Another Iceberg, Right Ahead 233
sion host David Letterman from theLate Show, who was
one of the first owners of the Roadster. “If you call Dan Neil
a douche bag on national television, I’m going to come out
and kick your ass,” Elon’s assistant told him. “But he is a
douche bag,” Elon replied. He had become upset when Neil,
who worked as a car columnist at theLos Angeles Times,
gave Model S the nickname glorified golf cart.^59
Another journalist who made Elon upset was Owen
Thomas from the blogValleywag. “The single most te-
diously mean-spirited person I have ever encountered,”
Elon said of him.^223 Thomas wrote the following in an
article, “That’s Musk’s version, anyway. I’m skeptical, if
only from experience with Musk; when he was running
PayPal, I remember him making statements that company
insiders told me didn’t match the facts.”^454
But if someone calls you a thief in public, you have
to respond. The problem wasn’t that Elon couldn’t accept
criticism. “Don’t tell me what you like, tell me what you
don’t like,” Elon always asked when a friend used one of
his products.^324 He added that you should always weigh it
up since negative feedback isn’t always correct feedback.
But there’s a difference between being a critic and being a
liar. “There have been hundreds of negative articles, and yet
I’ve only spoken out a few times,” Elon said. “I don’t have a
problem with critical reviews; I have a problem with false
reviews.”^362
Elon came close to the point where he was about to