Nikola Tesla

This article is about GritCult's view of Nikola Tesla. For a general overview, see Nikola Tesla on Wikipedia.

Nikola Tesla
“Nikola Tesla arrived in New York in 1884 with 4 cents in his pocket, a book of poems, and a letter of…” (2 May 2026)
In the archive
Portal	Builders & Operators
Posts	71
Retweets	337
Likes	2,252
First post	25 January 2018
Latest post	2 May 2026
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Thomas Edison Charlie Munger Elon Musk Lee Kuan Yew Sam Altman

Nikola Tesla is GritCult's case study in genius without adaptation: the inventor who won the war of ideas and lost the war of living. His most argued view, from 2020, is that Tesla would have done better married; his most shared, from 2026, is that history vindicated him anyway.

Views

The headline version arrived in 2026. Tesla died broke in a hotel room with a pigeon for company while Edison died a celebrated millionaire, and yet “Edison won the business war. But Tesla won the actual war” ^[1]. A companion post tells the arrival story, Tesla landing in New York in 1884 with 4 cents in his pocket and a letter of recommendation to Edison ^[2]. The framing is consistent: the better inventor was the worse operator, and the man who died broke is the one whose invention runs the planet.

The more personal argument is older. In 2020 he posted, and in 2021 reposted twice, that “Tesla would have been more successful if he were married” ^[3]. Pressed by replies, he explained that success means being well adapted to your environment, and that a high IQ savant with communication problems ends up isolated and stir crazy ^[4]. Edison, by contrast, was “better adapted to his environment” ^[5]. He dismissed MGTOW as cope and called Tesla “essentially a monk” ^[6].

The rest is Tesla as visionary and prophet. He quotes Tesla on not caring that his idea was stolen, only that the thieves have none of their own ^[7], one of the most shared of his Tesla posts. And he leans on the warning that people will live to see things beyond their comprehension, writing in 2020 that this has increasingly come true since Tesla's death, in an age “where black mirror is our most defining show” ^[8].

Recurring themes

• right too early: the inventor who died broke
• technical victory against commercial defeat
• adaptation as the real measure of success
• the monk-genius as a warning, not a model
• Tesla as a prophet of technological horror

Notable post

The most retweeted GritCult post on the subject, with 251 retweets:

Selected posts

All 71 posts in the archive about Nikola Tesla, ranked by retweets. Select a column heading to sort.

Date	Retweets	Likes	Post	Media	Source
19 February 2026	251	1,386	Nikola Tesla died broke in a hotel room with a pigeon as his only companion. Thomas Edison died a celebrated millionaire. Edison won the business war. But Tesla won the actual war. AC power runs the entire planet. Edisons DC lost. The man who died broke literally powers…		View
2 May 2026	31	182	Nikola Tesla arrived in New York in 1884 with 4 cents in his pocket, a book of poems, and a letter of recommendation to Thomas Edison. Edison hired him. Promised him $50,000 to redesign his entire DC motor system. Tesla worked 18 hour days for months. Slept on the factory floor.…		View
29 August 2018	14	45	“I don't care that they stole my idea... I care that they don't have any of their own” ― Nikola Tesla		View
18 August 2018	8	62	brainstorm : “you may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension.” - Tesla Self cannibalising : cloning your organs, to eat them using CRISPR to add certain taste and flavours to your own organs.		View
9 September 2023	5	84	a poor person and a billionaire can have the same phone this is what tech innovation actually looks like, thanks to apple and steve jobs i feel like tesla will be the same bringing cutting edge technology not only to billionaires but to everyone innovation raises the floor		View
22 March 2020	5	56	Tesla would have been more successful if he were married.		View
2 October 2021	4	23	Tesla would have been more successful if he were married.		View
21 March 2022	3	29	You can fit like 4 fat Americans into a Tesla. And like hundreds into a train. It makes more sense to build trains as part of infrastructure programs. Freight trains are way more efficient in almost every metric than “trucks” too.		View
12 May 2022	3	15	Macro environment is going to get worse Netflix -72.4% = worst year on record Facebook -43.9% = worst on record Amazon -36.8% = worst since '08 Tesla -30.5% = worst on record Microsoft -22.5% = worst since '08 Google -21.6% = worst since '08 Apple -17.5% = worst since '08		View
9 June 2021	2	19	😂😂 Tesla has to accept bitcoin in El Salvador. Crazy times.		View
3 November 2018	2	3	Leonardo was a rationalist. As was Tesla.		View
14 May 2021	1	22	TESLA ALREADY HAS PLANS FOR A ROBO TAXI WHICH IS WHAT ESSENTIALLY UBER IS, BUT TESLAS WILL BE SELF DRIVING FOR INSTANCE. YOU OWN A TESLA AND WHEN YOU ARE NOT DRIVING IT... IT CAN ACT AS A ROBO TAXI. OR WHEN YOU HAVE EXCESS BATTERY YOU GET PAID FOR PUTTING IT BACK INTO THE GRID		View
16 June 2021	1	17	TESLA WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE SUCCESSFUL IF HE WERE MARRIED.		View
31 May 2022	1	16	Weird how South American democracies are being overthrown and Tesla winning lithium and mineral contracts.		View
12 January 2022	1	13	FUCK TESLA		View
26 March 2020	1	8	i think why men like tesla are prized in western society is because there is a gap in the current society of "priests" or monks... self sacrificing... in this case the god is techno-capital... and tesla and edison both served moloch but i am questioning the nature of monasticism		View
3 June 2020	1	8	You will live to see things beyond your comprehension. Ever since the death of Tesla this has increasingly become true. We live in an age where black mirror is our most defining show. So is it that surprising many naturally assumed that 5g radiation was linked to Corona virus?		View
4 May 2018	1	6	nikola tesla isaac newton nietzsche andy warhol Immanuel Kant all were genius' they were all incels too		View
3 June 2020	1	6	This thread is essentially a commentary and exposition on the Tesla quote That mankind will live to see horrors beyond their comprehension.		View
25 March 2023	1	0	How many died for “green” Tesla batteries		View
21 March 2022	0	25	Building trains is way more economic and environmentally friendly than digging up and flooding for rare earth metals. Also they reduce effectiveness of any transport they are in. In Austin. We had to charge our Tesla and drove around like an hour tryna Find a super charger		View
14 May 2021	0	24	NOW TO GO EVEN FURTHER WHAT TESLA AND OTHER COMPANIES ARE TRYING TO DO IS THAT THEY ARE TRYING TO USE SOFTWARE TO CREATE SUBSCRIPTIONS BUT THE THING IS, EACH SUBSCRIPTION COULD BECOME AN NFT		View
14 May 2021	0	22	EACH NFT BEING A SOFTWARE SUBSCRIPTION WHICH WILL ALSO DOUBLE AS SELF EXECUTING CODE MEANS THAT ALMOST EVERY ASPECT OF THE TESLA ECOSYSTEM CAN BE ON CHAIN. BUT NOT ONLY THAT THERE WILL EVENTUALLY BE A LAYER 3 BUILT ON NFTs, INSURANCE AND RESELLING MARKETS ON TOP OF THAT LAYER.		View
14 May 2021	0	18	WITH THIS NOTION OF INFORMATION THEORY IN MIND, AND A DYNAMIC MARKET EMERGING IN THE NOTION OF A TESLA DECENTRALISED ENERGY GRID, WHERE SOLAR PANELS AND GIANT BATTERIES ON WHEELS CONSTANTLY NEED TO SELF CORRECT THE MARKET		View
23 April 2022	0	14	Why is bill gates shorting Tesla? What does he know?		View
25 November 2023	0	11	A couple years ago. China had 500 electric vehicle brands. Now 80% died and they have gotten rid of all subsidies. Whereas America only really has Tesla and is starting impose tariffs on all foreign EVs and barring any foreign made batteries.		View
22 March 2020	0	9	Tesla wouldn’t going for walks at midnight feeding pigeons if he were married.		View
8 July 2021	0	8	16 EACH NFT BEING A SOFTWARE SUBSCRIPTION WHICH WILL ALSO DOUBLE AS SELF EXECUTING CODE MEANS THAT ALMOST EVERY ASPECT OF THE TESLA ECOSYSTEM CAN BE ON CHAIN.		View
26 March 2020	0	7	being successful essentially means being well adapted to the environment say even if tesla was a high iq savant... many of them have communication problems with their environments = lack of stimuli => isolation => stir crazy -> unable to "adapt"		View
21 August 2020	0	7	Incels hate this thread. They compare themselves to tesla. Your schizophrenic threads are no comparison to Tesla lmao. It's cope to deal with their miserable lives. Long term inceldom is no healthy		View
27 February 2021	0	7	SOME FAMOUS CULTS: TESLA APPLE BITCOIN theyre better off hodling rather than trading		View
7 March 2021	0	7	Tesla vril harnessing.		View
8 July 2021	0	7	14 TESLA ALREADY HAS PLANS FOR A ROBO TAXI WHICH IS WHAT ESSENTIALLY UBER IS, BUT TESLAS WILL BE SELF DRIVING. FOR INSTANCE.		View
8 July 2021	0	7	YOU OWN A TESLA AND WHEN YOU ARE NOT DRIVING IT... IT CAN ACT AS A ROBO TAXI. OR WHEN YOU HAVE EXCESS BATTERY YOU GET PAID FOR PUTTING IT BACK INTO THE GRID		View
20 March 2020	0	6	Might fuck around n short Tesla		View
8 July 2021	0	6	12 WITH THIS NOTION OF INFORMATION THEORY IN MIND, AND A DYNAMIC MARKET EMERGING IN THE NOTION OF A TESLA DECENTRALISED ENERGY GRID, WHERE SOLAR PANELS AND GIANT BATTERIES ON WHEELS CONSTANTLY NEED TO SELF CORRECT THE MARKET		View
8 July 2021	0	6	15 NOW TO GO EVEN FURTHER WHAT TESLA AND OTHER COMPANIES ARE TRYING TO DO IS THAT THEY ARE TRYING TO USE SOFTWARE TO CREATE SUBSCRIPTIONS BUT THE THING IS, EACH SUBSCRIPTION COULD BECOME AN NFT		View
19 December 2018	0	5	No. Fuck that shit. I wanna RAPE 3019. I WANNA MAKE HER MY BITCH. Energy mode on fully wireless energy. Tesla coils in my fucking soul. High energy. God mode.		View
26 March 2020	0	5	Edison: better adapted to his environment than Tesla.		View
26 March 2020	0	5	i think MGTOW is cope. tesla was essentially a monk		View
26 March 2020	0	5	to all those saying tesla would have been "dulled" by a woman... their reasoning and logic is correct... but is that not what he needed? to be able to fit in women tend to be more "normal" than men in terms of trait distribution due to evolutionary reasons		View
6 June 2021	0	5	21/ ON LIQUIDITY LIQUIDITY ONLY INCREASES AS MORE BITCOIN USERS ARE THERE THERE IS LIQUIDITY AS TESLA FAMOUSLY PROVED. ON PRICE STABILITY, BITCOIN IS STILL IN A MACRO LONG TERM PRICE DISCOVERY PHASE, IT WILL CONTINUE OVER THE LONG PERIOD OF TIME GO UP		View
7 January 2021	0	4	Moon. Tesla to the moon. Idk why people value it as an automobile company. It’s an infrastructure company.		View
11 March 2022	0	4	@chamath 15 NOW TO GO EVEN FURTHER WHAT TESLA AND OTHER COMPANIES ARE TRYING TO DO IS THAT THEY ARE TRYING TO USE SOFTWARE TO CREATE SUBSCRIPTIONS BUT THE THING IS, EACH SUBSCRIPTION COULD BECOME AN NFT		View
15 April 2021	0	3	ARK predicts tesla will go to $5000 usd in 5 years time they also think that most autonomous vehicles will mostly be electric vehicles as cost of ownership is a lot lower		View
6 May 2018	0	2	Focus on tesla bro		View
21 October 2018	0	2	@HomemMtBrasa @curaffairs like i said ad hominems. again please read my previous argument about distribution of innovation i didnt say anything about public sector lmao public subsidies actually hurt tesla.... he went on a tirade about how govt increases rent seeking...		View
6 November 2020	0	2	@vers_laLune @SupaMalaman tesla could probably create one		View
16 May 2021	0	2	From my thread on how Tesla could become a DAO.		View
11 March 2022	0	2	@chamath YOU OWN A TESLA AND WHEN YOU ARE NOT DRIVING IT... IT CAN ACT AS A ROBO TAXI. OR WHEN YOU HAVE EXCESS BATTERY YOU GET PAID FOR PUTTING IT BACK INTO THE GRID		View
21 March 2022	0	2	@the_apparatchik Tesla’s are less free than petrol. And cross city trains are better most of the times especially in Europe.		View
6 June 2022	0	2	@i__am__aka Tesla probs		View
25 January 2018	0	1	@GregB97 @atrout920 @mnrothbard as per the best idea, who dictates what is the best idea ? is it intellectuals ? is it ppl in power? or do we let ppl choose themselves, market forces. case study tesla		View
29 July 2018	0	1	@alexandtherest @HideousWorking well considering how the media has treated him and him getting infuriated by investors who shorted tesla I wouldnt put it past him and his friend being peter theil a fan of rene girard, who talks a lot about mimesis, and that journey. maybe application shows power of story		View
30 September 2018	0	1	From tesla to a shitcoin....err.....		View
22 October 2018	0	1	@TuxedoPlasmosis @curaffairs You can cry and moan about so called myth of patriarchy all you want See here on that link and people have been short selling Tesla for ages.... Nothing yet		View
5 October 2020	0	1	my current interests are the final trials of eichmann nazi who helped give rise to the final solution and the consequential book by hannah arendt... which gave rise to the notion of banality of evil, and the technological innovations being funded by TESLA, and long term impacts		View
19 October 2020	0	1	"you shoulda bet big on tesla" great piece tho		View
24 November 2020	0	1	@Goodtweet_man @halvorz tesla has more potential than a simple auto company, it can become an energy provider.		View
11 March 2022	0	1	@chamath 12 WITH THIS NOTION OF INFORMATION THEORY IN MIND, AND A DYNAMIC MARKET EMERGING IN THE NOTION OF A TESLA DECENTRALISED ENERGY GRID, WHERE SOLAR PANELS AND GIANT BATTERIES ON WHEELS CONSTANTLY NEED TO SELF CORRECT THE MARKET		View
11 March 2022	0	1	@chamath 14 TESLA ALREADY HAS PLANS FOR A ROBO TAXI WHICH IS WHAT ESSENTIALLY UBER IS, BUT TESLAS WILL BE SELF DRIVING. FOR INSTANCE.		View
11 March 2022	0	1	@chamath 16 EACH NFT BEING A SOFTWARE SUBSCRIPTION WHICH WILL ALSO DOUBLE AS SELF EXECUTING CODE MEANS THAT ALMOST EVERY ASPECT OF THE TESLA ECOSYSTEM CAN BE ON CHAIN.		View
8 January 2025	0	1	@SawyerMerritt Looks better than a tesla		View
25 January 2018	0	0	@GregB97 @atrout920 @mnrothbard not socialism as its economic incentive, also subsidies hurt tesla, but i agree he takes too many, and he agrees too, government intervention usually creates more problems, libertarians say let the market correct it self. yh i RT shit i find funny ngl		View
26 October 2018	0	0	@MVHGuitar @curaffairs Yet would increase demand for better batteries..... My point is that innovation keeps going. Can you imagine wireless batteries ? If not read more Tesla.		View
5 November 2019	0	0	@tuliparbitrage Direct energy transfer piggybacking off of data transfer. I’m not sure why we haven’t connected energy with data yet. I think Tesla was onto this.		View
22 March 2020	0	0	@UU311S @blindvibe I mean the tweet is specifically aimed at Tesla. Not as a general rule		View
30 May 2020	0	0	@Kairon01 tesla factory being overrun		View
7 March 2021	0	0	@ELOHIM_LOJ Yeah but that’s like comparing Boeing with Tesla		View
16 May 2021	0	0	@Investments_CEO He could turn Tesla to a dao.		View
5 July 2021	0	0	@tommyhodlsgn22 Imagine you could stake your bitcoin with a click of a button. And imagine you could lend out your Tesla and earn income from it and then turn those earnings into staking. Same reason we needed internet when we had telephones. They’re a meeting market		View

History

GritCult first posted about Nikola Tesla on 25 January 2018, and most recently on 2 May 2026. Across the archive the subject comes up 71 times, most often in 2021 (21 posts).

See also

Builders & Operators portal

References

1. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (19 February 2026). Edison won the business war. But Tesla won the actual war. X.
2. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (2 May 2026). Nikola Tesla arrived in New York in 1884 with 4 cents in his pocket, a book of poems, and a letter of recommendation to Thomas Edison. X.
3. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (22 March 2020). Tesla would have been more successful if he were married. X.
4. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (26 March 2020). being successful essentially means being well adapted to the environment...many of them have communication problems with their environments. X.
5. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (26 March 2020). Edison: better adapted to his environment than Tesla. X.
6. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (26 March 2020). i think MGTOW is cope. tesla was essentially a monk. X.
7. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (29 August 2018). I don't care that they stole my idea...I care that they don't have any of their own. X.
8. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (3 June 2020). Ever since the death of Tesla this has increasingly become true. We live in an age where black mirror is our most defining show. X.

External links

• Posts about Nikola Tesla by GRITCULT on X
• Nikola Tesla on Wikipedia