# How does someone with no business acumen get to be the richest person in the world? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 14, 2022, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903 "2022-11-14T19:46:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 19
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/361 "2022-12-09T09:02:15Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > I certainly don’t think Musk will reinvent social media the way he did orbital launch, but at the same time there is certainly _some_ room for improvement, and a bit more transparency and consistency in moderation would be a nice start. Do you think that Twitter under Musk has exhibited improved “transparency and consistency in moderation”? How you figure? ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/362 "2022-12-09T11:48:32Z")
I wonder if a mod could change the title to “second richest person”? (I’m kidding about actually changing it) Poor Musk. It must really be a blow to his fragile ego to know that’s he destroyed nearly half of his fortune now that the mask has come off. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/363 "2022-12-09T11:56:50Z")
> **[A Member of Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council Explains Why She Got Fed Up...](https://slate.com/technology/2022/12/twitter-elon-musk-trust-and-safety-council-members-quit-interview.html)** > > Eirliani Abdul Rahman helped the platform stop youth sexual exploitation. The new boss wasn’t listening. " Just days after he became company head, Trust and Safety staffers at Twitter found themselves [barred from using the content moderation tools](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-01/twitter-limits-content-enforcement-tools-as-us-election-looms) they normally had access to, as Bloomberg reported at the time; the neglect and “ghosting” of the council led members like Danielle Keats Citron (also a [Slate contributor](https://slate.com/author/danielle-citron)) to ask the company if her group was even “still a thing,” or if [Musk was aware of its existence](https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgpkbk/members-of-twitters-trust-and-safety-council-not-sure-elon-musk-knows-they-exist) at all. Plus, one of Musk’s first moves was to [fire Vijaya Gadde](https://www.axios.com/2022/10/28/elon-musk-twitter-ceo-parag-agrawal), Twitter’s head of legal, policy, trust, and safety, who’d acted as the liaison between the Trust and Safety Council and Twitter’s C-suite." “This, along with an “unprecedented rise” in hate speech and the reinstatement of banned accounts like Donald Trump’s, led Abdul Rahman and fellow council members Anne Collier and Lesley Podesta to [publicly step down on Thursday morning](https://twitter.com/annecollier/status/1600889250761027585).” " But after weeks of failed outreach to the electric car titan, while he appeared to be [learning the complexities of content moderation](https://slate.com/technology/2022/12/kanye-west-twitter-suspension-elon-musk-antisemitism.html) in real time and [changing policy on a whim via public polls](https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/elon-musk-twitter-polls-vote.html), she didn’t see any point. “Musk is tweeting something online—a policy changes. He’s doing polls online—a policy changes. That’s not how policy should be done,” Abdul Rahman said to me. “There should be a scientific, evidence-based approach. And we should be considering people’s mental health.”" I think I trust the former members of the Trust and Safety committee over “Source: Some guy on the internet that loves Musk.” ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/364 "2022-12-09T21:26:18Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Do you think that Twitter under Musk has exhibited improved “transparency and consistency in moderation”? How you figure? I said it would be a nice start, not that anything has been achieved yet. A tool that shows the account status (whether posts have been deboosted, etc.) seems pretty reasonable. Supposedly coming in a future update. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/365 "2022-12-09T22:17:23Z")
…now Elon Musk (ironically in conversation with one of the original pizzagate protagonists [Mike Cernovich](https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/mike-cernovich)) said of the previous Twitter regime “It is a crime that they refused to take action on child exploitation for years!” > Previous CEO Jack replies “This is false” then later says that his emails (that he no longer has access too) would prove that. Whether or not you believe there has been a “notable reduction in child exploitation content” really seems to pivot on whether or not you believe Musk when he claims that Twitter “refused to take action on child exploitation for years.” The fact that we know there was a team that existed to prevent child exploitation and that the team was reduced by half when Elon Musk took over don’t make Musk’s claims look credible. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/366 "2022-12-09T22:27:34Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > Previous CEO Jack replies “This is false” then later says that his emails (that he no longer has access too) would prove that. I wonder if Jack Dorsey and Musk are still on the best of terms. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/367 "2022-12-09T22:48:42Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > you believe Musk Nope. Not on this or anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/368 "2022-12-09T23:03:46Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > Bari Weiss has been an alt-right grifter for a while now. And along with Matt “guess what I got up to in Russia” Taibbi these are the three “journalists” that Elon Musk has chosen to grant “extensive, unfiltered access to Twitter’s internal communication and systems.” So I followed Matt Taibbi’s substack for a couple of years. I recently ended my subscription because I don’t like his mocking tone, his coverage is entirely one-sided and at times he seems a bit hysterical. However shortly after I stopped subscribing, he sent a breathless email about how something huge was going to happen on Twitter and hopefully we won’t be mad it didn’t break on Substack first. I was like, “What a drama queen.” (Are all journalists like this? I’ve followed a few on Substack (Glenn Greenwald and some other guy who got booted from liberal media) and they just seem to have an inflated sense of self-importance.) So this was Taibbi’s news, I guess. I’m mildly curious what he’s going to do with the information. But probably not curious enough to re-subscribe. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/369 "2022-12-09T23:08:20Z")
More fuel for the fire: > **[Twitter sued for targeting women and staff on family leave in layoffs](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/12/twitter-lawsuit-alleges-musk-layoffs-disproportionately-targeted-women/)** > > Twitter laid off 63% of women in engineering roles compared to 48% of men. He also fired a huge percentage of people on family leave. What a class act. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/370 "2022-12-09T23:27:44Z")
I think you’ll find the venn diagram of Musk fans and people who think women are inherently poor software developers is essentially a single circle. This is just further proof of his HR genius. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2022, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/371 "2022-12-10T02:21:04Z")
…just to put an end to this aside: this just happened. > > [@](#): > > Elon is now replying in agreement to Lara Logan, who was recently banned from Newsmax for spreading conspiracies about a “global cabal” of UN officials who “dine on the blood of children”: I’ve come to two conclusions: 1. That any information about “child exploitation” that we get from either Elon himself, his team, or anyone aligned with his team, is suspect. 2. Elon Musk may well be the most high-profile Qanon CEO. Because lets get real here: Elon Musk is down the rabbit hole and on the other side now. He’s gone. Can a person who believes in obvious conspiracy theories run a successful business? Sure. Look at Donald Trump, or any of his lackies. Some of his businesses may go bankrupt: but he always fall back on his feet. Does that mean they have business acumen? It depends. Based on the definition that I posted earlier in the thread: nope. Neither Trump nor Musk tick any of those boxes. Does that mean they are doomed to fail at business? Nope. Because the grifter class surround themselves with grifters who will willingly “fall on their swords” to protect the boss. As someone who has seen how quickly people can be indoctrinated into movements like g#mergate and qanon what happens next is probably going to be very ugly. Alexandra Erin points this out and I think she is spot on: > [@Alexandra Erin](#): > > I feel like we’re going to find out, down the line, that “child safety” didn’t mean “keeping children safe” but “eliminating trans people”. > > And the only reason I’m not 100% confident in that is there were definitely people inside Twitter working on that. > > > Elon Musk @elonmusk If you look at everyone who Elon Musk is talking to now, if you look at the things he is saying, that he has allowed the likes of Abigail Shrier insider access to Twitter records, I think we are on a much worse trajectory than anyone could have imagined a month ago. I think all this talk about “child exploitation” is just code-words for something else, and that terrifies me. Social media has been used as a platform to support bad things in many places around the world. Twitter had to work hard in order to not facilitate that: but those handrails are gone now. I say this with complete sincerity: if you’ve previously been hitched to the “Elon Musk train”, then now’s the time to get off. We are at the “things are about to get dark” phase of the Twitter acquisition. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2022, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/372 "2022-12-10T02:33:15Z")
Musk seems to have lapses in judgement, but this hardly means he lacks business skills. Tesla was overvalued and it was inevitable this would go down. But advertising is fundamental to Twitter - AFAIK; can he keep flirting with those hostile to Western and democratic values and keep them? ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2022, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/373 "2022-12-10T02:39:59Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Musk seems to have lapses in judgement, but this hardly means he lacks business skills. …not business skills: business _acumen_. Here is a definition I provided earlier: > **[Business Acumen Definition : Who Needs it and Why](https://www.chris-elgood.com/business-acumen-definition/)** > > A Business Acumen Definition and exploration of 'Who needs it?' and 'How do you acquire it?' Is it an innate skill? How can training and experience help? Feel free to post your own. I personally don’t think he ticks any of those boxes. ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/374 "2022-12-12T14:39:53Z")
> [@BeepKillBeep](#): > > I wonder if a mod could change the title to “second richest person”? (I’m kidding about actually changing it) It’s easy to make a small fortune in rockets, electric cars, neural implants, subways, solar panels, and social media - start with a large one. > [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > Can a person who believes in obvious conspiracy theories run a successful business? Sure. Look at Donald Trump, or any of his lackies. There is precious little evidence Donald Trump ran a successful business. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/375 "2022-12-12T15:25:09Z")
> [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](#): > > It’s easy to make a small fortune in rockets, electric cars, neural implants, subways, solar panels, and social media - start with a large one. I’m not a Musk fan, far from it in fact. However I think this is unfair. He is a wildly successful investor. I think it would be only fair for us to accept he’s probably good at that stuff. (if not nice if you’re also involved in the company he’s investing in) He started with only a fraction of what Fred Trump funneled to his children and he ended up with literally the biggest fortune in history (on paper at least). It looks kinda petty to poo poo that legitimately enormous achievement, especially since the man does and says so much unbelievably stupid shit we could be making fun of. ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/376 "2022-12-12T16:12:46Z")
It was just a joke. He has been enormously successful despite recent setbacks. His humbled financial state is more vaunted than a thousand of me. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/377 "2022-12-12T19:21:52Z")
I will now slip into the role of Herodes, not the nicest of caracters, I admit, but it is for a good cause so please be indulgent with me. Let’s sing! Sing! Sing! Elon, I am overjoyed to meet you face to face, You’ve been getting quite a hashtag all around the place, Impregnating groupies, raising from the debt, Now I understand you’re Midas, At least that’s what you’ve said… So, you are the Musk, you’re the great Elon Musk, Prove to me that you’re divine, drive my car without hands! That’s all you need do, then I’ll know it’s all true, C’mon, king of the Rubes! Elon, you just won’t believe the hit you’ve made round here, You are all we talk about, you’re the wonder of the year! Oh, what a pity if it’s all a lie, Still, I’m sure that you can rock the critics if you try. So if you are the Musk, yes, the great Elon Musk, Prove to me that you’re no fool, walk across your swimming pools, If you do that for me, then I’ll let you go free, C’mon, king of the Rubes! I only ask what I’d ask any megarich: What is it that you have got that puts you where you are? Oh ho ho, I am waiting, yes, I’m a captive fan, I’m dying to be shown that you are not just any man. So, if you are the Musk, yes, the great Elon Musk, Send a rocket up to Mars, you can blast it off your ars’! Or has something gone wrong? Elon, why do you take so long? Oh c’mon, king of the Rubes! Hey! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? Mr. Hyperloop Bore! You’re a joke, you’re no overlord, You are nothing but a fraud! Take him away, he’s got nothing to tweet! Get out, you king of the Get out, king of the Oh get out you king of the Rubes Get out of here You, you, get out of here you Get out of my life! ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/378 "2022-12-12T20:21:59Z")
And speaking of Twitter, here is a tweet feed from someone who is quite pissed about a lot of things in the firm (I hope it has not been shared yet, I have not read everything in this thread yet): > Don’t know how much is true, but it does not sound good. Employers installing spyware on purpose? Just for starters… ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/379 "2022-12-12T21:25:39Z")
Wow, no development environment? That’s completely insane. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/380 "2022-12-12T22:09:40Z")
Some of those technicians and engineers must be geniuses considering twitter is still running. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903.md?page=18) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903.md?page=20)