Opinion Today: Elon Musk wants you to know he is very, very busy

A look at the history of America's reigning work ethic.

nytimes.com February 27, 2025 By Spencer Bokat-Lindell Staff Editor, Opinion It is a truth universally acknowledged that an enterprising executive in possession of a multibillion-dollar fortune must be in want of a nap. Such is the world according to many of America's most influential business leaders, who, as they never tire of telling us, are hustling hard to keep it spinning. Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, is famous for sending emails at 4:30 a.m. His predecessor, Steve Jobs, ran a team in the 1980s outfitted in T-shirts that read, "90 hours a week and loving it!" Recently, Elon Musk bragged that employees at his so-called Department of Government Efficiency were pushing 120 hours a week. Why do billionaires want us to know — or at least to think — that they're so busy? In times past, the marquee pleasures of wealth might have been summering in the Hamptons or wintering in Chamonix. Now, apparently, it's sleeping on your office floor. In a Times Opinion guest essay this week, Erik Baker traces how the association between round-the-clock toil and entrepreneurial success became the reigning work ethic of America today. The ideas behind it emerged in the beginning of the 20th century, thanks to economists who popularized a conception of the entrepreneur as a kind of superhero. Understanding those ideas, and how they found purchase among both bosses and workers in recent decades, helps explain the entitled behavior of the conspicuously busy billionaires now consolidating their control of the country. "For Mr. Musk and his associates, a herculean enthusiasm for work isn't merely a way to get things done; it's also a mark of innate superiority, a 'superpower' that confers the right to impose your vision on the world," Baker writes. "Mr. Musk's decades in the highest echelons of the tech industry, surrounded by other executives who justified their lordship over their private empires by trumpeting their inexhaustible work ethic, have taught him that if you work harder than everyone else, you should be rewarded with unquestioned rule over your dominion. Now he is seeking to extend this logic into our government, transforming it, like one of his companies, into another personal fief." Read the guest essay: Photo Illustration by Philotheus Nisch for The New York Times Guest Essay Elon Musk Is the World's Richest Man. Why Is He Sleeping on an Office Floor? For today's entrepreneurs, work isn't merely a way to get things done; it's also a "superpower" that confers the right to impose their vision on the world. By Erik Baker Here's what we're focusing on today: More From Opinion Michael Ponsor A Federal Judge Says: Knock Off the Threats It is not a partisan issue. 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