THE ELON MUSK SYSTEM
CASINO CAPITALISM
I’ve followed Elon Musk‘s career for more than six years, have read at least five books about him and his companies. I’ve also known a few big-time gamblers and investors, have done some gambling and investing myself, some time ago. The mindset– the strategy– behind Musk’s success is easy to spot: an extreme example of the tech bros mantra, “Move fast and break things.” The idea being to jump ahead of the crowd by thinking farther out, whether hyping rocket ships to Mars, electric vehicles, or cars that drive themselves.
An example of this is Elon’s approach to competition in the AI realm: move faster, build bigger, as outlined in this article.
Elon Musk is the consummate gambler, engaging in huge bet after huge bet– and to date, getting away with it, because of the hype and risk involved; his companies valued in the markets far higher than they’re actually worth, based solely on their future prospects. He has millions of true believers, and keeps adding more of them.
(Donald Trump, by contrast is following a different strategy: Chaos Theory, as exemplified in the January 6th, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Encourage or spark a chaotic situation then sit back and hope to profit by it.)
For Elon Musk, his approach is a reflection of his personality and whatever substances he’s using or abusing. Others throughout history have had similar personalities. For instance, George Armstrong Custer, who built a reputation during the Civil War due to his fearless cavalry charges; his eagerness to attack. It was the only way he knew how to fight: ride fast and hard and watch your opponents fall before you. He used the same tactic at the Little Big Horn in Montana in 1876. On this occasion the “Move fast and break things” plan didn’t work.
There’ve been others. Napoleon, for the most part, who eventually met his, er, Waterloo. Or that particular German dictator over a hundred years later, who like Custer took on more opponents than he could possibly handle.
Will the same thing happen to Musk?
It seems to me that even the luckiest, loudest gambler, winning gamble after gamble, bet after bet, accumulating an enormous pile of poker chips– in Elon’s case, becoming the richest man on the planet– eventually runs out of luck.
VISIONS
INITIATING CHANGE is what we’re attempting to do with the New Pop Lit project, with new ideas of multidimensional thinking and writing. Or: like the tech guys, we have a vision, but it encompasses more than Mars colonies or electronic brain implants.
Our vision consists of a more grounded world, smaller scale and less stressful, less sinister, more humane, led by an explosion of better literature and art– of new human creativity.
-Karl Wenclas
