I sat on the syndicate desk of a global investment bank from the dot-com crash through the global financial crisis.
We had to do a lot of media work to promote deals. One day I asked our Global Head of Communications why the media was so gentle with us.
He laughed:
“Because we’re one of their biggest advertisers.”
That explains a lot of the media’s treatment of Elon.
Tesla is so successful, its ad spend is effectively zero, or ~0.01% of the $40 billion global auto advertising market.
No ad dollars = no protection.
No one knows this better than Big Pharma.
They don't make confusing and enigmatic ads to sell you product; they make the ads to control the media.
I've been using Grok Build since the first 24-hours it was made available. It is still my favorite agentic coding cli, and there are so many little features I just love.
So I thought I'd put together a little thread on what makes Grok Build so special, and some features you should try if you haven't yet.
Let's kick it off 🧵
Civilizations die from suicide.
After spending 3 decades studying 26 civilizations, Toynbee found that civilizations rise when a creative minority actually solves hard problems and earns real loyalty from the people.
Then that same minority hardens into a dominant minority that keeps power through force and habit while it stops actually leading.
The majority disengages and a schism opens in the body social.
External threats only finish what already started from inside.
No invading army ever killed a healthy civilization, they only bury the ones that have already stopped believing in themselves.