this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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He has a lot of narcissistic traits. I'm sure he was expecting a deluge of "of course we love you, you're a genius and real life Tony Stark, please make our bird app better!" That kind of genuine adoration is one of the few things he can't just buy outright, and he used to get it, but that well has been drying up as other car companies catch up to Tesla on EVs and their own products stagnate or get worse. Meanwhile, SpaceX's last big public event was a rocket blowing up, which they could try to spin, but it also destroyed their launch pad because they ignored lessons that NASA learned in the 60's. I'm sure in his mind all the bad press as people have started to realize what a shithead he is was just haters who were jealous of him, so surely if he just gives his fans an opportunity to express their opinions he'll get lots of positive responses, right?
SpaceX's Starship launch was much-memed-upon but it honestly went as well or better than could be expected given the development approach the company takes. That said, it's clear that the test cadence is being rushed at Elon's behest (launching without a proper pad deluge system, for instance) and they've reached a size of rocket that having something go wrong in flight could cause serious damage, and isn't just an opportunity to deploy funny acronyms and giggle.
That said, SpaceX is one of the few things he's doing that isn't a total clusterfuck, and that's got a lot to do with the much more competent people he has running the company under his nominal leadership. Gwynne Shotwell has been very well-regarded and tends to do a good job of insulating the rest of the company from Elmo's dumbest whims.
Oh, unquestionably. The parts of SpaceX that they insulate from him are going well, but there's no excuse for not having a pad deluge system (or something else that you've tested to accomplish the same goal) and it's gotten them a lot of bad press. The rocket exploding was at least arguably expected, but the fact that they weren't able to stop the torrent of bad press is notable.
I will forever think it's pretty fucking funny that the only thing Musk had to do to retain his popularity was absolutely fucking nothing. Doing nothing is too hard for this silver spoon coward.