r/AskReddit • u/DrCompenomics • 12h ago

Who’s the best real-life example of “you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain,” and what happened?

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u/ATLienNumber9 7h ago

I worked at a smaller tech startup at the time filled with engineers from GA Tech and Elon was all but worshiped in those circles.

At the time we knew that was weird way to handle it for a leader of such large companies but I think a lot of smart people still believed he was genuinely a very intelligent person.

Looking back of course that was truly was the first public red flag.

IMO the paradigm really shifted once he bought twitter and demanded his engineers 'print out their most succinct code'.

The wool was fully removed at that point. This guy is an air bag. A really, really, really deceptive air bag.

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u/mpdscb 3h ago

I bet the writers at Star Trek Discovery wish they had left his name off the list of great pioneers. It sounds so cringe now.

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u/MrPlowThatsTheName 1h ago

They also speak positively of him in Moonfall. “What would Elon do?”

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u/mpdscb 1h ago

What would he do indeed! LOL

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u/KiloJools 5h ago

I thought it was a joke at first, just like the "let that sink in" prank.

Later I read that he thought that if the flooring can handle up to 500lbs, a 2,000lbs server rack would be fine because they all had four rolling feet, so it would only be 500lbs on each foot.

Now, I am legitimately bad at math. I have dyscalculia. It takes me some serious effort to do basic arithmetic.

BUT EVEN I KNEW THAT WAS FUCKED UP! What kind of ignoramus do you gotta be? Plus that whole situation of suddenly moving data centers was bizarre.