Elon Musk’s latest antics have some asking: is he out of touch?

When Elon Musk threatens to drive uninvited to a business rival’s house to physically fight him, it raises questions about what’s going on with the world’s richest man. Among them: Has the joke gone too far?

Some Musk supporters worry that he has lost touch, saying he is ensconced in a distorted reality that is warping his perspective and threatening his businesses. Picture: AFP

What started as a funny tit-for-tat in late June about a potential physical duel slipped into weird territory when Mark Zuckerberg’s handler had to issue a statement Monday that the Meta Platforms boss wasn’t “going to fight someone who randomly shows up at his house.” Such antics are now leading some Musk supporters to worry aloud that he has lost touch, saying he is ensconced in a distorted reality that is warping his perspective and threatening his businesses at a time when he is trying to oversee multiple companies in different industries.

“Before the cult of personality, he would get feedback and adjust the wildness appropriately,” tweeted Fred Lambert, editor of a website devoted to electric cars called Electrek.

“Now with the cult of personality in full force, the feedback loop is broken. He gets validation from the millions of fans who think he can do no wrong, and those who disagree are labelled as the enemy,” wrote Lambert, who has described Musk as his hero.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino has been trying to draw advertisers back to the platform after many brands fled in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover. Picture: Rebecca Blackwell/AP

Musk often talks about the importance of negative feedback. Just this past week, for example, he was engaging with X users raising complaints and thoughts about the platform, formerly known as Twitter. “Thankfully, Twitter will always provide you with a negative feedback loop,” Musk said at a conference earlier this year.

Of course, business leaders who seem to be detached can have negative consequences.

Heading into bankruptcy reorganisation more than a decade ago, General Motors senior leaders were painted as out of touch, riding elevators from their private garage to their sky-high glass offices above it all. More recently, Anheuser-Busch InBev executives were criticised for losing touch with Bud Light consumers in a marketing campaign that erupted into a new front in the culture wars and left the iconic beer brand with a bad hangover.

Musk’s latest spectacle comes as his companies, including X and electric-car maker Tesla, are at crucial junctures.

Musks ‘gets validation from the millions of fans who think he can do no wrong, and those who disagree are labelled as the enemy’, says Fred Lambert, editor of a website devoted to electric cars called Electrek. Picture: AFP

X’s new chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, is trying to get advertisers back on the platform after many brands fled following Musk’s takeover in late October and subsequent months of drama. In her early days, Yaccarino has been highlighting steps the company has taken to ensure brands can feel their ads will be around content they find acceptable.

Tesla shares are down about 20% since Musk proposed a cage fight with Zuckerberg in late June, ahead of Meta launching a rival platform called Threads.

The spectre of a cage fight adds another irritation as challenges hang over Tesla stock, which despite being down recently has risen about 75% this year. Among investor concerns are worries about price cuts and increased competition.

Elon Musk proposed a cage fight with Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms co-founder Mark Zuckerberg in late June. Picture: AFP

“The back-and-forth banter about Musk and Zuck fighting it out gladiator style may be good for @X engagement but it’s not helpful to $TSLA stock, ” Gary Black, a vocal Tesla investor, tweeted. “The fight isn’t a driver -- it’s noise. But if I’m an institutional investor the uncertainty keeps me out of the stock as it becomes less and less fundamentals driven. It’s too exhausting to keep up with all the noise that’s irrelevant to $TSLA valuation.” Further exasperating the issue is recent leadership changes at Tesla, where investors had already been jittery about Musk being distracted with X.

The fight isn’t a driver - it’s noise. But if I’m an institutional investor the uncertainty keeps me out of the stock as it becomes less and less fundamentals driven. It’s too exhausting to keep up with all the noise that’s irrelevant to $TSLA valuation.

— Gary Black (@garyblack00) August 11, 2023

Earlier this month Musk’s deputy at Tesla, Chief Financial Officer Zach Kirkhorn, stepped down, raising questions about succession at the automaker as it prepares to bring out its first new passenger vehicle in more than three years and accelerate its expansion with new factories in Mexico and elsewhere.

Sometimes creating a bubble can be a superpower.

In his biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson wrote about the Apple co-founder’s so-called reality distortion field, or, his way of creating his own reality around people with his charm, will and bending of facts that helped create world-changing products, such as the iPhone.

Isaacson has written a biography of Musk that is scheduled to be published next month, and he has been talking about traits that Musk and the late Jobs shared, including a habit of treating people poorly as they focus instead on their companies’ missions rather than an individual’s feelings.

“Elon Musk does not have, intuitively, the empathy gene to care that much,” Isaacson said in a March interview with tech journalist Kara Swisher. “Whether the person in front of him likes him or thinks, you know, he is, he’s just a rough character when it comes to empathy.” That rough character can leave him vulnerable, employees over the years have routinely said. Most recently, Esther Crawford, a former senior executive at then-Twitter, shared her experiences working with Musk.

“In person Elon is oddly charming and he’s genuinely funny,” she said late last month in a video she recorded about her experiences before being laid off. “He also has personality quirks like telling the same stories and jokes over and over. The challenge is his personality and demeanour can turn on a dime going from excited to angry.” Because of those mood shifts, Crawford said, employees became afraid to share any negative news with him and, she suggested, he didn’t seem especially interested in hearing from them anyway.

“Instead he’d poll Twitter, ask a friend, or even ask his biographer for product advice,” she said. “At times it seemed he trusted random feedback more than the people in the room who spent their lives dedicated to tackling the problem at hand. I never figured out why and remain puzzled by it.” The latest puzzle played out this past week in an odd string of tweets by Musk after Zuckerberg suggested his rival wasn’t serious about going through with the proposed bout. The two had both publicly toyed with doing a brawl, but Zuckerberg has indicated Musk was unwilling to settle on a date.

Elon Musk, right, at a training session with MMA fighter Georges St Pierre, second from right, at his gym. Picture: Twitter/GeorgesStPierre

In response, Musk tweeted he was going to show up at Zuckerberg’s home that night to duke it out. “If we get lucky and Zuck my [tongue emoji] actually answers the door, the fight is on!” he tweeted Monday.

Musk apparently didn’t follow through with the threat after Meta issued a statement saying its boss was out of town.

But he wasn’t willing to let go of the joke.

“Can someone please let him know...that I’m popping by his house to fight as soon as he’s ‘back in town,’” Musk tweeted Tuesday.

Write to Tim Higgins at [e-mail]

Wall Street Journal