Thread by @PnictogenHorses

this amusing image passed our way this morning; it's a rendered image (like most of @elonmusk's publicity materials) of that hideously low-polygon @Tesla truck that will probably never reach market.

I would like to offer a speculation as to why it looks so ugly.

~Mona

the hideousness of the $TSLA truck is baffling, even taking into account the mind-numbing effects of being in @elonmusk's quasi-religious faction. it's the sort of thing that makes you wonder: "didn't *anyone* of importance denounce this thing during the design process?"

~Mona

but that question should be the first clue: quite possibly there *was* no real design process. it's possible that @elonmusk really did "design" the appearance of the @Tesla truck the same way Homer Simpson "designed" his perfect car by idly scrawling on bits of paper.

~Mona

which brings me to a central point: the personal #computer and the #software industry has made it possible for ANY entrepreneurial or managerial idler, not just @elonmusk, to playact at being a designer—or photographer or graphic artist or writer, or any other creator.

~Mona

it has been a while since I've had to deal personally with incompetent and self-important managers or executives of the #ElonMusk stripe—miniature Musks are to be found everywhere in #capitalism, whose leadership tends toward inept mediocrity and pretensions of brilliance.

~Mona

in my day the usual plaything for the grandiose corporate manager was Microsoft Office, especially Excel (because it made graphs) and PowerPoint (because it made mini-movies).

@Microsoft @Office duped countless #management types into thinking they were expert artists.

~Mona

as a result, #capitalism and its dead "invisible hand" moved the corporate #executive class to start firing professional artists, writers, designers, and everyone else with a creative skill—rather in the way @elonmusk has been mowing down @Twitter / @TwitterDev workers.

~Mona

money-mad pirates of the #ElonMusk / @pmarca / @paulg sort are deeply uncreative people; money-hoarding is a purely destructive enterprise, and they suspect that all creative professionals are 'having fun' and therefore not doing real work—as if counting money was "work".

~Mona

ultimately, @elonmusk and even pipsqueak grifters like @APompliano and @BillyM2k think the same thing about the creative professions: "I can do it all myself! I have #software for that!"

they even let the software do the money-counting (qq.v. #cryptocurrency and #NFTs.)

~Mona

as Chara and I have said before: the #entrepreneur is a profoundly *idle* person: their daydream is making piles of cash with zero effort. @elonmusk's real job, if any, is mere public relations for @Tesla, @SpaceX, @neuralink, and @boringcompany. he's selling *himself*.

~Mona

but #ElonMusk and every other self-inflated manager and executive in #capitalism fancies themselves a great creator and builder, and it can't be doubted that #software—MS Office, CAD programs, 3D modelling software, etc.—has given them an illusion of boundless creativity.

~Mona

hence it's possible that the grotesque $TSLA Truck looks the way it does because @elonmusk doodled onto a napkin—the "napkin" in this case being a throwaway Blender project, or similar—and @Tesla has been forced to do its best to market this awful, amateurish "design".

~Mona

I would like to add one more speculation, pertaining to the perplexing low-polygon look of the @Tesla Truck. all the sycophants—@Timcast, @Teslarati, @TeslaMotorsClub, that crowd—seem to think this thing is pretty...

...in rendered images, anyway. that is important.

~Mona

@elonmusk himself favors appearing in "rendered images"—that is to say, it's almost certain that all his official photography is extensively doctored and airbrushed.

#ElonMusk is older than us, and trying to hide his age—winning the appeal of faded youths like @mtaibbi.

~Mona

my real point is that the @elonmusk fanclub—@mtaibbi, @paulg, @APompliano, all those @GOP politicians and #cryptocurrency gamblers—are people who live on their computers and phones, forever triple-checking their stock portfolios and virtual "wallets". it's their reality.

~Mona

@Timcast, @BillyM2k, &c. are people who look at the rendered images and think, "this is *almost* real! and @elonmusk is a 'genius' so of course he's going to make my dreams about this rendered image come true." they think this about his @SpaceX and #Mars ambitions as well.

~Mona

#business and #technology #journalism, hopelessly corrupted by #capitalism, has amplified this blurring of boundaries between computer-generated images and reality. @arstechnica and @BW and other press outlets freely report @elonmusk / $TSLA rendered images as "news".

~Mona

think about what lies behind these #technology / #business news items about some "innovation" from @Tesla or @SpaceX or @boringcompany: we're seeing the results of *playing with computer models*, often simple palette changes even, reported as though they were newsworthy.

~Mona

@elonmusk could probably turn a few hours of noodling on @KerbalSpaceP(rogram) into a myriad of press releases—the #ElonMusk / @Tesla / @SpaceX corporate machine owes its fame to broad-spectrum media promotion, even though @Timcast thinks "the media" is Musk's enemy.

~Mona

a last point about the low-polygon look of @elonmusk's @Tesla Truck—a wild guess.

3D modelling programs these days aren't just for drafting but physics simulation—virtual windtunnels. this in itself is worrying, for it suggests $TSLA might dispense with practical tests.

~Mona

to be a money-poisoned #entrepreneur of the @elonmusk / @JeffDean sort is to be *stingy*, *miserly*—"penny wise and pound foolish", i.e. obsessed with short-term cost-cutting and doing long-term damage thereby. @Twitter is experiencing the effects of miserly managing.

~Mona

hence it's all too probable that $TSLA cars skimp on practical testing, because the stingy (and computer-besotted) #ElonMusk and @Tesla execs tell themselves simulations are good enough.

but that is not my ultimate point, which has to do with #speed. (not THAT kind.)

~Mona

#entrepreneurs like @elonmusk and @DavidSacks, not to mention fanboys like @mtaibbi and @WholeMarsBlog, love #speed more than almost anything else. it's their primary "metric" for #success, #performance, #efficiency, even #intelligence—everything must be *fast* to them.

~Mona

what's the easiest way for @elonmusk and his @Tesla / @SpaceX crew to make all those #computer simulations go faster?

...by giving them fewer polygons.

best of luck to the $TSLA Truck, #ElonMusk! :=D

~Mona Drafter of Pnictogen 🦄

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