A Brief Rant on Tesla & Musk
You can read this article in Spanish here or Russian here.
A Brief Rant on Tesla & Musk
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald
I don’t know if it’s me getting older or the world getting more complex—maybe both—but being a nuanced thinker feels more important than ever. Nuanced thinking is the ability to hold subtle, often contradictory ideas about a situation, a person, or an event, and still make sense of it.
I don’t think nuanced thinking is our default programming. One of the first books my father read to me was Vladimir Mayakovsky’s bluntly titled book of poetry What Is Good and What Is Bad. To be clear, there’s nothing wrong in starting with absolutes—this is how we instill values in our kids. But life is messier than childhood morality tales, because people are complex. The same person can perform both good and bad actions, and even good intentions can lead to terrible outcomes.
We also have to think across timeframes. A decision might be good in the short term but terrible in the long term. Investing thrives on such nuances. The same CEO may be the perfect leader during a company’s growth phase but detrimental in maturity (Uber comes to mind).
Henry Ford revolutionized the automotive industry and was also a vile antisemite. Hitler admired Ford and even mentioned him in Mein Kampf. Should Jews drive Ford cars? That’s not for me to say, but IMA does take a nuanced approach in our investment philosophy: one of our investments, Rheinmetall, is a German defense contractor that made tanks for the Nazis. I personally embrace nuance as well. Richard Wagner, a known antisemite, died six years before Hitler was born, yet many Jews refuse to listen to his music. I respect that, but I personally love Wagner's music. The world is complex.
This brings me to Tesla and Elon Musk.
Last week, I received a lot of responses to my article about Tesla. They ranged from “Stop spewing your anti-right propaganda and stick to data” to “You don’t like Tesla stock. Are you saying your next car won’t be a Tesla?”
Tesla and Musk are full of contradictions. I’ve literally written a (small) book about them – you can read it here.
You can admire what Musk has built with Tesla yet question his ethics in promoting the stock (he made a lot of promises that have not come through, and a lot that have). You can both agree and disagree with his political choices and still think Tesla has achieved something extraordinary in building over two million cars in less than two decades. And at the same time, you can come to a reasonable conclusion that the stock isn’t a good investment—at the present time.
I love my Tesla. But my personal experience and analysis lead me to the conclusion that its Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode is dangerous. I think Musk is wrong to avoid lidar and radar. I’ve learned a lot from Musk. He’s both my hero and anti-hero—a person to learn from both for what to do and what not to do. Life is complex.
The ability to hold conflicting ideas without breaking—this is the superpower of our age.
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I’ll be attending the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting with my kids. If you find yourself in Omaha on May 2nd and 3rd, these are the events I’ll be speaking at; looking forward to seeing you there.
Friday, May 2nd
7:30 - 10:00 AM: Vitaliy Q&A with Readers
Location: Embassy Suites Old Market, 555 South 10th Street
Registration and breakfast: 7:30 - 8:30 AM
Q&A session begins: 8:30 AM
This is a free event
This is a free event, but registration required (limited space available)
3:00 - 4:45 PM: Investment Panel
Location: Creighton University, Heider College of Business
Panel Discussion: 3:00 – 4:45 PM
Reception: 4:45 – 6:00 PM
This is a free event; more details at Creighton University Value Investing Panel
Saturday, May 3rd
3:00 - 6:00 PM: YPO Investment Panel
Location: Holland Performance Art Center, 13th and Douglas Street
Exclusive to YPO members
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I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please leave your comment and feedback here. Also, if you missed my previous article "Current thoughts on Tesla", you can read it and leave a comment here.
Wagner's Lohengrin
I’ve been conflicted about listening to Wagner’s music for a long time. He was a raging anti-Semite and a horrible human being. Hitler’s love for Wagner’s music made Wagner even less likable. (But of course, by this logic, if Hitler loved Offenbach’s music would it make Offenbach’s music taboo? But then again, if I had nearly died in a concentration camp I’d probably feel differently.)
In 1981, Zubin Mehta performed an excerpt from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde as an encore in Israel. Until then Wagner’s music had not been performed live in Israel. Mehta made a short speech in which he said that Israel was a democracy where all music should be played, and if Wagner’s music offended some people they were free to leave. Two orchestra members and some of the audience left, and the piece was played to its end.
There is no right or wrong answer as to what one should think about Wagner’s music. It is a deeply personal matter. If Wagner’s music elicits negative emotions, then one should not listen to it. However, at the same time, we probably should not judge those who do choose to listen to it. This piece that I am about to share with you, I heard for the first time in one of my favorite movies, The Great Dictator, starring, written, and produced by the most Jewish non-Jewish actor, Charlie Chaplin. My kids have watched this movie a dozen times (If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it).
The Great Dictator was probably one of the first anti-Hitler movies, made in 1940 before Germany invaded Russia. I wish Stalin had watched it; he might have been less naïve about Hitler’s intentions and more prepared for war with Germany. I was surprised to find that the stunningly beautiful music in the “globe” scene was not written by Charlie Chaplin but by Richard Wagner.