So, I don鈥檛 hate . In myriad ways, he鈥檚 a genius engineer, entrepreneur and marketer. is a legit EV leader. is a transformative company. And Elon himself, for better or worse, is certainly a colorful public figure.
But nonetheless, I am sick of hearing about and from Elon Musk.听
This has been the state of affairs for a while. However, it intensified this spring, when Musk disclosed his big stake in and initiated a bid to take the company private. Suddenly, the perennially attention-mongering started monopolizing even more of our collective mental energy.
Search less. Close more.
Grow your revenue with all-in-one prospecting solutions powered by the leader in private-company data.
Since then, if anything, it鈥檚 gotten worse. One day recently, for instance, 鈥檚 tech news page contained five out of 11 headlines featuring Musk-related news, including four with headshots. While that was a particularly Musk-heavy day, most times it seems like there are at least two headlines about him.
It鈥檚 not just . A search for 鈥淓lon Musk鈥 on News produced a staggering 119 million results. It would take someone reading 119 articles a day over 2,700 years to go through all that. That鈥檚 also more than 3x the combined total for the four other richest men in the world. (, , 听补苍诲 .) These days, it鈥檚 hard to visit any major tech news site without at least one Elon headshot near the top of the scroll.听
It鈥檚 enough already. Here鈥檚 the three-part case for why it鈥檚 time to tune out Elon:
No. 1: You will still hear about Elon Musk even if you try not to.
Think of it like cutting carbs. You will still find carbs in everything you want to eat. Or like ignoring and her cohorts. You certainly can try (and I do). But nonetheless, I and everyone else still seem to know all about her hairstyle, ex drama and underwear line.
Anyone who follows tech news will still hear enough mentions of Musk to stay abreast of goings-on in his world even without clicking on a single Elon-related piece of content.听
No. 2: Elon Musk is not tech or EVs.
Hearing about what is going on in Elon Musk鈥檚 life will not make you smarter or more knowledgeable about electric vehicles, hyperloop transportation, tunnel-boring, AI, brain-computer interfaces, advanced rocketry or living on Mars.听
If one is truly interested in these subjects, seek out leading experts and subject-specific media. For mass media, meanwhile, it would be nice to see other headshots associated with these themes. There also are roughly 9 million people in the U.S. technology industry alone, and over 55 million . Meanwhile, thousands of funded founders are working on these and related areas. Plenty of them would provide a very good return on investment for your attention.
听No. 3: Attention is a limited resource.听
One of the least productive uses of attention is to direct it toward celebrity drama. Said celebrity won鈥檛 be giving you anything in return for your time beyond, perhaps, some fleeting entertainment.
These days, as billionaires and politicians also qualify as celebrities, much of the time we spend perusing political and financial 鈥渘ews鈥 is just another form of following star gossip. It鈥檚 unlikely to change who we vote for, whose car we buy, or what stocks we鈥檒l buy or sell.
It鈥檚 also time-consuming. And, at the end of the day, it doesn鈥檛 matter what Elon Musk thinks about fertility rates, Crimean sovereignty, 听or Bill Gates鈥 physique.听
Deleting Musk from my Twitter feed this spring offered a small step toward reclaiming some attention for more productive purposes. Granted, it鈥檚 probably been squandered on other time-wasting endeavors. At least, however, it鈥檚 something different.
Illustration:听
Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the 附近上门 Daily.


67.1K Followers