Thread by @paul_griffiths

Watching @elonmusk beam in to #allinsummit discussing if Twitter users are 5% “or 50%” bots & advocating for open sourcing the algorithm

“I’m a moderate… It’s not a right wing takeover, it’s a moderate takeover.”

“The Democratic Party is over controlled by the unions… which is just another form of a monopoly and trial lawyers…

On the Republican side (the evil) is from corporate and religious zealotry.”

Also @jason asked if it hurt that, having voted democratic, he was snubbed from events at the Biden White House

“Yes. It doesn’t seem right.” @elonmusk

“We’re started an insurance company… even if you’re a very good driver, it’s all statistical so you can’t get insured… but with a Tesla, our insurance is based on how you actually drive… you can lower your insurance in real time by driving more safely.”

Twitter: @Jason “is this deal going to get closed?”

“how many bots? it’s a material adverse misstatement if they have been falsely claiming <5% bots but it’s 4 or 10x that amount. If I bought a house with 5% termites that’s acceptable… 90% termites u have no house.” @elonmusk

“Brand advertising… is someone based on faith. If that faith is questioned, it hurts the business…I based my offer on public filings. If they’re inaccurate, it’s a big deal.”

@DavidSacks “is Twitter unable or unwilling to solve the bot problem?”

“The worst answer is they don’t want to look at the problem but they know it… we’re not trying to split the atom, or get to the moon… we’re trying to get rid of the spammers. If it’s a Bitcoin giveaway… (laughs)” @elonmusk

“Think about WeChat… that’s the thing that needs to exist. Whether Twitter becomes the central app… we just want something incredibly useful and either convert Twitter to that or add something to it.” @elonmusk

Now @jason asks @elonmusk if it might just be easiest to start a new a Twitter.

“I tend to like start things from scratch… let me be crystal fucking clear, I was there when Tesla was an idea on paper… I tried to have my cake and eat it to but the still had to be CEO.”

(Musk discussed how he should have started Tesla with his original partner and not tried to merge with another group, but repeats that he was there before any cars or customers.)

“I bet everything on Tesla in 2008… I bet my house.” They were 2 days from missing Xmas payroll.

Q @jason: has the success made life easier? Do you enjoy it?

“A roller coaster… good days & bad ones… it’s quite stressful when death is trying to eat your face off… we have moved on from that point… when you’re CEO of a company the chore level is high. I hate doing chores.”

“I have a habit of biting off more than I can chew & sit there with chipmunk cheeks.” @elonmusk

“Life can’t be just solve one problem after another… we need to find a way (to be inspired) & become a space bearing (people)”

On aliens: “if we found aliens SpaceX’s revenues would increase because we’d realize we need to upgrade our tech 😂” @elonmusk

“There’s a lot of good that Starlink can do (on earth) but it will allow us to establish a base on the moon.”

On Mars:“technically going to mars doesn’t need the support of govt but it would be helpful. In order to be multi planetory… the city needs to survive w/ supply ships”

“If you care about life on earth, you need to care about being multi planet and multi stellar… humans could do ourselves in with earth as a radioactive hell hole from WWIII & which comes first - that or Mars?” @elonmusk

Q: what happens if we get fusion (nuclear) energy?

“Fusion can work, the q is if it’s economically viable. The answer is probably not competitive economically by an order of magnitude.” @elonmusk

“Why bother with fusion on earth when there’s a giant reactor in the sky that shows up for work every day?

…we can generate 100x the energy on the landmass we need for the US in the US.”
@elonmusk

(Section where Elon talks global population metrics & birth rates)

“The single biggest threat to our civilization is low birth rates… Some people think having more kids is bad for the environment, that’s nonsense.”

“We don’t want to have civilization end in adult diapers.”

The Gigafactory has a casting machine to make the body out of 1 part down from 120.

“I asked (engineers) if it could be done. They said no one has built that big a machine before. We called the 6 companies who make casting machines. 5 said no, 1 said maybe. I took that as yes!”

Q @DavidSacks : what’s your take on the economy?

“Recessions not necessarily a bad thing… when it’s good for too long, you get a misallocation of capital… human capital too where you get people doing things that are silly, not important. You need an economic enema.” @elonmusk

And on a recession, @DavidSacks “the companies we invest in are the canaries in the coal mine and there are a lot of dead canaries.”

“They’re not dead, David, they’re napping.” @elonmusk

Ending on immigration:

“Think of it as a sports team. If we can get some aces from elsewhere, they can help us win…we should be recruiting them like a star basketball player… if that stops happening, we won’t win…anyone who wants to work hard & contribute hell yes” @elonmusk

(Odd comment from @chamath saying the anti-immigration “rhetoric was what Trump needed to say to get elected”)

Then @elonmusk analogizing central banking time to tech:

“Money is a database for labor allocation and time allocation.”

On China’s economic growth:

“China is not monolithic. Not everything is a plot by the Chinese govt… it’s full of hard working people who want to get things done… we better stop the infighting in the US & be competitive with the new kid on the block who will be 2-3x our size.”

Q @chamath what advice do you give young CEOs about political correctness?

“The point of a company is to produce useful things for others. It’s not a gathering place for a political expression. Speaking of that, I’m late. I gotta go work on the rocket.”

And he’s out

Link to E69 is here, you can error check my transcript