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Originally Posted by Damien
Elon Musk is someone who bet lots of money on big gambles that paid off. He certainly had a knack for identifying investment opportunities and then for throwing everything at those investments to ensure they paid off.
I think after SpaceX the subsequent fame has gone to his head a bit and we're seeing a very public midlife crisis. He started to enjoy provoking reactions on Twitter, he tries to position himself as an 'alpha male' tech bro, he would always be seen with celebrities at Hollywood shows and I believe that this Twitter acquisition was a stunt that went wrong. He let the notoriety that surrounded his public persona run away from him and ended up making a $40 billion deal that he tried, then failed, to get out of.
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Yes, though I don’t think it’s correct to characterise him as simply the money man. At SpaceX, in particular, he consciously backed a particular approach to rocket development (and continues to do so), and was willing to back it to the limit of his available funds. The original Falcon One rocket was proven more or less at the last gasp. Obviously he’s not a rocket scientist himself but he clearly grasps enough of the history and potential of rocket design to make useful leadership decisions at SpaceX.
Then he leaves it to the likes of Jessie Anderson to actually build the things* and tell us all how clever they are. At least I think that’s what she’s saying, I get a bit distracted.
* She’s a bona-fide Falcon 9 production engineer as well as front-person for SpaceX launch day webcasts