Hey Elon, Were Boring Bricks Too Boring?
First off, I want to state I am an Elon Musk Fan Man. There are days when the only thing that gets me out of bed is reading something new about Musk’s vision for sustainability, space travel, and more. However, being a Fan Man means I cannot just blindly follow Musk’s vision; that is what fanboys do.
It’s been a while since I have written anything, mostly because there are so many great writers at CleanTechnica that I simply don’t feel the need. Finally, something has gnawed me to the point where I had to write again, and I am almost sorry to say it is about Twitter. Now, I certainly would not bet against Elon Musk making Twitter more profitable while being more in line with “freedom of speech.” However, what is the opportunity cost of Musk putting time, effort, and billions into Twitter?
When Elon Musk declared The Boring Company would make bricks available for free to low-cost housing projects, I jumped through the solar roof. I envisioned Tesla or some other Elon Musk company disrupting the housing industry, which is an industry much larger than automobiles or energy storage. Compressed earth blocks with a solar roof would be quite the disruption to the industry.
Unfortunately, it was a brilliant idea that got put on the back burner. For a while that even seemed prudent since Musk had so many ventures already, but then he went and bought Twitter! Of course, it is long been known that Musk loves Twitter; it’s how he expresses himself. However, I am worried that it does not jibe with the movement that I perceived he had started.
The Movement he started seemed largely predicated on being apolitical and using science to tackle the world’s most difficult problems. Now, maybe Twitter fits in there somehow, but I am hoping that this effort does not take up too much of his time and resources. Hopefully, he can recreate Twitter to be free speechified and let it be run by someone else perhaps in a democratic fashion.
I want to see Elon Musk take on housing. If he has time to do Twitter, he has time to do housing. I would also like to see him err on the side of being apolitical. Maybe I got it all wrong. If so, let me know respectfully in the comment section. Or maybe answer the question what else should Elon Musk have spent $43 billion on?
Editor’s note: I also would point out that Musk repeatedly said he couldn’t tackle electric aviation or better HVAC because he didn’t have the time or mental capacity. Jumping into the Twitter sewer and unleashing the sewer rats seems like a much more distracting, mind-numbing, counterproductive venture than electric aviation, better HVAC, or Boring Bricks. As far as $43 billion, well, it could have done a lot to advance battery mineral mining & refining (like “minting money,” as someone might say), critical EV charging infrastructure (no, the Supercharger network isn’t enough), or solving world hunger (which apparently would just cost $6 billion, and a plan was published for all to review). But, hey, I guess even Musk is allowed a midlife crisis or three, and he has clearly been influenced by some far right-wingers lately since he keeps parroting ridiculous, long-debunked conspiracy theories from the same people who pushed Pizzagate and who vote for a politician who has been charged with murdering his wife (and doing a horrible job covering it up as well).
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