Musk is an impactful guy so I think this is worth discussing. https://jamesomalley.substack.com/p/elon-musk-is-good

This article is okay. It acknowledges Musk's huge positive impact, but I think it misses a huge point.

Musk is kind of an arsehole.

Remember when he called that helpful man a paedophile? Or rubbished entire fields of science? Or when he said covid would soon be over?

It's easy to judge this in terms of impact, as this article does. But it's also worth considering in terms of role models.

Sure his good behaviour is 10,000x more impactful than his bad. But it's not 10,000x more copy-able. If anything his bad behaviour is a lot easier to copy.

I'm not saying there is an easy answer here. But I think there are a pair of obvious frames.

Impact.

Role model.

If people could genuinely all start epoch changing companies then this would be less of a concern. But they can't.

On the other hand, anyone can call someone a pedo on Twitter.

You can like and dislike a person's behaviour at the same time.

You can be glad a person exists while wishing they weren't such an asshat.

You can think that someone's best features are very hard to copy while their worst are far too easy.

Be entrepreneurial like Musk. Be funny and charismatic and build companies that make the world better.

Do not be cruel like Musk. Do not randomly accuse far less powerful people of awful crimes and ruin their lives. Do not spread misinformation that leads to people dying.