I was going to say, I have seen articles by Elon Musk and we have been discussing them recently, it’s just that for some reason he’s written them under a silly pseudonym like ‘Wait But Why’...
Fair Enough. Maybe I should take Elon Musk out, he has in WBW found a way to push the value of advertising beyond his the cost of his time spent. If Zuckerberg posts to, I will be fully falsified. To compensate, I introduce typical person X whose personal cost-benefit analysis from posting an article is negative. I still argue that this is the standard.
I think you’re missing the broader point I was making: writing your own articles is like changing the oil in your own car. It’s what you do when you are poor, unimportant, have low value of time, or it’s your hobby.
Once you become important, you start outsourcing work to research assistants, personal assistants, secretaries, PR employees, vice presidents, grad students, etc. Musk is a billionaire and a very busy one at that and doesn’t write his own books because it makes more sense for him to bring in someone like WBW to talk to for a few hours and have his staff show them around and brief them, and then they go off and a while later ghostwrite what Musk wanted to say. Zuckerberg is a billionaire and busy and he doesn’t write all his own stuff either, he tells his PR people ‘I want to predictably waste $100m on a splashy donation; write up the press release and a package for the press etc and send me a final draft’. Jobs didn’t write his own autobiography, that’s what Isaacson was for. Memoirs or books by famous politicians or pundits—well, if they’re retired they may have written most or all of it themselves, but if they’re active...? Less famously, superstar academics will often have written little or none of the papers or books published under their names; examples here would be invidious, but I will say I’ve sometimes looked at acknowledgements sections and wondered how much of the book the author could have written themselves. (If you wonder how it’s possible for a single person to write scores of high-quality papers and books and opeds, sometimes the answer is that they are a freak of nature blessed with shortsleeping genes & endless willpower; and sometimes the answer is simply that it’s not a single person.) And this is just the written channels; if you have access to the corridors of power, your time may well better be spent networking and having in-person meetings and dinners. (See the Clinton Foundation for an example of the rhizomatic nature of power.)
I’m not trying to pass judgment on whether these are appropriate ways for the rich and powerful to express their views and influence society, but it is very naive to say that just because you cannot go to the bookstore and buy a book with Musk’s name on it as author, that he must not be actively spreading his views and trying to influence people.
I was going to say, I have seen articles by Elon Musk and we have been discussing them recently, it’s just that for some reason he’s written them under a silly pseudonym like ‘Wait But Why’...
Disintermediation from social media shaming. Also it’s higher status to dictate stuff, and saves time.
When does a ghostwritten book or article deserve the name of the person who types it?
Fair Enough. Maybe I should take Elon Musk out, he has in WBW found a way to push the value of advertising beyond his the cost of his time spent. If Zuckerberg posts to, I will be fully falsified. To compensate, I introduce typical person X whose personal cost-benefit analysis from posting an article is negative. I still argue that this is the standard.
I think you’re missing the broader point I was making: writing your own articles is like changing the oil in your own car. It’s what you do when you are poor, unimportant, have low value of time, or it’s your hobby.
Once you become important, you start outsourcing work to research assistants, personal assistants, secretaries, PR employees, vice presidents, grad students, etc. Musk is a billionaire and a very busy one at that and doesn’t write his own books because it makes more sense for him to bring in someone like WBW to talk to for a few hours and have his staff show them around and brief them, and then they go off and a while later ghostwrite what Musk wanted to say. Zuckerberg is a billionaire and busy and he doesn’t write all his own stuff either, he tells his PR people ‘I want to predictably waste $100m on a splashy donation; write up the press release and a package for the press etc and send me a final draft’. Jobs didn’t write his own autobiography, that’s what Isaacson was for. Memoirs or books by famous politicians or pundits—well, if they’re retired they may have written most or all of it themselves, but if they’re active...? Less famously, superstar academics will often have written little or none of the papers or books published under their names; examples here would be invidious, but I will say I’ve sometimes looked at acknowledgements sections and wondered how much of the book the author could have written themselves. (If you wonder how it’s possible for a single person to write scores of high-quality papers and books and opeds, sometimes the answer is that they are a freak of nature blessed with shortsleeping genes & endless willpower; and sometimes the answer is simply that it’s not a single person.) And this is just the written channels; if you have access to the corridors of power, your time may well better be spent networking and having in-person meetings and dinners. (See the Clinton Foundation for an example of the rhizomatic nature of power.)
I’m not trying to pass judgment on whether these are appropriate ways for the rich and powerful to express their views and influence society, but it is very naive to say that just because you cannot go to the bookstore and buy a book with Musk’s name on it as author, that he must not be actively spreading his views and trying to influence people.