Thread by @garius

Thread on history of X dot com and Melon Husk will have to wait until tomorrow as need to stream.

But in the meantime here is a quick story called:

That Time Elon Totalled his McLaren F1 While Trying to Show Off in Front of Peter Thiel 🧵/1

Year 2000. X and PayPal are fighting over the pay-by-email market. Both are burning cash so fast that a merger becomes inevitable (I'll cover all this in tomorrow's thread).

Musk (X) is REALLY not happy about this. He wants to WIN. Thiel (PayPal) is happy. He HAS won.

Thiel saw the writing on the wall, as did Bill Harris (formerly of Intuit) - X's CEO after Elon (biggest investor) stepped back to CTO . They have created this merger to save both companies and make lots of money. Harris has bullied Elon into it by threatening to quit otherwise.

Anyway. Elon (a lover of cars) has a BEAUTIFUL McLaren F1. One of only 7 legal to drive in the US at the time. Regularly drives it to work.

Today, Musk and Thiel are to meet Mike Moritz of Sequoia and sell him on the merger.

Musk offers to pick Thiel up.

He turns up in the F1.

Thiel agrees (PayPal's office is a few blocks down from X's) because he knows Musk and himself need to prep for the meeting. They both dislike each other, even at this point. But whatever. Gotta work together.

Except as they drive, all the can do is talk awkwardly about the car

So as they're driving up Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park awkwardly talking about the damn car and Thiel half-heartedly says:

"So what can this thing do?"

"Watch this." Says Elon and does the WORST THING you can do in an F1.

He slams down the accelerator and tries to changes lane.

McLaren F1's are not normal cars. They are lethal works of art. They are Formula 1 racers DISGUISED as barely-legal street cars.

They lack all of the regular things designed to stop average people from fucking themselves up while driving. They assume you will not be an idiot.

(SIDEBAR: As a result, the reliance of the McLaren F1 on you not being a hubristic idiot who will learn how to drive and respect them is probably the reason why they have killed more tech bros than extreme sports. But I digress)

Anyway. Musk IMMEDIATELY realises his mistake but i it is too late. The McLaren lurches forward like the predator it is WHILE ALSO moving sideways, almost slamming Musk and Thiel into the back of another car.

Musk desperately yanks the wheel back, oversteers, hits an embankment and sends the car flying through the air, before crashing violently back to earth.

SOMEHOW despite the fact neither Musk nor Thiel are wearing a seatbelts, they exit the car uninjured.

Thiel silently walks back to the road, flags down a lift and heads off to the merger meeting.

Elon turns up a bit later.

Neither man tells Moritz or Harris why they are late.

And that is how Musk wrecked his (uninsured - did I mention that?) McLaren F1. Sat in his garage as a wreck for a few years then he sold it on to another car lover who restored it

And if you're wondering why bad sportscar driving is a plot point in Glass Onion, you know why /END

Anyway. Will talk you through the X/Paypal merger and why it very still clearly is A Thing Musk Is Desperate To Avenge tomorrow.

Short version is this X rebrand is the tech bro version of drunk-DMing your university girlfriend on Facebook to tell her you still think she's hot.

ADDENDUM: For those saying (understandably) "i hope this is true.."

To Musk's credit, he has always been open about this incident. Credit where credit is due.

Reminder that in addition to here, you can find me on elephant place at garius [dot] Mastodon [dot] me [dot] uk.

And on the clear skies place as garius.

@cryptoeraser So no. I didn't "steal" the thread from some rando YouTube video you watched. 🙄

And here you go:

The story of Musk overthrow as CEO of the X/Confinity merged company that would become PayPal.

You'll IMMEDIATELY see why it is relevant to everything he's doing at Twitter now.

https://twitter.com/garius/status/1683808576328937472