Elon Musk as Dionysus

I’ve been searching for tech entrepreneurs that channel the Trickster archetype. Some, like Elizabeth Holmes, resonated really well; others, like Elon Musk, fit at first, but I’ve had growing doubts. Once I started thinking about Apollo and Dionysus, though (cf. Tech Policy as Theater), Musk started making more sense.

Elon Musk is a puzzle. His affect falls somewhere between deadpan and delirium; compare the video clip of him on the Joe Rogan show in 2018 with his remarks after the Crew Dragon landed in 2020. He’s looks socially awkward, but has 38.3 million Twitter followers.

He has accumulated a long list of scandals and controversies. They include drinking whiskey and smoking pot on a podcast; tweeting that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private; accusing a cave diver of being a pedophile; and berating Wall Street analysts for “boring, bonehead questions” (see e.g. USA Today, Sep 2018; PaySpace Magazine, June 2019). Tesla, Inc. has also had its fair share of lawsuits and controversies.

This all reminds me of Dionysus, “the Olympian god of wine, vegetation, pleasure, festivity, madness and wild frenzy” (theoi.com). Musk talked about his frenzied mind on the Joe Rogan Show; at time code 02:16:05:

EM: I don’t think you’d necessarily want to be me.
JR: Well, what’s the worst part about you?
EM: I don’t think people would like it that much.
JR: Well, most people wouldn’t, but they can’t be you. [. . .]
EM: It’s very hard to turn it off.
JR: Yeah.
JR: What’s the hardest part?
EM: It might sound great if it’s turned on.
JR: Sleep?
EM: But what if it doesn’t turn off?

At 02:21:59, Rogan noted that there seemed to be a franticness to Musk’s creativity, and Musk responded by calling it a never ending explosion. Musk remarked that when he was five or six, he thought he was insane; he thought, “Hmm, I’m strange.”

As for pleasure, here's Musk at 00:58:00: "I mean, I think, a Tesla is the most fun thing you could possibly buy ever. That's what it's meant to be. Well, our goal is to make <pause>. It's not exactly a car. It's actually a thing to maximize enjoyment, make as maximum fun."

And if you have Dionysus, you have the frenzied train of satyrs and maenads. For Musk, that includes social media followers and now stock market fans. In the summer of 2020, Tesla became the most valuable auto company in the world, with its market cap rocketing (sorry) past Toyota (WSJ video). There are lots of web search hits for “musk frenzy.” Topics cover a wide ranges, from the stock price to the claim that he “sparked an online frenzy after he suggested in a tweet the Great Pyramids of Giza were built by aliens” (Daily Express, Aug 2020).

However, Musk is not just Dionysus. I was struck by Doug Hurley’s praise for the quality of the Crew Dragon training software: “The mission went just like the simulators” (SpaceFlight Now, August 2020). Prophecy is one of Apollo’s attributes; and building code that good requires finding, inspiring and managing Apollonian intellects. Musk’s companies do engineering that is Apollonian in its clarity. As Dan Neal wrote in the WSJ about the Model Y: “I was debating whether to proclaim the new Tesla Model Y the best car in the world. Given that . . . ; there is a certain Vulcan logic to it.” From Apollo to Socrates to Mr. Spock; just a few steps.

I suspect Musk is so effective because he combines the Apollonian and Dionysian. If one wants an image, just look at video of the two Falcon Heavy boosters landing simultaneously.

It’s not only amazing engineering, but it also goes to the gut. 

Still – Musk may have some Trickster too, given his knack for disruption and novelty. What Neil Gaiman said about Loki in Norse Mythology is probably how Wall Street thinks about Musk: “He is tolerated by the gods, perhaps because his stratagems and plans save them as often as they get them into trouble. Loki makes the world more interesting but less safe.” Dionysus seems a better fit overall, but Trickster is a shape-shifter...

Update 26 June 2021: In his review of Elon Musk's new Model S, 2021 Tesla Model S Plaid: Feel the Force—0-60 in 2 Seconds, Dan Neil wrote in the WSJ on June 24, 2021:

Why does the Plaid need to be so fast? Call it emotional proof of concept. Company chairman Elon Musk spoke the quiet part out loud when he used the word “limbic” to describe the appeal. After all the numbers, the Plaid doesn’t honor the Apollo of Reason but the Dionysus of Delta-v. Supplicants leave offerings in their togas.