I think he did contribute code to PayPal in the early years but I also remember reading they had to rip it all out it was so bad.
I met Elon in ~1999 when they were pitching us integrating their payment system into our software which was run by a number of the largest firms in the world. Have you ever met a group where one of them is clearly a moron but it is also the best at selling? That’s Elon. We passed because our company was run by nerds without an ounce of corporate in it, but I can easily see how Elon would “wow” an executive dipshit that doesn’t know shit about the product. Elon is a salesman for the tech enthusiasts, not the tech professionals. He sells what they call dreams and we call vaporware.
I’ve suspected such for a long time. Many years ago I used to watch his streamed press conferences. Back when hardly anybody gave a shit about him. He appeared to be the one who does no work at all but hogs the stage during presentations pretending as if he’s the big technical brains of the group. I had a feeling something was off.
I remember on a particular stream during QA time, one of the nerds was able to speak and basically said what Elon was talking about was completely wrong. But in a diplomatic way. That was probably a pivotal moment when I started to figure he’s full of shit. Like when you see it then you can’t unsee it anymore moments.
He’s another steve jobs…dude was an idiot for tech, but a salesman that could sell bananas to monkeys.
This is why elon is dangerous, he’s not dumb, and knows how to sell shit to the masses.