Talk:Elon Musk

Frequently asked questions

Q1: Can I write a message to Elon Musk here? (No.)

A1: No. The "Talk:Elon Musk" page is not for writing messages to Musk. It is only for discussing changes to the Wikipedia article about him. Writing a message to Musk here is pointless and disruptive, and such messages will be removed as an improper use of the page.

Q2: Can you update the article to call Musk a "business magnet"? (No.)

A2: No. Musk once suggested in an interview that his Wikipedia article be changed to describe him as a "business magnet" rather than a magnate. The tone of that interview was not very serious; he also claimed to be an alien. Wikipedia doesn't have to do what Musk says, and this request has been made and declined dozens of times already. New requests may be removed without a response so that other discussions are not disrupted.

Q3: Should Musk be identified as South African in the opening sentence?

A3: Musk is a US citizen (since 2002) born and raised in South Africa, and also acquired Canadian citizenship via his mother. Including these nationalities in the opening sentence in a balanced way would be complex, and the consensus is that they should instead be explained later in the lead.

Q4: Can you change "Tesla CEO" to "Tesla Technoking"?

A4: No, because he is still CEO according to company records and that is a common corporate title that readers will understand, unlike "Technoking". The goal of the article is to inform people, which would be hindered by raising a confusing technicality.

Q5: Should the mention of Errol Musk having an interest in an emerald mine be removed in view of Elon's denials?

A5: While Elon today vehemently disputes any history with an emerald mine, he formerly accepted and even confirmed it. Specifically, a 2014 report originally printed in the San Jose Mercury News (and cited in the article) stated that Errol Musk had "a stake in" a mine. Elon affirmed his father's mine involvement in an interview with Jim Clash, a career interviewer of public figures, that was published by Forbes and withdrawn without explanation a few months later. Elon biographer Ashlee Vance likewise confirmed Errol's mining interest, with Elon's objections but not denials, in a 2020 interview report with Elon. Errol has stated that he received hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of emeralds from his dealings.

Q6: Should "Bachelor of Arts in Physics" be "Bachelor of Science" instead?

A6: No. Although it may seem counterintuitive, "Bachelor of Arts in Physics" is the degree that the University of Pennsylvania (among other schools) awards.

Q7: Should the article acknowledge doubts about Musk's academic record?

A7: Wikipedia policy on biographies of living persons requires that negative information about a person must be attributed to reliable published sources, and excludes both self-published sources (e.g. Twitter threads) and court trial records. The article states that sources disagree about when Musk obtained bachelor degrees, and that he did not attend Stanford for any significant amount of time. Any doubts beyond this require appropriate sources.

Q8: Why doesn't this article describe Musk as an engineer?

A8: Musk is chief engineer of SpaceX, a title that applies within the company and that the press regularly mentions. He is not a professional engineer, a distinction within engineering that carries certain legal privileges in the United States, nor has he completed an engineering training program, nor has he ever been hired as an engineer. The article therefore does not include any of these claims. It does note that, from time to time, Musk has made initial product proposals at his companies that his trained engineers then research and develop. He does hold IEEE Honorary Membership.

Q9: Why doesn't the article identify Musk as co-founder of PayPal?

A9: Because that could mislead readers that Musk was involved in the creation of the PayPal service and brand, when he was not. Instead, as the article states, he co-founded a company (X.com Corporation) that acquired the company that had developed PayPal (Confinity Inc.) and then renamed itself as PayPal, Inc.

Q10: Why does this page include criticism of Musk's actions and stances?

A10: Musk is criticized/praised a lot in many reliable sources, and as such we need to talk about these criticisms and praise. To quote from Wikipedia's policy on a neutral point of view, articles must represent "fairly, proportionately, and, as far as possible, without editorial bias, all the significant views that have been published by reliable sources on a topic."

Q11: Why is this a "good article" when some people consider Musk a bad person?

A11: "Good article" on Wikipedia refers to the way the article is written, not what kind of person Musk is. Good articles have been found to satisfy Wikipedia editorial standards for accuracy, verifiability and balanced presentation.

Q12: Why doesn't this page call Musk African American?

A12: African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. Reliable sources do not use this term to describe Musk.

References

Describing the "funding secured" tweets as false and misleading

Right now, the article does not go as far as to say that Musk's tweets about taking Tesla private were false or misleading, only that the SEC said that were as such. I think that this is an oversight. In April 2022, a judge even ruled that no reasonable jury would find the statements "not misleading" and that Musk was aware of the "falsity" of such statements. (See https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/04/judge-ruled-elon-musks-funding-secured-tweet-was-false-plaintiffs-say/)

CC X-Editor. QRep2020 (talk) 18:17, 9 September 2022 (UTC)

I was not aware of this, but the article also says that the ruling in question has not been unsealed yet and this claim that the judge ruled this comes from a group of Tesla shareholders, not the judge themselves. I would suggest waiting until the ruling is unsealed before changing the article's content. X-Editor (talk) 18:29, 9 September 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 11 September 2022

In the "Childhood and Family" section, the claim "Musk's family was wealthy during his youth" is unsourced. Meddlingkids00 (talk) 17:47, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

 Done Have repeated a source cited in the preceding paragraph which I think covers this pretty well. Cannolis (talk) 18:13, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

Beat me to it. Thanks Cannolis. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 18:14, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

“Angel investor” in intro needs link or clarification

I’m fairly well-read, and I’ve never heard the term angel investor. This should be linked to a Wikipedia page or otherwise defined in text. 2603:7000:3D00:5DF1:BC9F:40A2:51:FBEB (talk) 12:23, 17 September 2022 (UTC)

Done. Slatersteven (talk) 12:26, 17 September 2022 (UTC)

"Thud! (media company)" listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Thud! (media company) and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 September 17#Thud! (media company) until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. 1234qwer1234qwer4 14:31, 17 September 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 23 September 2022

In the subsection Elon_Musk#Technology:

Elon Musk has been consistently critical of patents, which according to him "serve merely to stifle progress, entrench the positions of giant corporations and enrich those in the legal profession, rather than the actual inventors." Under Musk's leadership, Tesla, Inc has opened its patents to being used by competitors. Aerkem (talk) 16:31, 23 September 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 26 September 2022

Please change:

"Later in 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri borrowed funds from Musk's father and founded Zip2."

To:

"Later in 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded Zip2."

The former is not supported and is in fact contradicted by the article in the citation and is misleading (leading the reader to believe that the loan was required for the founding of Zip2 when it was actually incidental). The Zip2 article states that Errol did indeed contribute money towards Zip2, but only 10% of a funding round in the form of a loan of $28k.

Alternatively:

"Later in 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded Zip2, helped in small part by a loan of $28,000 from Musk's father." 82.5.42.19 (talk) 18:05, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

How is 28,000 USD incidental for micro-start up in 1995? QRep2020 (talk) 22:58, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

Rather than nitpicking my wording, consider whether the image formed by "Musk borrowed funds from his father and founded Zip2" is accurate given the citations. And consider whether the alternative wordings form a more accurate impression for the reader. 82.5.42.19 (talk) 23:05, 26 September 2022 (UTC)