I remember hearing about Musk first at the time of the PayPal and X.com merger. There were a few persistent rumours around he was an arrogant idiot. At the time I thought there might well be merit to his argument that they were just competitors out to get him.

After the PayPal sale there was talk he hired a PR firm, and the rumour mill went quiet. Most people forgot about it. Then he started popping up in movies and TV all over the place. At the time I thought maybe he had grown or those original rumours were just malicious like he had said.

But then the Thai Cave fiasco happened and it was clear to me the rumours were accurate, but his PR firm did do an excellent job of concealing it until he fucked it all up for them.

Musk was always an idiot. He’s just also always had enough money to conceal it until he can’t help but announce it loudly.