Kurt Elia

Father, Brewer, Investor, Coach. “All of this has happened before. All of this will happen again.”

[Kurt Elia @kurtelia]

Dividends are Dumb. Why?
1. It means mgmt can’t think of ways to invest cash in growing the business
2. Share repurchases are a much more tax efficient way to return capital to SH
3. If you want “income” from your stocks, just sell a few shares and get taxed at a lower rate

[Kurt Elia @kurtelia]

@DirtyTesLa Same. And since you are never in direct sunlight when trying to do it, even if you *think* you got it all, you see the reality when you drive down the road... 😞

[Kurt Elia @kurtelia]

@historyinmemes @grok what happened to the doctors and nurses involved in this case

[Kurt Elia @kurtelia]

@PeterDiamandis Will you be leveraging this at Fountain Life?

[Kurt Elia @kurtelia]

@SashaGusevPosts This quote from the source paper's abstract doesn't seem to be good news for millennials or their parents: "Intergenerational progress for Millennials under age 30 has remained robust as well, although their income growth largely results from higher reliance on their parents."

[Kurt Elia @kurtelia]

@Orbit_Breaker @SawyerMerritt Waiting for the non-launch edition where they will hopefully offer a RWD Y L that gets ~360mi range like the RWD model Y with 19” wheels

[Carey @carey_wedler]

No one could have predicted a politician saying one thing but doing another. 😱😵‍💫

[Kurt Elia @kurtelia]

@DirtyTesLa First long FSD 14.1 drive in cold weather yesterday and the cameras kept fogging up and then clearing up on their own. My guess is the defrost algorithm may need tweaking. @tesla

[Kurt Elia @kurtelia]

@krassenstein I just looked and they are still there

[Kurt Elia @kurtelia]

@Wisdom_HQ @threadreaderapp unroll

[Kurt Elia @kurtelia]

@Wisdom_HQ @threadreaderapp

[Chris Anderson @TEDchris]

With a certain amount of trepidation, I'm posting this open letter to @elonmusk, someone I have admired, but who, right now, is causing me concern. I know I'm not alone in thinking these thoughts. Please like or repost if you're willing... And Elon, if you're listening, please know this is offered in a constructive spirit.

-----

Dear Elon,

A thought hit me this morning.

On top of all your achievements in technology and entrepreneurship, you have become this century's single most influential writer.  You have more than 200 million followers on a powerful platform that you yourself control. And the words that you write flow well beyond just those followers into almost every user of X and far beyond courtesy of extensive media coverage.   This makes Rupert Murdoch at his prime seem inconsequential.

It must feel exhilarating. You made a huge gamble buying Twitter and it seems to have paid off spectacularly to the point that you can use it to massively impact the world, including changing governments.  You believe that X can largely replace most mainstream media. It is the new platform for citizen journalism, and you are citizen number 1.  You don’t need the hassle of editors and fact-checkers. Every single thing you post garners millions of likes and reposts. In a heartbeat you can change the global conversation.  No one in history has had this much power.

So there’s a lot at stake here, and, as it happens, journalism is something I care deeply about. I began my career as a journalist because I believed that good journalism was essential for the healthy functioning of democracy. Today I am worried — quite deeply worried, actually — that in your triumphant seizing of the global conversation, some of the core tenets of journalism are being forgotten. Without them, I think your efforts to make X the respected home of citizen journalism will fail.

There are numerous journalistic principles that matter — Grok can summarize them quite nicely. But there’s one in particular that’s been troubling me. It’s the fairness doctrine. The one that says that before you publish savagely critical claims about an individual, or an institution, you reach out to them for their side of the story. After all, just possibly, you may have missed a key fact or two that would change how people assess what has happened. Just possibly your sources were motivated to cause damage to that individual. Just possibly there’s an alternative explanation of what happened.

So, for example, when you tell hundreds of millions of people that someone should be hanged or jailed for outrageous crimes against humanity, just possibly you should first sound out what those who know those people really well would say about them. Some of your recent posts could literally get someone killed. Do you really want to risk that? How is it possible that you can do this at the very same time that you’re calling on people to make X more positive, more beautiful?  You say you want to maximize un-regretted user-seconds on X.  By far the simplest way you could do this, Elon, is simply to thoughtfully edit what you yourself post.

I get that from your eyes the issues you are championing are unbelievably important and worthy of extreme efforts. But the way you are presenting them is not citizen journalism. It's playground bullying. It’s crass and it’s cruel, and it’s therefore not nearly as effective as it could be.  You’re hearing the cheers of your most loyal followers, but missing the fact you’re making yourself a laughing stock among many who you really want on your side. Long-term that’s going to damage X, your other businesses, and indeed your long-term dreams for humanity.  No one wants to follow a playground bully to Mars.

I miss the old Elon. You can be funny, interesting, insightful and inspiring. You've fought incredibly hard for what you've built. And you may feel you're entitled to do whatever the hell you want with it. But I also know that you understand the danger of holding too tightly to the ring of power, how it can distort someone's judgement and turn them ugly.

I’m hoping you can loosen that ring just a little. For the love of humanity that you profess, I really urge you to embrace the fairness doctrine and showcase a better face of X.

Thanks for listening.

Chris

[Kurt Elia @kurtelia]

@garykarr @DavidGFool ‘Twas a 5x spiffy for me! Thanks @DavidGFool

[Kurt Elia @kurtelia]

@kwharrison13 You can't fight free

[Kurt Elia @kurtelia]

@DavidGFool @TMFRuleBreakers @themotleyfool Present! I still remember one line from your reco, where you said that driving the Model S was the closest you had ever been to feeling like a superhero! The stock pick sure has been super. Thanks, David!

[Kurt Elia @kurtelia]

@interesting_aIl Great as long as you don’t ever put anything on the counter! RIP toaster, coffee maker, mixer, etc.

[Governor Josh Stein @NC_Governor]

This is a flat out lie. We’re working with all partners around the clock to get help to people. Trump’s lies and conspiracy theories have hurt the morale of first responders and people who lost everything, helped scam artists and put government and rescue workers in danger. - RC

[Sawyer Merritt @SawyerMerritt]

The fact that the Model Y is now literally the best-selling car in the world just 4 years after this article came out makes this even funnier.

[Kurt Elia @kurtelia]

@alojoh @Tesla @GM Looks like an impressive offering from GM, but if they lose money selling it and Tesla starts offering the same CT for $20k less in a couple months (at a profit), game over.

[Kurt Elia @kurtelia]

@wholemars All this article links to is Biden’s budget proposal which doesn’t propose either of these things. Says cap gains would be taxed as ordinary income and high net worth individuals minimum tax rate would be 25% it doesn’t say it would apply to unrealized gains. Fake news?