{"id":22351,"date":"2021-12-13T20:31:25","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T12:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/heres-why-elon-musk-is-times-2021-person-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2021-12-13T20:31:25","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T12:31:25","slug":"heres-why-elon-musk-is-times-2021-person-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/heres-why-elon-musk-is-times-2021-person-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s why Elon Musk is TIME\u2019s 2021 Person of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"img-border featured-image wp-block-image--obfuscated\">\n<p>\t<img width=\"100%\" src=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-electrek-related-guide.png?w=1600\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"Elon Musk\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/electrek.co\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-electrek-related-guide.png?w=320&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/electrek.co\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-electrek-related-guide.png?w=640&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/electrek.co\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-electrek-related-guide.png?w=1024&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/electrek.co\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-electrek-related-guide.png?w=1500&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"><br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>TIME <\/em>magazine has named Elon Musk its 2021 Person of the Year. Here\u2019s why it selected the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-214970\"><\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-elon-musk-is-2021-poy\">Elon Musk is 2021 POY<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First off, let\u2019s reiterate <em>TIME <\/em>magazine\u2019s criterion for Person of the Year, as there is always confusion:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Disclosure: I used to be an associate editor at <em>TIME<\/em> in London, and we had to explain the criterion every year. Reminder that both Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler were Persons of the Year.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are some highlights that shed light on why Musk, who recently disclosed on <em>Saturday Night Live<\/em> that he has Asperger\u2019s, and who the magazine describes as a \u201cclown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad,\u201d was chosen:<\/p>\n<p>\t<span class=\"outbrain-ad-label\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<script type=\"text\/plain\">\n\t\t\twindow.adSlotsConfig = window.adSlotsConfig || [];<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tadSlotsConfig.push( {\n\t\t\t\tslotID: '\/1049447\/Outbrain',\n\t\t\t\tslotName: 'div-gpt-ad-outbrain-ad-214970',\n\t\t\t\tsizes: [300, 250],\n\t\t\t\tslotPosition: 'mid_article'\n\t\t\t} );\n\t\t<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>His startup rocket company,&nbsp;SpaceX, has leapfrogged Boeing and others to own America\u2019s spacefaring future. His car company, Tesla, controls two-thirds of the multibillion-dollar electric-vehicle market it pioneered and is valued at a cool $1 trillion. That has made Musk, with a net worth of more than $250 billion, the richest private citizen in history, at least on paper. <\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s a player in robots and solar, cryptocurrency and climate, brain-computer implants to stave off the menace of artificial intelligence and underground tunnels to move people and freight at super speeds. <\/p>\n<p>He dominates Wall Street: \u201cThe way finance works now is that things are valuable not based on their cash flows but on their proximity to Elon Musk,\u201d Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine&nbsp;wrote in February,&nbsp;after Musk\u2019s \u201cGamestonk!!\u201d tweet vaulted the meme-stock craze into the stratosphere.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Antonio Gracias, Musk\u2019s close friend of two decades, who has held seats on the boards of Tesla and SpaceX, said to <em>TIME<\/em> of Musk:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>He was raised in a tough environment and born with a very special brain.<\/p>\n<p>Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of people in that situation don\u2019t come out of it. Some small percentage come out of it with the ability he has to make great decisions under extraordinary pressure and the never-ending drive to change the course of humanity.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society, who met Musk in 2001, told <em>TIME<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>He is a humanist \u2014 not in the sense of being a nice person, because he isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>He wants eternal glory for doing great deeds, and he is an asset to the human race because he defines a great deed as something that is great for humanity. He is greedy for glory. Money to him is a means, not an end. Who today evaluates Thomas Edison on the basis of which of his inventions turned a profit?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can read <em>TIME<\/em>\u2018s entire profile of Musk here.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-electrek-s-take\">Electrek\u2019s Take<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We at <em>Electrek<\/em> know the impact that Elon Musk has \u2013 many of us drive Teslas, and our colleagues over at <em>Space Explored<\/em> cover the SpaceX program. Tesla\u2019s electric cars are extraordinary, and SpaceX never fails to amaze.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tesla has neither advertising or communications teams, the latter of which often leaves us exasperated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every tweeted opinion Musk posts about topics such as vaccines, taxes, the stock market, and juvenile fart jokes makes a massive impact, and it\u2019s often not in a good way. His rude tweets can rankle, and encourage bad behavior in his devoted fans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We wish Elon would just stop tweeting about the pandemic and paying taxes. But we never want him to stop inventing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, impact, for better or for worse? Musk as 2021 Person of the Year fits the bill perfectly, and mostly for the better.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Read more:<\/strong> Elon Musk says SpaceX could face \u2018genuine risk of bankruptcy\u2019 from Starship engine production<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Photo: \u201cElon Musk\u201d&nbsp;by&nbsp;dmoberhaus&nbsp;is licensed under&nbsp;CC B<\/em>Y 2.0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it\u2019s important to shop for the best quotes.&nbsp;Click here to learn more and get your quotes. \u2014 *ad<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"google-preferred-source-badge-dark\" src=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/google-preferred-source-badge-dark.png\" alt=\"Add Electrek as a preferred source on Google\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"google-preferred-source-badge-light\" src=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/google-preferred-source-badge-light.png\" alt=\"Add Electrek as a preferred source on Google\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"disclaimer-affiliate\">\n<p><!-- post ad -->Stay up to date with the latest content by subscribing to Electrek on Google News.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re reading Electrek\u2014 experts who break news about Tesla, electric vehicles, and green energy, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow Electrek on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don\u2019t know where to start? Check out our YouTube channel&nbsp;for the latest reviews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TIME magazine has named Elon Musk its 2021 Person of the Year. Here\u2019s why it selected the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. Elon Musk is 2021 POY First off, let\u2019s reiterate TIME magazine\u2019s criterion for Person of the Year, as there is always confusion: The person or persons who most affected the news and our [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}