Sfumato
[sfoo-MAH-toh]
noun.
The technique of allowing tones and colors to shade gradually into one another, producing softened outlines or hazy forms.
Peremptory
[pəˈrem(p)t(ə)rē]
adjective.
(Especially of a person's manner or actions) insisting on immediate attention or obedience, especially in a brusquely imperious way.
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Since mentioning it a few days ago, I’ve become somewhat addicted to the idea of bumping into a person I consider important and have a moment to ask a smart question just to hear how they’d respond.
Since I can’t think of anyone important and worried that, under gun, I’d be hard-pressed to come up with a smart question, I put Sherry on the spot. She’s a writer and journalist who has interviewed lots of people. In her career, she’s asked an incalculable number of questions that advanced the conversation and side-stepped the Burmese tiger trap covered with palm fronds.
Sherry, you’re up, “Leonard da Vinci. Go.”
“Hey, Renaissance man, how did you perfect your sfumato technique?”
Genius. And, not just a bungalow. This one is multi-level genius. First off, it’s so much better than the question that I might have asked like, “Leo, bubby. That, Mona Lisa? Between us, how much did you get for that?” No. Just no.
Sfumato. Sophisticated. Insightful. Smart. If you’re reading this and in need of freelance sharp writing, hit Sherry up. Shameless and sincere plug aside, this is important stuff.
Look, we know da Vinci. The guy was off-the-hook when it came to smarts and weirdness. He didn’t go school. He dissected corpses. He wrote in reverse. He painted masterpieces. While the Mona Lisa hangs in the Louvre, the French destroyed what would have been his best-known work. A statue of a dude on a horse. All we have left is a study of it in the Royal Trust. And yeah, paintings and frescos and what not. Oh, and NASA credits him with the first real study of flight.
There are very few people like da Vinci in our history. So, I want to be real careful here so as not to elevate someone to da Vinci status or piss off a large swath of people. Consider the following disclaimed and consider yourself warned.
Elon Musk has done a wide variety of things at a shockingly high level. I warned you. He mainstreamed electric cars (Tesla), made wireless ubiquitous (Starlink), can fire more rockets for less money than anyone (SpaceX), is working on implantable brain tech (Neuralink), and in his spare time, runs Twitter (X) and launched his own AI (Grok).
We take this stuff for granted. But, we shouldn’t.
Before VW ponied-up up to $5B to keep Rivian solvent, they were done. Outside of Tesla, that’s a success story. Proterra, Lordstown, and Electric Last Mile Solutions are EV makers that succumbed to weak demand, supply chain issues, and investor apathy. Lucid stock is down 95% from its high. Fisker filed for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Tesla is the #1 selling car in Finland. Ok, it’s Finland, but hey, that’s something.
Jeff Bezos started his rocket company Blue Origin before Musk started SpaceX. Blue Origin hasn’t shot a rocket into orbit – yet. SpaceX put 357 rockets into orbit. A tender offer of shares to the public will value SpaceX at $210B.
If you bumped into Elon waiting for his car at Cannes and had a moment to ask him something, what would ask?
Well, that happened to a journalist from the Times (of London). In fact, it didn’t just happen. He spent two hours thinking a question if the opportunity arose to play Ask Elon.
He led with, “Did he regret buying Twitter, now known as X, the social media company that has lost the support of several advertisers under his stewardship?” Musk’s response with a chuckle was, “Huh, no.” Which led to this follow up, “Would you sell it? A more emphatic avec exclamatory, “No!”
The reporter kept asking the questions he believed were on everyone’s mind, “Is the falling share price of Telsa terminal?” Musk, peremptorily, “No.” Ok, “Who would you vote for in the U.S. Presidential election?” Pass. “What about Sir Keir Starmer in the U.K.?” Like, Elon answered, “Who?”
Eventually all good opportunities must come to an end. And this one did. He asked Elon if he would do a long form interview with him. “I think it might just end up being repetitive, you know? You’re could chat with my Elon bot. It’s trained on my public data.”
I suppose, frustrated by what he perceived as a stonewall that offered little in the way of insights about the mundane, the reporter spent 808 out of 1229 words on his story titled, “My three minutes with Elon Musk, standing on a Cannes pavement” talking about why Mark Read the CEO of WPP, the world’s biggest ad agency, didn’t use Elon as a punching bag when he interviewed the world’s richest man.
It’s not shocking that a reporter asked these questions. There’s a narrative to be followed if you want success. Certainly, with certain crowds. You punch punching bags. You don’t put them in the passenger seat of your gas-powered HUMMER to give yourself a free pass to drive in the HOV lane.
The comments to the story on LinkedIn support the reporter’s asks. “Find someone interesting to talk to.” Or, “Ask him for $1M. He won’t miss it.” Or, my favorite, “Why are you idolizing this grossly inadequate human?”
This story isn’t about Elon Musk or the reporter from the London Times. Which is why so much news media today is so sucky. Mundane reporter who stick to the same tired scripts to appease the masses. It’s about Sherry’s question to Leo.
Sfumato. From the Italian, sfumare, “to tone down.” A canonical painting mode of the Renaissance that mimics an area beyond what the human eye is focusing on, or the out-of-focus plane. When you have a chance to ask a question, tone down the rhetoric. Yeah, you may lose a few fans. But you have the potential to unlock something magical. Do something more than just end up being repetitive, you know? Get people to focus on something beyond the out-of-focus plane.
Sfumare, oh, oh. E cantare, oh oh oh oh…