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Link: Elon Musk Details ‘Excruciating’ Personal Toll of Tesla Turmoil

This is an amazing New York Times interview.

Among the most remarkable parts, considering Musk is chief executive of a publicly listed company with a market capitalization north of $50 billion:

In an hourlong interview with The New York Times, he choked up multiple times

Obviously CEOs are human, and many great leaders are risk takers prone to highs and lows, and work ridiculous hours, but still. He has granted the NYT an interview and cried in front of its journalists. How do you think Tesla shareholders or staff feel about all of this?

And:

He decided to round up to $420 — a number that has become code for marijuana in counterculture lore.

“It seemed like better karma at $420 than at $419,” he said in the interview. “But I was not on weed, to be clear. Weed is not helpful for productivity. There’s a reason for the word ‘stoned.’ You just sit there like a stone on weed.”

And:

To help sleep when he is not working, Mr. Musk said he sometimes takes Ambien. “It is often a choice of no sleep or Ambien,” he said.

But this has worried some board members, who have noted that sometimes the drug does not put Mr. Musk to sleep but instead contributes to late-night Twitter sessions, according to a person familiar with the board’s thinking. Some board members are also aware that Mr. Musk has on occasion used recreational drugs, according to people familiar with the matter.

Perhaps most the unsurprising bit, from a earlier in the story:

Some board members, however, have recently told Mr. Musk that he should lay off Twitter and focus on making cars and launching rockets, according to people familiar with the matter.

I think it goes with out saying: This is not typical behavior for a chief executive.

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