Yeah, reading that gave me a bad taste in my mouth.

He asked the guy to give $8 million of his own money to the cause he is passionate about. Okay, that's not unethical or anything. It's worth a try.

But he could have done that in a private message. He made it public in order to pressure him into doing it. He told everyone about how much money he has and that he doesn't always use it for noble/useful things (who does?) to guilt him into paying up.

Now people will think ill of Musk if he doesn't give up his own 8 muh-muh-million dollars for the cause they've cared so deeply about for the last two hours. I'd say that's pretty low.

EDIT: It also quickly became obvious his reason for posting his car review, which was to drive publicity to his cause. That further reveals Inman's reliance upon public pressure in this "request."

Last edited by Sam F (2014-05-14 03:17:05)

But he made the point to say that the support is not going to come from elsewhere. This is a very tightly focused plea for one man to give money.

The real shit thing is how Musk has already given some money.

Musk's tweeted offer to help is a classy move. He has the resources to get people involved in forming a proper board of directors and raising the money to build a proper museum. And it won't cost him $8 million personally.

It's possible that he has thought (or been told by his PR staff) that he needs to build a Tesla museum of some kind anyway, even if it's just in a corner of his corporate headquarters, off the lobby waiting room. It's just good policy. Most big corporations have something somewhere that displays some of their history.

EDIT: And I don't regard it as especially crass of Inman to ask. Everything he says is true, and it's the kind of thing that museum directors say to potential donors all the time. He's just a little clumsy to say it publicly on his little cat cartoons website.

I strongly suspect that a conversation between an established museum director and a potential donor would sound a lot like a Medieval friar trying sell an indulgence to a merchant.

Last edited by Zarban (2014-05-14 16:00:38)

Sort of a "Musk and Me"?

Cannot STAND The Oatmeal, and the Tesla worship in particular bugs the shit out of me. Nikola Tesla was a fascinating and eccentric personality. Piling heaps of praise on him and making angry webcomics when people dare to criticize him reduces him to some generic "science hero" and that's bullshit.

Also it's a shitty, unfunny webcomic that panders to the worst internet in-jokes (lol bacon lol cats!!! XD XD).

Although, I think we can all agree, Edison was a massive asshole.