Elon Musk fighting Zuckerberg is a brilliant business move[Finance Fridays]

No I'm not being sarcastic. Elon is paying 4D chess.

Jun 24, 2023

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What do Boris Johnson, Elon Musk, Sam Bankman-Fried, and UFC fighter Paulo Cost all have in common? They all played you like a fiddle to make money. Keep reading to find out how.

Recently the internet has been losing its minds about Elon Musk calling Mark Zuckerberg out for a Cage Match (and Zuck accepting). Reactions have been all over the place- from confusion to people dismissing this as another way for attention-hungry billionaires to court attention.

However, there is one element of this whole fiasco that no one is really talking about. And evaluating that can teach us a whole lot about business, PR, and public maneuvering in the social media age. So in this article, I will focus on that, go over why Elon’s challenge to Zuck is worth Billions, and how this practice is becoming more common than you’d think. Make sure you keep your eyes peeled because this trend has profound implications for your life and the future of business strategy.

The biggest competitor for CNN is not Fox News (or vice versa). The biggest competitor for CNN (and Fox News) is Netflix

-The crux of the idea we will discuss

Musks Billion Dollar Tweet

The background, a story: To start with, I want to tell y’all a true story. I want you to think about the story I’m about to tell you very carefully. This is the story of Paulo Costa, a Middleweight fighter for the MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) organization UFC. Trust me, it will be relevant. At one point, Paulo was an undefeated fighter, billed as a challenge to the champion Izzy. To everyone’s surprise, when the fight rolled around, Paulo got destroyed. This triggered a huge downward spiral in Paulo's career. After the fight, Paulo came up with some very bizarre excuses, which made him look like a sore loser. The next time he fought- he missed weight by a huge margin (this is considered a fatal sin in combat sports) and then lost the fight. This had many fans turn sour on Paulo. Usually, this would be the end of an athlete’s career. However, this story doesn’t end here. Paulo was able to accomplish one of the craziest redemption arcs in the sport, going from Public Enemy #1 to a huge fan favorite within a year- all without fighting again or doing anything ‘positive’ outside the cage. Instead, he used humor (primarily through his Twitter) to slowly change public perception of him. Meme after meme, Paulo changed the narrative, until people only remembered his jokes, and not his misses/disrespectful behavior. He never acknowledged his antics, or went out of his way to rectify them- he just avoided the issue altogether and filled everyone’s memory with memes till they forgot the transgressions. And everyone lapped it up. That my friends, is what we will be talking about in this piece.
What this has to with Musk vs Zuck- Chances are that over the last few days, your social media feeds have contained a lot of content related to this challenge. Chances are that this challenge was the primary topic related to Musk. Why does that matter? Here are a few more Musk stories, that are also very recent-
1. Twitter failed to pay rent on their office buildings. Speaking of Twitter, the use of racial slurs and hate speech on the platform is on the rise.
2. Tesla stock recently got downgraded by Analysts.
3. Musk has caught a lot of flak for his recent Tweets on Gender, Race, and more.
Why does this matter? Much of Musk’s fortune revolves around him and his brand as IRL Tony Stark. Tesla trades at absurd multiples, not because Tesla is exceptional but because people invest their money into companies run by Musk. Thus, Musk’s fortunes live and die by his public perception, much more so than traditional businesses. From this perspective, Musk’s callout takes another light- a way to stop the spread of bad news and associate his name with something ‘quirky’ or ‘cool’. Musk asking Zuck to fight him probably saved the Billions that would have been wiped out through loss in stock valuations. In today’s world, the most effective way to deal with scandal/bad news is to just flood the internet with some other news- the classic misdirection. And everyone falls for it- hook, line, and sinker. Musk played this to perfection. And this is not the only time this has happened.
Exhibit 1: Boris Johnson- Former UK Prime Minister was known to have used this principle of generating noise and distractions to cover up his mistakes extensively. By making ridiculous statements and goofy mistakes, Boris was able to cover up more problematic stories. The following quote from this report sums it up perfectly- Had you Googled ‘Boris Johnson cheese’ a few weeks ago, you’d have been met with results on partygate, from every major news source. Repeat the search now, and you’ll find a page made up almost entirely of stories to do with these new working-from-home comments. In fact, Boris himself admitted to being a fan of such a strategy, calling it a brilliant way to confuse the media.
Exhibit 2: SBF- This is an example we have used before, and I plan to use it again. Before FTX collapsed spectacularly and SBF was outed as a massive fraud, certain people were hailing him as a visionary and a savior of finance. SBF himself used a carefully crafted media persona to continue to play up this image- playing League of Legends during investor meetings, driving his old car, donating money etc. This was used to distract from the billions he was siphoning and the fundamental lack of value in FTX’s business value. Once again, perception trumped reality, and people invested money into fancy packaging without looking to evaluate the product. The use of a quirky personality and oddball behavior was used as a smokescreen to distract from the very real problems lurking beneath the surface.
Why this happens- So why does this happen? Leaving aside paid press releases (which are far more common than you’d think) there is another reason that a smokescreen of quirky behavior works very well- it’s because you love it. Weird and unexpected behavior is inherently attention-grabbing. Add to this a notable personality, and you have instant clicks (especially if the story allows normal people to laugh at these personalities). People are tired, and these stories provide easy entertainment (and are also fairly easy to write). This incentivizes media/content creators to produce more content like this, filling up your social media feeds and your attention with these stories. The subject of these stories benefits because they can cover up the spicier stories. After a few days, people will forget the original scandals and life will move on. Repeat this process like clockwork, and you have a multi-billion dollar media machine dedicated to whitewashing the rich and the powerful.
The future- Expect to see this become more prominent. Did you know that Nestle (and your favorite chocolate company) uses large-scale child exploitation to make chocolates for cheap? If you’re a fan of avocados- there’s a chance that your avocado was plucked by a farmer who is being exploited by the Cartel. These are all well-known scandals that gained some attention and then got drowned out by other news. White-washing with humor/quirkiness is the next logical step to this, and it’s going to continue to grow. More and more people/organizations will just wash away their sins in the raging currents of the clickbait news cycle and manufactured stunts/goofs.
What you should do about this- If you’re looking to profit from this trend, the easiest thing to do is to use generative AI/cheap intern labor and set up your own low-quality & high-quantity content farm. However, keep in mind this is a very competitive field and you will be fighting over pennies. To those of you that want to not fall for this practice, I have some sobering news for you- there’s nothing you can do. We’re social creatures, and this practice exploits the core of what makes us human. We can however limit the downside. To not get distracted by a flood of distractions- you’ll need to limit yourself. Pick a few topics you care deeply about and focus on them. Build a list of high-quality information providers who might expose you to other perspectives. This approach is not perfect, and you will miss out on a lot of information. It might even make you seem ignorant to a lot of people- because you won’t always know the most trending news. But in today’s world, your attention and focus are more valuable than a collection of random trivia that will go out the other ear as quickly as it came in.

Ultimately, this is all a war for manipulating your attention. After all, that is the key to all magic. Once I can divert your attention to where I want, I can pull the magic of transferring the money from your bank accounts into mine. Engage with this magic at your own peril.

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