An aside worth noting. The Masters of the Universe (California edition) have never understood that they are not geniuses, they are not even particularly intelligent, they are merely lucky enough to be in a privileged, parasitical position created by Federal government intervention in the economy.
Musk has indeed prioritized volume production, and his failure is due to his arrogance. This arrogance is typical of Silicon Valley as a class. They assume they know better than any other industry, failing to realize their success is due to monopoly and lack of regulation (welcome to the auto industry boys!).
(nods) On a much smaller scale, it’s fascinating to see how people keep trying to launch new publishing companies on the basis of one or more successful books, then crashing and burning because they don’t understand that assembling the right infrastructure is considerably more important than the product.
This is related to why Castalia House is not even looking to sign new fiction authors anymore. Because, for the most part, the authors don’t realize that they are not self-publishing, they are simply signing up to publish with Amazon. And due to its algorithms, Amazon, not the book-buying public, will select the winners. Even worse, it will arbitrarily change its publishing deals whenever it sees fit to do so.
What we find ourselves in now is a strategic restructuring period. This is going to be challenging for everyone, and it is those who understand the challenges and innovate who will become the dominant parties once this all plays out.