Based just on the money he made at PayPal, he s thoughtfully attacking huge problems for humanity, including pollution and the survival of the species. It s hard to imagine what he could do with the full faith and credit of the United States at his disposal.
— Mike Olson, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Cloudera, in response to a question about who should be president of Silicon Valley. The Atlantic surveyed 101 Silicon Valley inventors, executives and self-styled gurus about varied tech issues and hypotheticals. On the topic of the Silicon Valley presidency, Musk — of PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity fame — got 16 percent of the vote, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg 10 percent and VC and tech guru Marc Andreessen 9 percent. Also getting a couple of mentions were Apple CEO Tim Cook and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.
Just think: If Silicon Valley seceded and became its own state, country or island — as has been suggested — Musk would be the leader of the land of innovation, hoodies, free food in the cafeteria and libertarians. Right?
To be honest, I don t think tech leaders make for good presidents, wrote Jim Yu, the co-founder and CEO of BrightEdge, according to the Atlantic. Their main objective is to disrupt on an international level—when you mix that with political clout, you have a recipe for world domination. And don t forget: Musk has his sights set on Mars, too.
Photo: Elon Musk in 2013. (Nhat V. Meyer/Mercury News archives)
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