Elon “Icarus” Musk
It’s been fun, hope you land someplace soft when you hit the ground.
Starship SN8 wreckage. A long contemplative gaze at the sun-splashed sculpture on the landing pad. Also, Elon’s dog is present.
I’ve written 5 or 6 articles on Elon since I started this blog and I have to admit, stopped myself another 3 times. He’s a fascinating guy but I really didn’t want to appear obsessed. I don’t think I am, but his need to be loved mixed with his desire for the world to see him as a ‘Tony Stark who doesn’t give a f#@k’, had so much gravity. It just kept pulling my attention back in his direction.
I doubt I need to recap his exploits over the last few years so I won’t bore you, but suffice to say, he did a lot of weird things and generated a lot of attention while doing them.
And that process he had, his willingness to dump tons of money and resources into an idea without vetting it even slightly, created absolute chaos around him. That was a big part of my fascination with him. No one can run with scissors forever without stumbling.
The thing that never made sense to me was, what was his choice of scissors? If you read Dry by Agustine Burroughs, you can see how something can both fuel a meteoric rise and cause your downfall all at the same time. In Burroughs’s case, it was alcohol.
