musk is the bravest, most creative person on the planet." – Reed Hastings

Say what you will about the muskrat, but bravest? most creative person? No. A rich guy who buys a bunch of companies is neither brave nor creative. Hastings, like Bezos and Musk, is just one of those people who can put a thin veneer on his dogma. Engineering types are often lacking in "EQ" and Hastings is no exception. Hero worship is a really ugly look.

https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/netflix-reed-hastings-...

You can't even mention Musk's name anymore without certain sections of our society spewing absolute venom. Really something to behold.

You're citing an example of high EQ (unless you think he really means it, which is doubtful). It won't hurt him in any way to say that and he gets credit with Elon and his fans.

Of course he means it. And praising Elon, who is controversial, could absolutely hurt him.

Also, EQ isn't the same as machiavellian scheming to further your self interest.

Reed Hastings knows too much about creativity to believe that. I don't condone this kind of fake praise, but it is easy, costless and will make you a "good guy" to a little demographic that can be troublesome if aimed at you. Even if the public all sees through Elon and associating with him becomes anathema, it won't bite him at all.

I'm reminded of some commercials that kept playing on YouTube a few years ago where John Mayer was calling Kanye the most creative genius he knew. I'm sure he didn't mean it, Kanye is not someone you want to endorse now, and no one cares that Mayer said that.

You don't like Elon and expect people you hold in esteem to agree even when they state the opposite. I know this is mind-blowing but there exist smart, talented people who disagree with you. And not just about this.

Also, the claim that praising Elon is a safer play than condemning him is not obviously true. There are plenty of Elon haters out there who could be "troublsome". Like you and the other guy who lost his shit in this thread.

I don't really dislike Elon. I think he doesn't do things from a bad place but possibly because he's not neurotypical he's been sucked into spending his energy pleasing his craziest fans.

We'll have to disagree on Hastings quotes, to me they seem clearly a way to speak nicely about Musk with a wink to those who don't idolize him.

"Brave" and "creative" do not always have positive connotations. They may be be used to diplomatically describe a reckless confabulator

There's no reasonable way to interpret his comments that way. You're projecting your opinion onto someone who doesn't share it.

> You're projecting your opinion onto someone who doesn't share it.

Two things:

1. interfacing with politicians (I'm including both executives and senators in this group from personal experience) has taught me that many are exceptionally diligent with the words they use. "Brave" and "creative" are neutral adjectives politically even if they have positive connotations interpersonally. If a politician doesn't say something exclusively, denotationally positive, it's almost always a deliberate hedge. I'm not saying that's the case with Reed, but I'd bet a dollar that it is, because most people who's impressions he'd likely care about (execs, congress, etc) use and read the same language.

2. Unless you spoke with him and heard otherwise, aren't you likewise projecting?

No, I'm not projecting, I'm taking what he said at face value...

He didn't just say "brave" and "creative". He said more than that, including some semi-negative comments about Elon's general behavior, but the thrust of his comments is very positive.

It's absolutely hilarious to see people who hate Elon react this way. You can't compute someone you respect disageeeing with you.

> It's absolutely hilarious to see people who hate Elon react this way. You can't compute someone you respect disageeeing with you.

The fact that you jumped to this conclusion when I said nothing to indicate how I feel about Elon in my only comment on this entire thread says a lot about where you're coming from.

Anyhow, the fact that his comments were:

"[I am] 100% convinced that he is trying to help the world in all of his endeavors"

"He's trying to help the world on that front because he believes in free speech and its power for democracy,"

and

"how he goes about it is not how I would do it."

should give you a pretty clear read about where he lands right now:

1. Reed at least publicly believes Elon is coming from a good place

2. Reed disagrees with the methods Elon's using.

3. "Brave" and "most creative" contextualized by the statements above are given a neutral tone and meaning.

Tldr: Reed basically said "he's coming from a good place but his approaches are bad"

I read you correctly. Congratulations on looking up the full comments (or at least more of them) but you're still reading it wrong because you can't handle the fact that someone smart disagrees with you.

k

Read the rest of the interview.

  Hastings added that he is “100% convinced” that Musk is “trying to help the world
  in all his endeavors,” and added that he was “excited” about Musk’s Twitter
  acquisition. Musk “just spent all this money for democracy and society to have a
  more open platform — and I am sympathetic to that,” Hastings said.

I may be in an overly cynical mood, but the word "trying" in that phrase changes the color quite a bit, and frankly, the word didn't need to be there. Carefully parsed, the addition is not a ringing endorsement as it appears on the surface.

Okay I'll bite: How does glorifying Nazis count as trying to help the world?

What's worse? Hating people you have never met or idolizing people you have never met? Maybe spend your energy elsewhere instead of getting so worked up that you have to start calling people names.

All that said, I’m sure he’s a great engineer.

What's worse? Publicly calling a man who is promoting Nazis, miscellaneous bigotry, and sedition the "bravest person on the planet" is bad enough I don't need to meet him to pass judgment. Even if you like the muskrat it's a dumbass thing to say. Fawning over some guy who's fanning the flames of antisemitism is absolutely worse (how is this even in doubt?). Altho I'm sure his EQ really is yuuuuuge.

Sometimes I wonder what Hastings would do if he got the distribution rights to Riefenstahl's films.

Consider that your perspective on the man is hopelessly warped by the media frenzy surrounding him. Sadly, you are a victim of it just as much as he is.

What's worse is whatever you're doing here. It's a really ugly look, some may say.

Vilifying Nazi worship is an ugly look? Okay then.

Would you please stop? No matter how right you are, fulmination is not what this site is for (and destroys what it is for).

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Edit: We've had to ask you this quite a few times already:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32289007 (July 2022)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32146400 (July 2022)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22660362 (March 2020)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19438509 (March 2019)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19070048 (Feb 2019)

Envy is an uglier look.

Who's envious?

The one with "inferior" in their handle.

And what am I supposed to be envious of?

Curious what "inner Elon" implies

The little voice that says something is only worth doing if it boosts your ego somehow.