Who is Elon Musk?
The simple answer is a 50-year-old South African-born, American-later emigrated, massively successful entrepreneur who runs electric carmaker Tesla, space company SpaceX, neural interface venture Neuralink, and high-speed tunneling project Boring Company, in orbit installed an Internet satellite swarm, which supplied Ukraine as a result of the Russian attack, for example - and which, according to its own statements, currently wants to buy Twitter.
He recently took his mother Maye Musk to the hip Met Gala in New York, where he chatted in front of the cameras about fashion and what he could be planning with the short message service.
About a year ago he was hosting the satirical show Saturday Night Live and said a sentence,
fans and critics quickly spread: "I would like to say to everyone who is offended: I have reinvented electric cars and shoot people in rockets to Mars.
Did you really think I was a chilled, normal guy?” No, nobody thought so.
Alexander Armbruster
Responsible editor for business online.
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What is Elon Musk?
A popular projection screen for a spectrum of characteristics that can be emotionalized that is difficult to capture, his person stands for many things: success, arrogance, greatness, delusion, daring, fickleness, determination, recklessness, focus, carelessness, calculation, thoughtlessness.
Someone who bursts into tears in an interview, someone who builds a huge factory in Brandenburg before he gets the final approval, someone who celebrates bitcoin today and scolds Joe Biden tomorrow, who has repeatedly predicted robot cars incorrectly, someone named his children X AE A-XII and allegedly wants Donald Trump back on Twitter.
The short message service, on which more than 93 million users follow him, shows how polarizing Musk is.
Many celebrate him as a free-speech bringer of freedom, many others fear what the debate platform might become if an unpredictable doer, someone like Musk, rips it under his nail.
After all, Twitter is not just any online forum or newspaper – active politicians, entrepreneurs and scientists in particular exchange ideas there or simply share their view of current affairs.
There is currently no other such place.
Not analogue, not digital.
Entrepreneurs and scientists exchange ideas there or simply share their view of current affairs.
There is currently no other such place.
Not analogue, not digital.
Entrepreneurs and scientists exchange ideas there or simply share their view of current affairs.
There is currently no other such place.
Not analogue, not digital.
Smarter algorithms don't just deliver better search results
Musk, which also plays a role in this discussion, is also extremely rich - he leads the billionaire ranking of the financial service Bloomberg by a wide margin with an estimated fortune of currently more than 220 billion dollars.
Only the commercial result, paired with his words and deeds, raises an attitude that Musk embodies beyond the level of the phrase "nothing is impossible".
Yes, on the way to Mars humanity still has to overcome many hurdles, whether it will land there first or whether a truly autonomous car will maneuver through the rush-hour traffic in Manhattan is far from certain.
"Where do you personally, intellectually as an engineer and as a team get the strength you need to persevere with this project and bring it to completion?" the terrific podcaster Lex Fridman recently asked Elon Musk about his space ambitions - and Musk replied: " A source of strength, hmm .
.
.
that's really not my way of thinking about things.
I mean, for me it's just something that's important to make.
And we should just keep doing it.
Or die trying.
I don't need a source of strength."
That sounds a bit like Yoda saying to Luke Skywalker, "Do it or don't do it, there's no trying." Or like the motto attributed to former NASA director Gene Kranz, "Failure is not an option." - "Failure is not an option".