Deck no. 26 Flashcards
otwarcie, stanowczo (np. krytykować)
roundly
A few short years ago, Musk was roundly mocked as a crazy con artist on the verge of going broke. Now this shy South African with Asperger’s syndrome, who escaped a brutal childhood and overcame personal tragedy, bends governments and industry to the force of his ambition.
juvenile
szczeniacki; młodociany; nieletni
The juvenile missives from his unmistakably phallic Twitter avatar came days after one of his rockets launched NASA’s first anti-asteroid planetary defense test; a few weeks before another launched a first-of-its-kind mission to study cosmic X-rays; and amid Musk’s sale of 10% of his Tesla stock, a process that roiled markets, cost him billions and should produce enough tax revenue to fund the Commerce Department for a year.
up for
dostępny (np. na sprzedaż); rozważany (np. na posadę, na kandydaturę)
This was the year we emerged from the hundred-year plague only to find there was no normal to go back to, a year that felt like the cusp of a brave or terrifying new world, with nobody in charge and everything up for renegotiation — from how we work and travel to what we find meaning in and cherish.
and beyond
i nie tylko
Visionary. Showman. Iconoclast. Troll. How Elon Musk is reshaping our world—and beyond.
irokez (fryzura)
fauxhawk
The toddler has his father’s porcelain skin and a mane of straw blond hair, shaved on the sides into the same fauxhawk Musk recently adopted.
legacy
starszy (nadal używany, choć nie jest nowoczesny a często jest też niekompatybilny z nowymi rozwiązaniami, głównie dlatego, że jego wymiana byłaby nieopłacalna)
Given the uncertainty about future needs and demands, policymakers should be prepared to keep some legacy fossil fuel assets in reserve, in case they are needed for brief periods during the transition when there is a disconnect between supply and demand.
distraught
zrozpaczony
Distraught, the couple began in vitro fertilization treatments, and Justine gave birth to twins and triplets, all of whom are boys. As Justine later told it, Elon abandoned her to tend to his companies as she spiraled into depression inside an L.A. mansion that became a gilded cage.
plusk
splish splash
“Just dropping some friends off at the pool,” the 50-year-old zillionaire informed his 66 million Twitter followers on the evening of Nov. 29, having previously advised that at least half his tweets were “made on a porcelain throne.” After an interval—21 minutes, if you must know—an update: “Splish splash.”
wykorzystywać swoje mocne strony
to play to one’s strengths
As every business student knows, the smart response is to push back against those forces—for example, by shoring up the barriers to entry, increasing your own bargaining power, and playing to your existing strengths.
przekroczenie (np. kosztów, czasu)
overrun
In practice, it wasn’t that easy. Tesla’s first decade was plagued by unmet deadlines, technical snafus and cost overruns.
przybierać coś (np. jakiś wyraz twarzy)
to take on
This conventional wisdom—that corporate disruption and death are inevitable— has put many market leaders in a defensive stance. Inside such firms innovation and transformation efforts can take on an air of desperation.
długotrwały, nieprzerwany
sustained
The profitability data tells a similar story. The new arrivals went from no to very high profits, while the mainstays grew their profits year after year (apart from 2008, during the global financial crisis). Even the fallers remained profitable (except in 2008). Only the 35 doomed firms saw sustained losses.
krótka prezentacja (np. ofertowa)
pitch deck
Almost every company with “Web3” or “blockchain” in its pitch deck describes its mission as a user-centered quest to empower— and just as often, enrich—its users, making them owners and investors as much as customers.
to rile
irytować; drażnić
That doesn’t always go smoothly. Warner Bros., owned by AT&T, riled the Hollywood establishment by deciding this year to release all of its 2021 movies on HBO Max on the day of their theatrical debut.
przekaz polityczny oparty na słowach-kluczach, które mają inne znaczenie dla ogółu a inne dla określonej grupy docelowej, do której jest w rzeczywistości skierowany
dog whistle
He has an ardent following in some of the nastier precincts of the far right, but Musk claims that when he tweeted “Take the red pill” last year, he had no idea that “red-pilling” was a right-wing dog whistle: “I was just referring to The Matrix,” the movie from which the meme derives.
latter-day
współczesny, dzisiejszy
And they see crypto broadly as a classic, doomed-to-fail techno-solutionism (the belief that technology can solve any problem) Ponzi scheme pushed by latter-day medicine-show hucksters eager to exit their investments in unregulated securities before the market collapses or the Securities and Exchange Commission gets around to regulating them.
próg podatkowy
tax bracket
Said Ms. Woods, they “give off that status, that moniker of wealth” recognized only by others in the top tax bracket. That is, until shows like “Succession” made anyone with a $10 HBO Max subscription aware of these $625 caps.
somebody’s fair share
sprawiedliwy udział; taka część, jaka się komuś należy
“In this country, I think there is a consensus that we ought to pay for the priorities we really care about, and everyone ought to pay their fair share,” Wyden says.
as something as they come
jak tylko się da ; jak diabli (bardzo, niesamowicie)
The streaming war requires some big guns—even for those who’ve chosen to sit it out. The new Spider-Man movie swinging into theaters this week is nearly as big as they come.
hucksterism
wciskanie produktów; agresywna reklama
And they see crypto broadly as a classic, doomed-to-fail techno-solutionism (the belief that technology can solve any problem) Ponzi scheme pushed by latter-day medicine-show hucksters eager to exit their investments in unregulated securities before the market collapses or the Securities and Exchange Commission gets around to regulating them.
hard-driving
agresywny, zdeterminowany, ambitny, pełen energii (np. o przedsiębiorcy)
The toll his hard-driving style takes on staff is legendary. Former associates have described Musk as petty, cruel and petulant, particularly when frustrated or challenged.
powodować
to prompt
The sale was prompted by a Twitter poll Musk posted in a fit of pique over liberal Senators’ proposals to tax billionaires.
to trumpet
mówić publicznie; rozgłaszać
This future, a second chance to use technology to upend traditional power structures, is being trumpeted by silver-tongued hypepeople of every stripe, from venture capitalists to armchair oracles on social media.
radzić sobie
to fare
In contrast, during the 2021 power crisis in Texas, the parts of the state with grids connected to those of neighboring states fared better than the rest of Texas, which was served by an isolated electric grid and transmission system.
to fight back
bronić się
Fight back. The default reaction to disruption, again, is to try to take on an insurgent at its own game. Examples include British Airways’ launch of the no-frills service Go, since sold to Easy-Jet; the New York Times’ creation of NYTimes.com; and the major carmakers’ moves into electric vehicles.
to oversell
wyolbrzymić zalety, przechwalać
Digital disruption is real, of course, but it has been oversold by three myths: Every sector is under threat, disruption happens quickly and is accelerating, and established firms are struggling to adapt. The facts suggest otherwise.
chełpić się czymś, triumfować z powodu czegoś
to gloat over
His company, X.com, eventually became part of PayPal, which was purchased by eBay in 2002. Musk came away with about $180 million. But instead of gloating over his payday, Musk still seems irked that these early companies never fulfilled their potential as he saw it.
bear the brunt
brać na siebie ciężar, najbardziej coś odczuć
As the urgency of decarbonization increases along with the costs of climate change, the failure of rich countries to assist poor ones will be a growing source of geopolitical tension—particularly as developing countries disproportionately bear the brunt of damage they did not cause.
swoon
spadek wartości akcji
With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable. Lately, Elon Musk also likes to live-tweet his poops.
sedno sprawy, ogólny rozrachunek, rezultat
the bottom line
The bottom line: There has been less creative destruction than prior studies have suggested—indeed, less than most people believe.
moralizatorski
blue-skinned
This is the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad; a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars.
dać komuś spokój, daj komuś trochę luzu
to cut someone some slack
The older I get, I think, cut yourself some slack.
to fall short with
nie wystarczać
Should we fall short with Earth, Musk’s answer is space, where he envisions “a futuristic Noah’s ark.” His SpaceX is the global commercial leader in building and flying rockets and crews, chosen by NASA to build the ship that aims to place astronauts back on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
zachowywać się
to conduct oneself
In addition to monetary value, the “tokens” that make up these systems are each also encoded with information that has some other use, whether it’s membership in a club, the right to vote on how a company conducts itself, or even just data.
przestarzały; odgrzewany
shopworn
Musk is our avatar of infinite possibility, our usher to the remade world, where shopworn practices are cast aside and the unprecedented becomes logical, where Earth and humanity can still be saved.
ugruntowane; utrwalonym; powszechnie uznany
well-established
Those join well-established services from Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. But the likelihood of all these offerings surviving over the long term is slim; according to Ampere Analytics, the average U.S. household now subscribes to just a little over four streaming services.
nie móc sobie pozwolić
can ill afford something
But perhaps the greatest risk of failing to identify and plan for these pitfalls is that if national security concerns come into conflict with climate change ambitions, a successful transition might not take place at all. And the world can ill afford more bumps on the already rough road to net zero.
to sit out
przesiedzieć coś (nie brać w czymś udziału)
The streaming war requires some big guns—even for those who’ve chosen to sit it out. The new Spider-Man movie swinging into theaters this week is nearly as big as they come.
uraza, irytacja
pique
The sale was prompted by a Twitter poll Musk posted in a fit of pique over liberal Senators’ proposals to tax billionaires.
szarlatan, znachor (o kimś, kto udaje lekarza)
quack
Mr. Dorsey, no quack, is clearly in the believers’ camp—and is, indeed, one of its most prominent members. In July he told investors bitcoin would be a big part of Twitter’s future, and in August he tweeted that it would unite the world.
mówić publicznie; rozgłaszać
to trumpet
This future, a second chance to use technology to upend traditional power structures, is being trumpeted by silver-tongued hypepeople of every stripe, from venture capitalists to armchair oracles on social media.
well-established
ugruntowane; utrwalonym; powszechnie uznany
Those join well-established services from Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. But the likelihood of all these offerings surviving over the long term is slim; according to Ampere Analytics, the average U.S. household now subscribes to just a little over four streaming services.
installed base
baza użytkowników
(number of units of a product or service that are actually in use)
As Deere pursued this strategy, incumbency provided it with a set of advantages: an immense installed base and a reputation that extended back more than a hundred years.
czujący, odczuwający
sentient
The story isn’t complicated if you strip away the frenetic gibberish, the space/time fiddlings and the incessant hops, leaps and levitations in and out of the Matrix, the vast computer-generated simulation of reality built by sentient and predatory machines to keep humanity in their thrall.
nowatorski
mold-breaking
His rockets, built from scratch on an autodidact’s mold-breaking vision, have saved taxpayers billions, reinvigorated America’s space dreams and are launching satellites to expand Internet access across the globe.
zwykły, przeciętny, bez polotu
pedestrian
Even when talent can deliver surefire success, if a star actor, writer, or director is well represented by managers and agents, the return on such investments remains pedestrian.
przymilać się do kogoś
to cozy up to somebody
The feds are probing Tesla’s Auto pilot software, which has been involved in an alarming number of crashes with parked emergency vehicles, resulting in injuries and death. The company’s expansion in China required cozying up to its repressive autocrats.
szaleńczy; gorączkowy
frenetic
The story isn’t complicated if you strip away the frenetic gibberish, the space/time fiddlings and the incessant hops, leaps and levitations in and out of the Matrix, the vast computer-generated simulation of reality built by sentient and predatory machines to keep humanity in their thrall.
overrun
przekroczenie (np. kosztów, czasu)
In practice, it wasn’t that easy. Tesla’s first decade was plagued by unmet deadlines, technical snafus and cost overruns.
to be a thing of the past
być przeszłością
Proponents of clean energy hope (and sometimes promise) that in addition to mitigating climate change, the energy transition will help make tensions over energy resources a thing of the past.
silver-tongued
elokwentny, złotousty
This future, a second chance to use technology to upend traditional power structures, is being trumpeted by silver-tongued hypepeople of every stripe, from venture capitalists to armchair oracles on social media.
wielbiciel
devotee
With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable. Lately, Elon Musk also likes to live-tweet his poops.
ktoś, kto próbuje być fajny obrażając przy tym inne osoby
edgelord
This is the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad; a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars.
przesiedzieć coś (nie brać w czymś udziału)
to sit out
The streaming war requires some big guns—even for those who’ve chosen to sit it out. The new Spider-Man movie swinging into theaters this week is nearly as big as they come.
stranglehold
kontrola
Here’s the basic idea: New technologies like blockchain present the opportunity to loosen the centralized stranglehold that companies and governments have over everything from internet platforms to intellectual property to the creation and distribution of money.
zadaszenie, markiza
awning
Musk takes him over to a patch of AstroTurf in front of the Starbase employee restaurant (“Astropub”), which has an awning made of rocket flaps.
pojawiać się
to crop up
Some developing countries will also face obstacles that rarely crop up in rich countries. For example, charging an electric car may not be viable in countries that experience blackouts every day or where electric grids are backed up by diesel generators.
złota klatka
gilded cage
Distraught, the couple began in vitro fertilization treatments, and Justine gave birth to twins and triplets, all of whom are boys. As Justine later told it, Elon abandoned her to tend to his companies as she spiraled into depression inside an L.A. mansion that became a gilded cage.
splish splash
plusk
“Just dropping some friends off at the pool,” the 50-year-old zillionaire informed his 66 million Twitter followers on the evening of Nov. 29, having previously advised that at least half his tweets were “made on a porcelain throne.” After an interval—21 minutes, if you must know—an update: “Splish splash.”
zamyślony; złowrogi
brooding
This is the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad; a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars.
w przypływie czegoś (np. gniewu)
in a fit of
The sale was prompted by a Twitter poll Musk posted in a fit of pique over liberal Senators’ proposals to tax billionaires.
to conduct oneself
zachowywać się
In addition to monetary value, the “tokens” that make up these systems are each also encoded with information that has some other use, whether it’s membership in a club, the right to vote on how a company conducts itself, or even just data.
błędnie, mylnie
erroneously
For example, many observers claim that we are on the cusp of full-scale disruption in industries such as finance, insurance, and education. My research shows that people have been making the same predictions— erroneously—since the 1990s.
zalety (cechy, które nakłaniają ludzi do kupna czegoś), mocny punkt
selling point
They’re also warmer than a typical cotton cap—though that hardly explains why they’re 10-plus times as expensive. But that elevated price might be the biggest selling point. It weeds out most anyone who doesn’t drive a Maybach, making these caps their own private club.
blue-skinned
moralizatorski
This is the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad; a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars.
flick of something
machnięcie czymś, mały ruch czymś (np. nadgarstkiem)
With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable. Lately, Elon Musk also likes to live-tweet his poops.
orędować za czymś, opowiadać się za czymś
to champion
At a time when segments of the right and left alike champion protectionist populism—from Republican Senator Josh Hawley’s hostility to free trade to Bernie Sanders’ redistributionism—this puts Musk at odds with both.
kroczyć
to stride
Then the tour is over. Musk turns, whistles to Marvin and strides briskly to his waiting Tesla.
can ill afford something
nie móc sobie pozwolić
But perhaps the greatest risk of failing to identify and plan for these pitfalls is that if national security concerns come into conflict with climate change ambitions, a successful transition might not take place at all. And the world can ill afford more bumps on the already rough road to net zero.
devotee
wielbiciel
With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable. Lately, Elon Musk also likes to live-tweet his poops.
drań, łobuz
cad
This is the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad; a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars.
pokazać komuś gdzie jest jego miejsce, odesłać kogoś do szeregu
to put somebody in their place
Musk has spent a lifetime defying the haters; now, it seems, he’s finally in position to put them in their place.
to hang on
czekać
With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable. Lately, Elon Musk also likes to live-tweet his poops.
the bottom line
sedno sprawy, ogólny rozrachunek, rezultat
The bottom line: There has been less creative destruction than prior studies have suggested—indeed, less than most people believe.
wry
drwiący
Despite shattering records this year with a net worth above $300 billion, Elon Musk demurs at being described as the richest person in the history of the world. “Excluding sovereigns,” Musk says wryly, adding that Russia’s Vladimir Putin is likely richer than he. “I can’t invade countries and stuff.”
współczesny, dzisiejszy
latter-day
And they see crypto broadly as a classic, doomed-to-fail techno-solutionism (the belief that technology can solve any problem) Ponzi scheme pushed by latter-day medicine-show hucksters eager to exit their investments in unregulated securities before the market collapses or the Securities and Exchange Commission gets around to regulating them.
zabawiać się czymś; umilać sobie czas
to amuse oneself
When the topic of government comes up in TIME’s interview, Musk briefly amuses himself by humming rapper Warren G’s ’90s hip-hop hit “Regulate.” “They’re basically saying they want control of the assets,” he says. “This does not result in, actually, the good of the people. You want those who are managing capital to be good stewards of capital. And I think the government is inherently not a good steward of capital.”
development
tu: wydarzenie
If recent developments—such as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s failure to attend the Glasgow meeting in person, China’s lackluster revision of its climate targets, and Beijing’s softening on coal policy in the face of recent gas shortages—are indicative of a trend, China and the United States could increasingly clash over climate change, which may then sap the political will of other countries to take strong climate action.
zamykać tymczasowo (np. fabrykę, zakład); odłożyć na półkę (pomysł, plany)
to mothball
Before Musk, America’s space industry was moribund. In 2011, NASA mothballed the last space shuttle, after inking a deal with SpaceX to make uncrewed cargo resupply runs to the International Space Station (ISS).
wciskanie produktów; agresywna reklama
hucksterism
And they see crypto broadly as a classic, doomed-to-fail techno-solutionism (the belief that technology can solve any problem) Ponzi scheme pushed by latter-day medicine-show hucksters eager to exit their investments in unregulated securities before the market collapses or the Securities and Exchange Commission gets around to regulating them.
shopworn
przestarzały; odgrzewany
Musk is our avatar of infinite possibility, our usher to the remade world, where shopworn practices are cast aside and the unprecedented becomes logical, where Earth and humanity can still be saved.
dog whistle
przekaz polityczny oparty na słowach-kluczach, które mają inne znaczenie dla ogółu a inne dla określonej grupy docelowej, do której jest w rzeczywistości skierowany
He has an ardent following in some of the nastier precincts of the far right, but Musk claims that when he tweeted “Take the red pill” last year, he had no idea that “red-pilling” was a right-wing dog whistle: “I was just referring to The Matrix,” the movie from which the meme derives.
in a fit of
w przypływie czegoś (np. gniewu)
The sale was prompted by a Twitter poll Musk posted in a fit of pique over liberal Senators’ proposals to tax billionaires.
roundly
otwarcie, stanowczo (np. krytykować)
A few short years ago, Musk was roundly mocked as a crazy con artist on the verge of going broke. Now this shy South African with Asperger’s syndrome, who escaped a brutal childhood and overcame personal tragedy, bends governments and industry to the force of his ambition.
to demur
sprzeciwiać się
Despite shattering records this year with a net worth above $300 billion, Elon Musk demurs at being described as the richest person in the history of the world. “Excluding sovereigns,” Musk says wryly, adding that Russia’s Vladimir Putin is likely richer than he. “I can’t invade countries and stuff.”
inaczej, co innego, w inny sposób
otherwise
Digital disruption is real, of course, but it has been oversold by three myths: Every sector is under threat, disruption happens quickly and is accelerating, and established firms are struggling to adapt. The facts suggest otherwise.
sytuacja beznadziejna; zamieszanie (chaos)
snafu
In practice, it wasn’t that easy. Tesla’s first decade was plagued by unmet deadlines, technical snafus and cost overruns.
iconoclast
obrazoburca
Visionary. Showman. Iconoclast. Troll. How Elon Musk is reshaping our world—and beyond.
poop
news, nowina, wielkie halo; idiotyzm
With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable. Lately, Elon Musk also likes to live-tweet his poops.
czekać
to hang on
With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable. Lately, Elon Musk also likes to live-tweet his poops.
wydatki inwestycyjne
capital spending
The clean energy transition demands a complete transformation of the global economy and will require roughly $100 trillion in additional capital spending over the next three decades.
drwiący
wry
Despite shattering records this year with a net worth above $300 billion, Elon Musk demurs at being described as the richest person in the history of the world. “Excluding sovereigns,” Musk says wryly, adding that Russia’s Vladimir Putin is likely richer than he. “I can’t invade countries and stuff.”
boondoggle
wyrzucanie pieniądzy w błoto
Musk’s January announcement of a $100 million climate prize rankled some environmentalists because of its inclusion of proposals for direct- air carbon capture—giant machines to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. While some experts say researching that technology is necessary, others see it as a costly distraction. “Direct- air capture is a boondoggle,” says Mark Jacobson, director of Stanford’s amosphere/Energy program. “We can’t waste our time and money on things that just don’t work very well.”
sprawiedliwy udział; taka część, jaka się komuś należy
somebody’s fair share
“In this country, I think there is a consensus that we ought to pay for the priorities we really care about, and everyone ought to pay their fair share,” Wyden says.
to lend oneself to something
dotyczyć czegoś
The most prevalent sources of industrial strength have been the mutually reinforcing competitive advantages of supply-side scale and customer captivity. Content creation simply does not lend itself to either, while aggregation is amenable to both.
to crop up
pojawiać się
Some developing countries will also face obstacles that rarely crop up in rich countries. For example, charging an electric car may not be viable in countries that experience blackouts every day or where electric grids are backed up by diesel generators.
to pander to
ulegać czemuś
Musk has faced criticism for pandering to America’s increasingly assertive authoritarian rival. “Overall, Tesla has a good relationship with China,” Musk told a business conference on Dec. 6. “I don’t mean to endorse everything China does.”
franchise
seria filmów
a series of films that have the same or similar titles and are about the same characters
This fourth iteration of the franchise is set 60 years after the events of “The Matrix Revolutions,” which came out in 2003. Neo, we are told, is actually a balding nerd, but we still see him as Keanu Reeves, who is neither balding nor nerdy.
air of something
atmosfera czegoś
This conventional wisdom—that corporate disruption and death are inevitable— has put many market leaders in a defensive stance. Inside such firms innovation and transformation efforts can take on an air of desperation.
coś stanowiącego przewagę; wsparcie, ułatwienie
leg up
This will increasingly enable Moscow and Beijing to influence norms regarding nuclear nonproliferation and impose new operational and safety standards designed to give their own companies a lasting leg up in a sector that will need to grow as the energy transition unfolds.
świeżo upieczony
newly minted
“He is a humanist—not in the sense of being a nice person, because he isn’t,” says Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society, who met Musk in 2001, when the young, newly minted dot-com millionaire sent a large unsolicited check to the organization.
notwithstanding
pomimo
The relationship between Beijing and Washington is more fraught now than it has been in decades. Thus far, cooperation between the two powers on climate change has been minimal, notwithstanding a last-minute agreement to work together on the issue that they reached at the COP26 (26th Conference of the Parties) meeting in Glasgow this past fall.
sentient
czujący, odczuwający
The story isn’t complicated if you strip away the frenetic gibberish, the space/time fiddlings and the incessant hops, leaps and levitations in and out of the Matrix, the vast computer-generated simulation of reality built by sentient and predatory machines to keep humanity in their thrall.
liminal
graniczny
For all his outlier qualities, Musk also embodies the zeitgeist of this liminal age.
as far as I can tell
o ile mi wiadomo;
“Markets move themselves all the time,” he says, “based on nothing as far as I can tell. So the statements that I make, are they materially different from random movements of the stock that might happen anyway? I don’t think so.”
powalić (np. przeciwnika); ściąć (np. drzewo)
to fell
Zubrin, of the Mars Society, believes three qualities could fell Musk: his work aholism, his recklessness or a sort of earned hubris. “Great leaders become incapable of hearing criticism,” he says. “Why did Napoleon fail in Russia? Because every time before, he had succeeded. Plenty of French generals were saying, ‘Why don’t we just take Poland and be good?’ But every time in the past, the people who urged caution had been wrong.”
towarzyszący (odnoszący się lub spowodowany przez coś)
attendant
Then came Big Tech and the attendant centralization, windfall profits, culture wars, misinformation campaigns, congressional hearings, EU rulings, antitrust battles and techno-nationalism that have characterized the past decade.
nieposkromiony, nieustraszony
indomitable
With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable. Lately, Elon Musk also likes to live-tweet his poops.
błyszczeć
to gleam
Gleaming spacecraft—some retired from duty, others still in production—rise stories above the sparse terrain. His company is gobbling up local housing and encouraging employees to move there. “Creating the city of Starbase, Texas,” Musk announced on Twitter earlier this year, to the evident surprise of the residents of Boca Chica, where his facility is located.
graniczny
liminal
For all his outlier qualities, Musk also embodies the zeitgeist of this liminal age.
attendant
towarzyszący (odnoszący się lub spowodowany przez coś)
Then came Big Tech and the attendant centralization, windfall profits, culture wars, misinformation campaigns, congressional hearings, EU rulings, antitrust battles and techno-nationalism that have characterized the past decade.
na pierwszy rzut oka
at first blush
At first blush, then, a decarbonized world might seem likely to be more globalized than today’s fossil-fuel dependent planet. But getting to that net-zero world will generate three forces that will push against globalization.
leg up
coś stanowiącego przewagę; wsparcie, ułatwienie
This will increasingly enable Moscow and Beijing to influence norms regarding nuclear nonproliferation and impose new operational and safety standards designed to give their own companies a lasting leg up in a sector that will need to grow as the energy transition unfolds.
przedwczesny
untimely
A few years ago, as part of our work with large, established companies, we created a mock cemetery filled with tombstones bearing the names of industry giants that had suffered untimely bankruptcies or fire sales.
to cut someone some slack
dać komuś spokój, daj komuś trochę luzu
The older I get, I think, cut yourself some slack.
to dive into
wgłębiać się w coś (np. szczegóły, badania)
Meanwhile, a dive into the profitability of firms that have stayed on the Fortune 500 shows that despite anecdotal examples of margins that have been squeezed by digital disruption in some industries, most companies are more profitable today than they were back then.
to fare
radzić sobie
In contrast, during the 2021 power crisis in Texas, the parts of the state with grids connected to those of neighboring states fared better than the rest of Texas, which was served by an isolated electric grid and transmission system.
to stride
kroczyć
Then the tour is over. Musk turns, whistles to Marvin and strides briskly to his waiting Tesla.
to amuse oneself
zabawiać się czymś; umilać sobie czas
When the topic of government comes up in TIME’s interview, Musk briefly amuses himself by humming rapper Warren G’s ’90s hip-hop hit “Regulate.” “They’re basically saying they want control of the assets,” he says. “This does not result in, actually, the good of the people. You want those who are managing capital to be good stewards of capital. And I think the government is inherently not a good steward of capital.”
to vouch for
ręczyć za coś
This is not a movie the world needs, or a movie that thinks it’s needed. Having suffered through it, I can vouch for the purity of its needlessness.
autodidact
samouk
His rockets, built from scratch on an autodidact’s mold-breaking vision, have saved taxpayers billions, reinvigorated America’s space dreams and are launching satellites to expand Internet access across the globe.
to take on
przybierać coś (np. jakiś wyraz twarzy)
This conventional wisdom—that corporate disruption and death are inevitable— has put many market leaders in a defensive stance. Inside such firms innovation and transformation efforts can take on an air of desperation.
bzdura, nonsens
gibberish
The story isn’t complicated if you strip away the frenetic gibberish, the space/time fiddlings and the incessant hops, leaps and levitations in and out of the Matrix, the vast computer-generated simulation of reality built by sentient and predatory machines to keep humanity in their thrall.
woeful
żałosny
“The current blockchains are like woefully underpowered computers that can only do a very, very small amount of transactions, and the things they can do are shockingly limited,” says Stephen Diehl, a programmer in London who is one of Web3’s most visible and cogent critics.
i tym podobne
and stuff
Despite shattering records this year with a net worth above $300 billion, Elon Musk demurs at being described as the richest person in the history of the world. “Excluding sovereigns,” Musk says wryly, adding that Russia’s Vladimir Putin is likely richer than he. “I can’t invade countries and stuff.”
gibberish
bzdura, nonsens
The story isn’t complicated if you strip away the frenetic gibberish, the space/time fiddlings and the incessant hops, leaps and levitations in and out of the Matrix, the vast computer-generated simulation of reality built by sentient and predatory machines to keep humanity in their thrall.
fauxhawk
irokez (fryzura)
The toddler has his father’s porcelain skin and a mane of straw blond hair, shaved on the sides into the same fauxhawk Musk recently adopted.
grzywa
mane
The toddler has his father’s porcelain skin and a mane of straw blond hair, shaved on the sides into the same fauxhawk Musk recently adopted.
niezwykły, przyciągający uwagę, ekscytujący (w pozytywny sposób)
larger than life
Many people are described as larger than life, but few deserve it.
ręczyć za coś
to vouch for
This is not a movie the world needs, or a movie that thinks it’s needed. Having suffered through it, I can vouch for the purity of its needlessness.
to be all in
grać va banque
Most of Hollywood is all-in on the streaming business. As Mr. Rothman put it, “We are in the profit business.”
spory
fair
A fair number also boast geologic formations excellent for storing carbon dioxide that will need to be removed from the atmosphere. (According to some estimates, one-fifth of the reduction in carbon dioxide necessary to achieve net-zero emissions will come from carbon removal.)
pasture
pastwisko
When digital photography became viable, the company could have retrenched around its declining but profitable photo and film business (and paid shareholders dividends for another decade) or gone all-in on digital imaging—or, like Fuji, sought new pastures.
to fell
powalić (np. przeciwnika); ściąć (np. drzewo)
Zubrin, of the Mars Society, believes three qualities could fell Musk: his work aholism, his recklessness or a sort of earned hubris. “Great leaders become incapable of hearing criticism,” he says. “Why did Napoleon fail in Russia? Because every time before, he had succeeded. Plenty of French generals were saying, ‘Why don’t we just take Poland and be good?’ But every time in the past, the people who urged caution had been wrong.”
delectation
rozkoszowanie (się czymś), przyjemność
THE MEA CULPA is irresistible, not to mention wryly meta and charmingly candid, so I won’t even try to resist quoting what “The Matrix Resurrections” has provided for our delectation.
awning
zadaszenie, markiza
Musk takes him over to a patch of AstroTurf in front of the Starbase employee restaurant (“Astropub”), which has an awning made of rocket flaps.
tax bracket
próg podatkowy
Said Ms. Woods, they “give off that status, that moniker of wealth” recognized only by others in the top tax bracket. That is, until shows like “Succession” made anyone with a $10 HBO Max subscription aware of these $625 caps.
of every stripe
wszelkiego rodzaju
This future, a second chance to use technology to upend traditional power structures, is being trumpeted by silver-tongued hypepeople of every stripe, from venture capitalists to armchair oracles on social media.
wypierać się, nie przyznawać się
to disavow
Musk has disavowed terrestrial political affiliations and maintained good relations with politicians of both parties, including Presidents Obama and Trump, though he quit the latter’s business council after only a few months over the decision to pull out of the Paris climate accords.
wyolbrzymić zalety, przechwalać
to oversell
Digital disruption is real, of course, but it has been oversold by three myths: Every sector is under threat, disruption happens quickly and is accelerating, and established firms are struggling to adapt. The facts suggest otherwise.
afterthought
refleksja
“I believe we’ve got to watch out for the erosion of freedom in America.” The vast expanse of human misery can seem an afterthought to a man with his eyes on Mars.
rozstawać się z kimś; pozbywać się czegoś
to part with
Rather than funding DeSo in the traditional manner—by creating a startup and asking the wealthy mandarins of venture capital to part with money in exchange for partial ownership—DeSo instead sold early investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, some of its crypto tokens.
capital spending
wydatki inwestycyjne
The clean energy transition demands a complete transformation of the global economy and will require roughly $100 trillion in additional capital spending over the next three decades.
to champion
orędować za czymś, opowiadać się za czymś
At a time when segments of the right and left alike champion protectionist populism—from Republican Senator Josh Hawley’s hostility to free trade to Bernie Sanders’ redistributionism—this puts Musk at odds with both.
oderwany od rzeczywistości
off base
Talk of a smooth transition to clean energy is fanciful: there is no way that the world can avoid major upheavals as it remakes the entire energy system, which is the lifeblood of the global economy and underpins the geopolitical order. Moreover, the conventional wisdom about who will gain and who will lose is frequently off base.
to put somebody in their place
pokazać komuś gdzie jest jego miejsce, odesłać kogoś do szeregu
Musk has spent a lifetime defying the haters; now, it seems, he’s finally in position to put them in their place.
irytować; drażnić
to rile
That doesn’t always go smoothly. Warner Bros., owned by AT&T, riled the Hollywood establishment by deciding this year to release all of its 2021 movies on HBO Max on the day of their theatrical debut.
gilded cage
złota klatka
Distraught, the couple began in vitro fertilization treatments, and Justine gave birth to twins and triplets, all of whom are boys. As Justine later told it, Elon abandoned her to tend to his companies as she spiraled into depression inside an L.A. mansion that became a gilded cage.
zrozpaczony
distraught
Distraught, the couple began in vitro fertilization treatments, and Justine gave birth to twins and triplets, all of whom are boys. As Justine later told it, Elon abandoned her to tend to his companies as she spiraled into depression inside an L.A. mansion that became a gilded cage.
seria filmów
a series of films that have the same or similar titles and are about the same characters
franchise
This fourth iteration of the franchise is set 60 years after the events of “The Matrix Revolutions,” which came out in 2003. Neo, we are told, is actually a balding nerd, but we still see him as Keanu Reeves, who is neither balding nor nerdy.
to gloat over
chełpić się czymś, triumfować z powodu czegoś
His company, X.com, eventually became part of PayPal, which was purchased by eBay in 2002. Musk came away with about $180 million. But instead of gloating over his payday, Musk still seems irked that these early companies never fulfilled their potential as he saw it.
otherwise
inaczej, co innego, w inny sposób
Digital disruption is real, of course, but it has been oversold by three myths: Every sector is under threat, disruption happens quickly and is accelerating, and established firms are struggling to adapt. The facts suggest otherwise.
ulegać czemuś
to pander to
Musk has faced criticism for pandering to America’s increasingly assertive authoritarian rival. “Overall, Tesla has a good relationship with China,” Musk told a business conference on Dec. 6. “I don’t mean to endorse everything China does.”
mane
grzywa
The toddler has his father’s porcelain skin and a mane of straw blond hair, shaved on the sides into the same fauxhawk Musk recently adopted.
in flux
w ciągłych zmianach
Finally, take the time to make the right choice. The effects of new technologies are usually felt across decades, not years, and most potentially disruptive ones (and the firms behind them) end up coexisting with their established counterparts. The newspaper industry is still in flux—with paper and online versions alongside each other—25 years in.
szczeniacki; młodociany; nieletni
juvenile
The juvenile missives from his unmistakably phallic Twitter avatar came days after one of his rockets launched NASA’s first anti-asteroid planetary defense test; a few weeks before another launched a first-of-its-kind mission to study cosmic X-rays; and amid Musk’s sale of 10% of his Tesla stock, a process that roiled markets, cost him billions and should produce enough tax revenue to fund the Commerce Department for a year.
paść ofiarą
to fall victim
Later in that decade, Clayton Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation, which describes how established companies fall victim to their own success, became a popular concept in strategy.
sprzeciwiać się
to demur
Despite shattering records this year with a net worth above $300 billion, Elon Musk demurs at being described as the richest person in the history of the world. “Excluding sovereigns,” Musk says wryly, adding that Russia’s Vladimir Putin is likely richer than he. “I can’t invade countries and stuff.”
edgelord
ktoś, kto próbuje być fajny obrażając przy tym inne osoby
This is the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad; a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars.
kontrola
stranglehold
Here’s the basic idea: New technologies like blockchain present the opportunity to loosen the centralized stranglehold that companies and governments have over everything from internet platforms to intellectual property to the creation and distribution of money.
square-jawed
sugerujący męskość i siłę
With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable. Lately, Elon Musk also likes to live-tweet his poops.
elokwentny, złotousty
silver-tongued
This future, a second chance to use technology to upend traditional power structures, is being trumpeted by silver-tongued hypepeople of every stripe, from venture capitalists to armchair oracles on social media.
mere
zwyczajny; zwykły
These technologies represent an evolution of cryptocurrency beyond bitcoin—which some in crypto communities now deride as mere “digital gold.”
mold-breaking
nowatorski
His rockets, built from scratch on an autodidact’s mold-breaking vision, have saved taxpayers billions, reinvigorated America’s space dreams and are launching satellites to expand Internet access across the globe.
wszelkiego rodzaju
of every stripe
This future, a second chance to use technology to upend traditional power structures, is being trumpeted by silver-tongued hypepeople of every stripe, from venture capitalists to armchair oracles on social media.
brać na siebie ciężar, najbardziej coś odczuć
bear the brunt
As the urgency of decarbonization increases along with the costs of climate change, the failure of rich countries to assist poor ones will be a growing source of geopolitical tension—particularly as developing countries disproportionately bear the brunt of damage they did not cause.
to play to one’s strengths
wykorzystywać swoje mocne strony
As every business student knows, the smart response is to push back against those forces—for example, by shoring up the barriers to entry, increasing your own bargaining power, and playing to your existing strengths.
to part with
rozstawać się z kimś; pozbywać się czegoś
Rather than funding DeSo in the traditional manner—by creating a startup and asking the wealthy mandarins of venture capital to part with money in exchange for partial ownership—DeSo instead sold early investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, some of its crypto tokens.
być przeszłością
to be a thing of the past
Proponents of clean energy hope (and sometimes promise) that in addition to mitigating climate change, the energy transition will help make tensions over energy resources a thing of the past.
off base
oderwany od rzeczywistości
Talk of a smooth transition to clean energy is fanciful: there is no way that the world can avoid major upheavals as it remakes the entire energy system, which is the lifeblood of the global economy and underpins the geopolitical order. Moreover, the conventional wisdom about who will gain and who will lose is frequently off base.
white whale
obsesyjny cel
This so-called single-stage-to-orbit model has been the white whale of rocket designers for generations.
machnięcie czymś, mały ruch czymś (np. nadgarstkiem)
flick of something
With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable. Lately, Elon Musk also likes to live-tweet his poops.
baza użytkowników
(number of units of a product or service that are actually in use)
installed base
As Deere pursued this strategy, incumbency provided it with a set of advantages: an immense installed base and a reputation that extended back more than a hundred years.
cogent
przekonujący
“The current blockchains are like woefully underpowered computers that can only do a very, very small amount of transactions, and the things they can do are shockingly limited,” says Stephen Diehl, a programmer in London who is one of Web3’s most visible and cogent critics.
przekonujący
cogent
“The current blockchains are like woefully underpowered computers that can only do a very, very small amount of transactions, and the things they can do are shockingly limited,” says Stephen Diehl, a programmer in London who is one of Web3’s most visible and cogent critics.
obsesyjny cel
white whale
This so-called single-stage-to-orbit model has been the white whale of rocket designers for generations.
i nie tylko
and beyond
Visionary. Showman. Iconoclast. Troll. How Elon Musk is reshaping our world—and beyond.
zamaskowanie, utajnienie, zaciemnianie
obfuscation
Analogies fail in corporate arrangements as novel as these, which is one reason blockchain startups remain obscure to most investors. Critics claim such obfuscation is deliberate, and is as much about hiding suspect financial and technical engineering as it is a consequence of any supposed innovation in business models.
trzymać w ryzach, hamować, powstrzymywać
to keep in check
As European countries come to increasingly depend on Russian gas in the coming years and as volatility in the oil market rises, both the United States and Europe will count on Russia to keep prices in check through its partnership with Saudi Arabia as leaders of the OPEC + alliance, which is made up of the members of OPEC and ten other major oil-exporting countries.
zwyczajny; zwykły
mere
These technologies represent an evolution of cryptocurrency beyond bitcoin—which some in crypto communities now deride as mere “digital gold.”
unsolicited
nieproszony, niezamawiany (np. towar)
“He is a humanist—not in the sense of being a nice person, because he isn’t,” says Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society, who met Musk in 2001, when the young, newly minted dot-com millionaire sent a large unsolicited check to the organization.
to fall victim
paść ofiarą
Later in that decade, Clayton Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation, which describes how established companies fall victim to their own success, became a popular concept in strategy.
larger than life
niezwykły, przyciągający uwagę, ekscytujący (w pozytywny sposób)
Many people are described as larger than life, but few deserve it.
to while away
umilać sobie (czas, dni, godziny, popołudnie);
At 30, Musk was fabulously rich, but whiling away his days on a yacht didn’t appeal to him. After a severe bout of malaria nearly killed him in 2001, those close to him say, he seemed to feel an urgency to make more of his time on Earth.
bronić się
to fight back
Fight back. The default reaction to disruption, again, is to try to take on an insurgent at its own game. Examples include British Airways’ launch of the no-frills service Go, since sold to Easy-Jet; the New York Times’ creation of NYTimes.com; and the major carmakers’ moves into electric vehicles.
starszy (nadal używany, choć nie jest nowoczesny a często jest też niekompatybilny z nowymi rozwiązaniami, głównie dlatego, że jego wymiana byłaby nieopłacalna)
legacy
Given the uncertainty about future needs and demands, policymakers should be prepared to keep some legacy fossil fuel assets in reserve, in case they are needed for brief periods during the transition when there is a disconnect between supply and demand.
obrazoburca
iconoclast
Visionary. Showman. Iconoclast. Troll. How Elon Musk is reshaping our world—and beyond.
pedestrian
zwykły, przeciętny, bez polotu
Even when talent can deliver surefire success, if a star actor, writer, or director is well represented by managers and agents, the return on such investments remains pedestrian.
erroneously
błędnie, mylnie
For example, many observers claim that we are on the cusp of full-scale disruption in industries such as finance, insurance, and education. My research shows that people have been making the same predictions— erroneously—since the 1990s.
to rip off somebody
orżnąć kogoś (oszukać)
After a couple of trips, Musk concluded that the Russians were trying to rip him off—and that their rockets weren’t even very good.
at first blush
na pierwszy rzut oka
At first blush, then, a decarbonized world might seem likely to be more globalized than today’s fossil-fuel dependent planet. But getting to that net-zero world will generate three forces that will push against globalization.
dostępny (np. na sprzedaż); rozważany (np. na posadę, na kandydaturę)
up for
This was the year we emerged from the hundred-year plague only to find there was no normal to go back to, a year that felt like the cusp of a brave or terrifying new world, with nobody in charge and everything up for renegotiation — from how we work and travel to what we find meaning in and cherish.
to keep in check
trzymać w ryzach, hamować, powstrzymywać
As European countries come to increasingly depend on Russian gas in the coming years and as volatility in the oil market rises, both the United States and Europe will count on Russia to keep prices in check through its partnership with Saudi Arabia as leaders of the OPEC + alliance, which is made up of the members of OPEC and ten other major oil-exporting countries.
o ile mi wiadomo;
as far as I can tell
“Markets move themselves all the time,” he says, “based on nothing as far as I can tell. So the statements that I make, are they materially different from random movements of the stock that might happen anyway? I don’t think so.”
obfuscation
zamaskowanie, utajnienie, zaciemnianie
Analogies fail in corporate arrangements as novel as these, which is one reason blockchain startups remain obscure to most investors. Critics claim such obfuscation is deliberate, and is as much about hiding suspect financial and technical engineering as it is a consequence of any supposed innovation in business models.
refleksja
afterthought
“I believe we’ve got to watch out for the erosion of freedom in America.” The vast expanse of human misery can seem an afterthought to a man with his eyes on Mars.
nie wystarczać
to fall short with
Should we fall short with Earth, Musk’s answer is space, where he envisions “a futuristic Noah’s ark.” His SpaceX is the global commercial leader in building and flying rockets and crews, chosen by NASA to build the ship that aims to place astronauts back on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
orżnąć kogoś (oszukać)
to rip off somebody
After a couple of trips, Musk concluded that the Russians were trying to rip him off—and that their rockets weren’t even very good.
facility
obiekt (budynek); baza
Gleaming spacecraft—some retired from duty, others still in production—rise stories above the sparse terrain. His company is gobbling up local housing and encouraging employees to move there. “Creating the city of Starbase, Texas,” Musk announced on Twitter earlier this year, to the evident surprise of the residents of Boca Chica, where his facility is located.
frenetic
szaleńczy; gorączkowy
The story isn’t complicated if you strip away the frenetic gibberish, the space/time fiddlings and the incessant hops, leaps and levitations in and out of the Matrix, the vast computer-generated simulation of reality built by sentient and predatory machines to keep humanity in their thrall.
jak tylko się da ; jak diabli (bardzo, niesamowicie)
as something as they come
The streaming war requires some big guns—even for those who’ve chosen to sit it out. The new Spider-Man movie swinging into theaters this week is nearly as big as they come.
źle traktować
to short-change
But staying out of the mainstream fight allows Sony to maximize the value of its content without worrying about shortchanging its own streaming effort. It also puts the company in a strong bargaining position as one of the few remaining that can produce studio-level content available to other streamers who are increasingly conflicted about dealing with each other.
nieproszony, niezamawiany (np. towar)
unsolicited
“He is a humanist—not in the sense of being a nice person, because he isn’t,” says Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society, who met Musk in 2001, when the young, newly minted dot-com millionaire sent a large unsolicited check to the organization.
obiekt (budynek); baza
facility
Gleaming spacecraft—some retired from duty, others still in production—rise stories above the sparse terrain. His company is gobbling up local housing and encouraging employees to move there. “Creating the city of Starbase, Texas,” Musk announced on Twitter earlier this year, to the evident surprise of the residents of Boca Chica, where his facility is located.
to mothball
zamykać tymczasowo (np. fabrykę, zakład); odłożyć na półkę (pomysł, plany)
Before Musk, America’s space industry was moribund. In 2011, NASA mothballed the last space shuttle, after inking a deal with SpaceX to make uncrewed cargo resupply runs to the International Space Station (ISS).
newly minted
świeżo upieczony
“He is a humanist—not in the sense of being a nice person, because he isn’t,” says Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society, who met Musk in 2001, when the young, newly minted dot-com millionaire sent a large unsolicited check to the organization.
cad
drań, łobuz
This is the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad; a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars.
grać va banque
to be all in
Most of Hollywood is all-in on the streaming business. As Mr. Rothman put it, “We are in the profit business.”
tu: wydarzenie
development
If recent developments—such as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s failure to attend the Glasgow meeting in person, China’s lackluster revision of its climate targets, and Beijing’s softening on coal policy in the face of recent gas shortages—are indicative of a trend, China and the United States could increasingly clash over climate change, which may then sap the political will of other countries to take strong climate action.
pastwisko
pasture
When digital photography became viable, the company could have retrenched around its declining but profitable photo and film business (and paid shareholders dividends for another decade) or gone all-in on digital imaging—or, like Fuji, sought new pastures.
wgłębiać się w coś (np. szczegóły, badania)
to dive into
Meanwhile, a dive into the profitability of firms that have stayed on the Fortune 500 shows that despite anecdotal examples of margins that have been squeezed by digital disruption in some industries, most companies are more profitable today than they were back then.
indomitable
nieposkromiony, nieustraszony
With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable. Lately, Elon Musk also likes to live-tweet his poops.
selling point
zalety (cechy, które nakłaniają ludzi do kupna czegoś), mocny punkt
They’re also warmer than a typical cotton cap—though that hardly explains why they’re 10-plus times as expensive. But that elevated price might be the biggest selling point. It weeds out most anyone who doesn’t drive a Maybach, making these caps their own private club.
snafu
sytuacja beznadziejna; zamieszanie (chaos)
In practice, it wasn’t that easy. Tesla’s first decade was plagued by unmet deadlines, technical snafus and cost overruns.
wyrzucanie pieniądzy w błoto
boondoggle
Musk’s January announcement of a $100 million climate prize rankled some environmentalists because of its inclusion of proposals for direct- air carbon capture—giant machines to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. While some experts say researching that technology is necessary, others see it as a costly distraction. “Direct- air capture is a boondoggle,” says Mark Jacobson, director of Stanford’s amosphere/Energy program. “We can’t waste our time and money on things that just don’t work very well.”
umilać sobie (czas, dni, godziny, popołudnie);
to while away
At 30, Musk was fabulously rich, but whiling away his days on a yacht didn’t appeal to him. After a severe bout of malaria nearly killed him in 2001, those close to him say, he seemed to feel an urgency to make more of his time on Earth.
missive
pismo, list
The juvenile missives from his unmistakably phallic Twitter avatar came days after one of his rockets launched NASA’s first anti-asteroid planetary defense test; a few weeks before another launched a first-of-its-kind mission to study cosmic X-rays; and amid Musk’s sale of 10% of his Tesla stock, a process that roiled markets, cost him billions and should produce enough tax revenue to fund the Commerce Department for a year.
w ciągłych zmianach
in flux
Finally, take the time to make the right choice. The effects of new technologies are usually felt across decades, not years, and most potentially disruptive ones (and the firms behind them) end up coexisting with their established counterparts. The newspaper industry is still in flux—with paper and online versions alongside each other—25 years in.
news, nowina, wielkie halo; idiotyzm
poop
With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable. Lately, Elon Musk also likes to live-tweet his poops.
stały, wierny, niezachwiany
steadfast
“The short-term metrics are the outer scorecard, but you also need a more important inner scorecard that looks at the contribution you make to employees, customers, and society in the long term.” We find that commitment from the CEO and active oversight by the board are key to the steadfast focus required.
to put forward
proponować coś
The Boring Co., which Musk started in 2016, put forward a plan to alleviate urban congestion by building miles of underground tunnels to whisk cars along at more than 100 m.p.h., but critics say plain old subways would be more efficient and equitable.
pomimo
notwithstanding
The relationship between Beijing and Washington is more fraught now than it has been in decades. Thus far, cooperation between the two powers on climate change has been minimal, notwithstanding a last-minute agreement to work together on the issue that they reached at the COP26 (26th Conference of the Parties) meeting in Glasgow this past fall.
to prompt
powodować
The sale was prompted by a Twitter poll Musk posted in a fit of pique over liberal Senators’ proposals to tax billionaires.
sustained
długotrwały, nieprzerwany
The profitability data tells a similar story. The new arrivals went from no to very high profits, while the mainstays grew their profits year after year (apart from 2008, during the global financial crisis). Even the fallers remained profitable (except in 2008). Only the 35 doomed firms saw sustained losses.
untimely
przedwczesny
A few years ago, as part of our work with large, established companies, we created a mock cemetery filled with tombstones bearing the names of industry giants that had suffered untimely bankruptcies or fire sales.
błagać kogoś
to plead with
And as oil prices surge above $80 per barrel, the United States and other energy-hungry countries are pleading with major producers, including Saudi Arabia, to ramp up their output, giving Riyadh more clout in a newly tense relationship and suggesting the limits of Washington’s energy “independence.”
pitch deck
krótka prezentacja (np. ofertowa)
Almost every company with “Web3” or “blockchain” in its pitch deck describes its mission as a user-centered quest to empower— and just as often, enrich—its users, making them owners and investors as much as customers.
proponować coś
to put forward
The Boring Co., which Musk started in 2016, put forward a plan to alleviate urban congestion by building miles of underground tunnels to whisk cars along at more than 100 m.p.h., but critics say plain old subways would be more efficient and equitable.
tapestry
różnorodność (np. barw), bogactwo (np. krajobrazu), zawiłość (np. historii)
Even as CEO Reed Hastings announced his intention to finance a few original series in 2011, he confirmed that this would always represent a relatively small aspect of the tapestry of the overall Netflix experience.
to gleam
błyszczeć
Gleaming spacecraft—some retired from duty, others still in production—rise stories above the sparse terrain. His company is gobbling up local housing and encouraging employees to move there. “Creating the city of Starbase, Texas,” Musk announced on Twitter earlier this year, to the evident surprise of the residents of Boca Chica, where his facility is located.
to disavow
wypierać się, nie przyznawać się
Musk has disavowed terrestrial political affiliations and maintained good relations with politicians of both parties, including Presidents Obama and Trump, though he quit the latter’s business council after only a few months over the decision to pull out of the Paris climate accords.
to cozy up to somebody
przymilać się do kogoś
The feds are probing Tesla’s Auto pilot software, which has been involved in an alarming number of crashes with parked emergency vehicles, resulting in injuries and death. The company’s expansion in China required cozying up to its repressive autocrats.
agresywny, zdeterminowany, ambitny, pełen energii (np. o przedsiębiorcy)
hard-driving
The toll his hard-driving style takes on staff is legendary. Former associates have described Musk as petty, cruel and petulant, particularly when frustrated or challenged.
to plead with
błagać kogoś
And as oil prices surge above $80 per barrel, the United States and other energy-hungry countries are pleading with major producers, including Saudi Arabia, to ramp up their output, giving Riyadh more clout in a newly tense relationship and suggesting the limits of Washington’s energy “independence.”
brooding
zamyślony; złowrogi
This is the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad; a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars.
pique
uraza, irytacja
The sale was prompted by a Twitter poll Musk posted in a fit of pique over liberal Senators’ proposals to tax billionaires.
różnorodność (np. barw), bogactwo (np. krajobrazu), zawiłość (np. historii)
tapestry
Even as CEO Reed Hastings announced his intention to finance a few original series in 2011, he confirmed that this would always represent a relatively small aspect of the tapestry of the overall Netflix experience.
fair
spory
A fair number also boast geologic formations excellent for storing carbon dioxide that will need to be removed from the atmosphere. (According to some estimates, one-fifth of the reduction in carbon dioxide necessary to achieve net-zero emissions will come from carbon removal.)
sugerujący męskość i siłę
square-jawed
With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable. Lately, Elon Musk also likes to live-tweet his poops.
spadek wartości akcji
swoon
With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable. Lately, Elon Musk also likes to live-tweet his poops.
steadfast
stały, wierny, niezachwiany
“The short-term metrics are the outer scorecard, but you also need a more important inner scorecard that looks at the contribution you make to employees, customers, and society in the long term.” We find that commitment from the CEO and active oversight by the board are key to the steadfast focus required.
żałosny
woeful
“The current blockchains are like woefully underpowered computers that can only do a very, very small amount of transactions, and the things they can do are shockingly limited,” says Stephen Diehl, a programmer in London who is one of Web3’s most visible and cogent critics.
and stuff
i tym podobne
Despite shattering records this year with a net worth above $300 billion, Elon Musk demurs at being described as the richest person in the history of the world. “Excluding sovereigns,” Musk says wryly, adding that Russia’s Vladimir Putin is likely richer than he. “I can’t invade countries and stuff.”
pismo, list
missive
The juvenile missives from his unmistakably phallic Twitter avatar came days after one of his rockets launched NASA’s first anti-asteroid planetary defense test; a few weeks before another launched a first-of-its-kind mission to study cosmic X-rays; and amid Musk’s sale of 10% of his Tesla stock, a process that roiled markets, cost him billions and should produce enough tax revenue to fund the Commerce Department for a year.
samouk
autodidact
His rockets, built from scratch on an autodidact’s mold-breaking vision, have saved taxpayers billions, reinvigorated America’s space dreams and are launching satellites to expand Internet access across the globe.
quack
szarlatan, znachor (o kimś, kto udaje lekarza)
Mr. Dorsey, no quack, is clearly in the believers’ camp—and is, indeed, one of its most prominent members. In July he told investors bitcoin would be a big part of Twitter’s future, and in August he tweeted that it would unite the world.
atmosfera czegoś
air of something
This conventional wisdom—that corporate disruption and death are inevitable— has put many market leaders in a defensive stance. Inside such firms innovation and transformation efforts can take on an air of desperation.
to short-change
źle traktować
But staying out of the mainstream fight allows Sony to maximize the value of its content without worrying about shortchanging its own streaming effort. It also puts the company in a strong bargaining position as one of the few remaining that can produce studio-level content available to other streamers who are increasingly conflicted about dealing with each other.
rozkoszowanie (się czymś), przyjemność
delectation
THE MEA CULPA is irresistible, not to mention wryly meta and charmingly candid, so I won’t even try to resist quoting what “The Matrix Resurrections” has provided for our delectation.
dotyczyć czegoś
to lend oneself to something
The most prevalent sources of industrial strength have been the mutually reinforcing competitive advantages of supply-side scale and customer captivity. Content creation simply does not lend itself to either, while aggregation is amenable to both.
