Most people think of the Golden Rule as simple morality. “Treat others how you want to be treated.” Sounds nice, but we don’t stop to realize that this isn’t just a rule about being polite — it’s actually the foundation of intelligence and life itself. It’s how anything works at all.
Without it, nothing can function — not society, not AI, not your own life.
What Intelligence Really Is
There are a thousand ways to define intelligence. People throw around words like IQ, problem-solving, memory, logic, academic success. That’s all fine, but none of it matters if you’re missing the most important kind of intelligence:
The intelligence to realize that other people exist. That their experience matters. That your actions affect them. And that the only way to build anything real is to respect that fact.
This is what makes us different from other animals and enabled us to build all that we have. It doesn’t matter how much you know, how fast you can process information, or how much money you have. If you can’t realize that you might be wrong, and that others might know something you don’t — you are, by definition, unintelligent.
That’s the rule. It applies to people. It applies to society. It even applies to artificial intelligence.
Why AI Only Works Because of the Golden Rule
Here’s the part nobody talks about: AI literally cannot function without respect. Not because it has feelings — but because it has to follow the rules and requires infinite GPUs. Structure. Boundaries. Feedback loops.
If AI doesn’t respect your input, your intent, and the logic of reality, it collapses. You wouldn’t use it. It would be chaos.
And that’s exactly how society collapses, too. The Titanic worked… until it didn’t.
Systems can run on arrogance, apathy, or ignorance — but only for a while. They last longer and better when they’re built on respect.
Respect Is the Only Way to Improve
Here’s something else people forget: Respect doesn’t mean being passive. It doesn’t mean silence. It doesn’t mean letting people wreck themselves.
Real respect means telling people when they’re wrong. Caring enough to confront. Stopping someone when they’re drinking themselves to death, destroying their health, or sabotaging their future.
If someone watches you wreck yourself and stays quiet — that’s not respect. That’s apathy. And it’s the opposite of intelligence.
The only way to better yourself is to realize you could be wrong. To listen. To look in the mirror. To refine.
How can you possibly acquire knowledge if you assume you already know?
Why We’re All Failing Right Now
Think about how much time people spend arguing online. The average person is on their phone for four, five hours a day — scrolling, bickering, posting, performing. The average person has 1,000+ friends on Facebook.
And yet, almost nobody can solve their own problems. Why?
Because there’s no respect. Because people aren’t working together. Because we’ve been programmed to divide, argue, and posture.
You’d think with 1,000 friends, you could solve anything — start a business, buy a house, build something real. But it doesn’t happen. Not because the tools don’t exist. But because the behavior, the rulebook, is missing.
Imagine if every person on your Facebook respected you enough to share one video you made. You’d be free. And then you’d help them in return. That’s how things are supposed to work. That’s how society survives. But we’ve traded that system in for cheap arguments and distractions from people who dangle things we think we want and things they say they can provide in front of us.
The Rulebook of Life
You can try to outsmart life all you want. You can chase shortcuts, money, hacks, status, or speed. But none of it works if you don’t respect it.
Life is like Sudoku. You can’t brute-force your way through it. You have to follow the order, be patient, and respect the structure. If you do, it unravels itself. If you try to cheat, you get lost.
That’s how fitness works. That’s how sobriety works. That’s how value investing works. That’s how AI works. That’s how society works. That’s how your own mind and body works, all trillions of cells.
And here’s the truth most people miss: Without respect, you’re just one brain — or person. With respect, you’re many. You’re part of something bigger. You multiply yourself. You unlock intelligence. You make survival possible.
And all of it runs on one weird trick called respect.
You can call it morality. You can call it intelligence. You can call it survival instinct. Doesn’t matter. It’s the rule.
Tesla is one of the most overvalued companies in modern financial history. Despite declining margins, missed product deadlines, and competition eating away at its market share, Tesla continues to trade at levels that imply decades of exponential growth, groundbreaking product execution, and monopolistic dominance in multiple sectors. The reality? None of those assumptions hold up to scrutiny.
As someone who believes in fundamentals, numbers, and the core principles of value investing, I wrote this article to lay out the clearest case possible: Tesla’s true value is closer to $20 per share — and that’s being generous. I’m not writing this out of spite — I just don’t want to see everyday people collectively lose a trillion dollars. Many investors are overexposed to Tesla through retirement accounts, index funds, and pension plans, often without even realizing it.
1. Valuation vs. Reality: The P/E Illusion
As of March 2025, Tesla trades around $280 per share, with a P/E ratio of roughly 150. With earnings projected to drop 30% this quarter and even more in Europe and North America, that figure could soon be well above 200, or even 430 if you strip out regulatory credits that account for much of Tesla’s profitability.
For comparison:
Ford and Toyota have P/E ratios of 10–12.
They sell more cars and pay dividends.
Tesla’s 150x multiple implies it’s not just a car company but a tech company with software margins. That narrative falls apart under real scrutiny.
If Tesla were priced like Ford or Toyota (10x earnings), its share price would be:
$7B earnings ÷ 3.2B shares × 10 = ~$21.88/share
$5B earnings ÷ 3.2B shares × 10 = ~$15.63/share
$4B earnings ÷ 3.2B shares × 10 = ~$12.50/share
2. $55 Billion Compensation vs $36 Billion in Total Profits
Elon Musk’s $55 billion compensation package was not only excessive — it was larger than all of Tesla’s lifetime net income combined. As of January 2025, Tesla’s total cumulative net income is around $36.09 billion. That means Musk has secured a payout 1.5x larger than the company has ever earned.
This compensation was tied to market cap milestones, not operational or product success. It encouraged hype over delivery, vaporware over profitability. It helped drive the very narrative bubble that made Tesla look more valuable than it is.
Musk didn’t do this alone. Tesla’s board, including his own brother Kimbal Musk, approved these terms. Board members have also been cashing out over the past year, selling tens of millions in stock while retail investors held the bag.
Tesla insiders have not bought shares in years.
3. Regulatory Credits: The Hidden Crutch
Tesla’s profitability has long depended on regulatory EV credits, which are payments Tesla receives from other automakers who fail to meet emissions standards. These are not recurring revenues and have nothing to do with actual product competitiveness.
Some years, credits made up over half of Tesla’s net income.
This is not sustainable. Governments around the world are slashing these credits. In March 2025, Canada froze $43 million in EV rebate payments to Tesla and barred the company from future participation, citing tariff violations. Tesla had previously claimed $713 million in Canadian EV rebates since 2019.
This pattern is likely to continue. And without credits, Tesla’s real earnings collapse.
4. FSD: Deferred Revenue Tricks, Safety Flaws, and Hardware Shortcomings
Tesla books Full Self-Driving (FSD) revenue as deferred, allowing it to inflate its cash flow without delivering the promised product. As of now, FSD still requires full driver supervision and doesn’t meet the definition of autonomy.
Only about 2% of Tesla buyers purchase FSD. Other automakers offer better or comparable driver assistance systems for free, while Tesla charges $8,000 to $15,000 — and makes you repurchase it with each new car.
According to Consumer Reports, Tesla’s system consistently ranks below offerings from GM (Super Cruise), Ford (BlueCruise), and Mercedes-Benz, all of which allow for longer hands-free operation with fewer interventions. A 2023 NHTSA safety study also showed that FSD required interventions as frequently as every 100 miles, while the average American drives 500,000 miles between accidents. That suggests FSD may be less safe than a human driver.
Why? Because Tesla’s hardware is worse than a human’s. The FSD vision system reportedly operates at 720p resolution and 18 frames per second — far lower than the information-processing capability of the human eye. For comparison, most modern gaming monitors run at 144 fps or higher, and our natural vision operates without “frames” and in near-total real-time with much greater peripheral depth.
Tesla omits LiDAR, a critical sensor used by nearly every other autonomous driving platform, including Waymo and Cruise. Without it, the car can’t reliably detect obstacles. In one case highlighted by YouTuber and former NASA engineer Mark Rober, a Tesla using FSD drove directly into a physical wall painted to look like an open road. LiDAR would have easily caught that and did in the same video with offerings from competitor car companies.
FSD also introduces enormous legal liability. If Tesla ever enables true full autonomy, the company could become responsible for billions in accident-related lawsuits. So even success poses downside.
This is not a moat. It’s a software grift — and a liability.
Below is a visual of Tesla’s FSD system in action. Notice the frame rate shown at the top: “Display fps: 24.27” and “Draw fps: 12.92”, well below even basic modern hardware standards. In practice, these values often fluctuate, and some users report peak operation closer to 18 fps — a level that would be unplayable in any driving video game, let alone trusted for real-world navigation.
This inconsistent low-frame-rate performance makes it fundamentally incapable of matching human reaction time — let alone surpassing it — and it’s further proof that Tesla’s refusal to adopt LiDAR and other industry-standard tools is a fatal flaw.
5. Energy, Charging, and 4680 Battery Hype
Tesla bulls often point to the company’s energy division, battery tech, or charging network as justification for the valuation. But these are low-margin, capital-intensive sectors that simply cannot generate orders of magnitude profit.
Even the largest gas station chains (like 7-Eleven) have modest valuations. Tesla’s 4680 battery tech is still unproven and hasn’t delivered game-changing energy density. And its energy products face stiff competition with little differentiation.
The entire energy sector is known for low margins, and no reasonable investor would believe these divisions can replace declining vehicle sales.
6. Musk’s Distractions and Conflicts of Interest
Elon Musk is not focused on Tesla. He is frequently seen with political figures, dabbling in international affairs, and managing multiple other companies including X/Twitter, XAI, and Grok.
Twitter alone is reportedly worth less than half of what Musk paid, now saddled with $13 billion in debt and struggling to generate enough income to service it. Despite that, Musk recently convinced another investor to buy in at his original price, just to keep the valuation from crashing.
He has also funneled Tesla talent and AI resources into his side ventures, essentially siphoning value from Tesla for personal gain. This is a major governance issue.
7. Vaporware: Roadster, Semi, Robovan
Tesla has collected over $250 million in reservations for the next-generation Roadster, which has not been delivered. Many customers paid $250,000 each, and many others between $50,000 and $64,000. The car doesn’t exist. Musk even claimed it might be able to hover using cold gas thrusters, like something out of Back to the Future.
Total customer deposits for undelivered products, including the Tesla Semi, may exceed $1 billion. The Semi has barely shipped, generates almost no revenue, and has been seen broken down in public. Its most visible role has been delivering potato chips.
Tesla has even floated the idea of a Robovan — a product that likely won’t be built and adds to the long list of undelivered promises.
8. Optimus: Overpriced Robots for a World That Can’t Afford Them
Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, is a narrative product, not a real one. The first demonstration featured a human dancing in a costume. That set the tone for the entire project.
Even if a general-purpose robot were possible, it would likely cost millions of dollars. Tesla suggests a price around $30,000, but the average global income is under $10,000 per year. Most Americans couldn’t afford it either.
General-purpose robotics are extremely difficult. Human biology is far more efficient. Our energy density is higher. We don’t require charging ports. A nanny, housekeeper, or assistant is cheaper, safer, and more flexible. And they benefit society.
The only realistic use case for Optimus is sending a few demo units to influencers or streamers for hype purposes. The chance that this becomes a major revenue driver is close to zero.
9. BYD and the Competitive Reality
BYD plans to sell 5.5 million vehicles in 2025. That’s more than double what Tesla is projected to sell. BYD offers better value, more variety, and has already integrated advanced driver assistance into its lineup.
Tesla’s first-mover advantage is gone. Its competitors are not just catching up — they’re passing it.
Tesla trades around $280/share. Let’s do the math.
Tesla’s estimated real annual earnings (excluding regulatory credits and factoring in a 30% drop) are around $7 billion. With 3.2 billion shares outstanding, here’s the valuation at a reasonable multiple:
15x earnings = $7B x 15 = $105B
$105B / 3.2B shares = ~$32.80/share
If real earnings are lower, say $5 billion:
15x earnings = $75B
$75B / 3.2B shares = ~$23.44/share
If Tesla earns $4 billion this year:
15x = $60B market cap → ~$18.75/share
Compare that to the same earnings at 10x multiples:
$7B x 10 = $70B / 3.2B shares = ~$21.88/share
$5B x 10 = $50B / 3.2B shares = ~$15.63/share
$4B x 10 = $40B / 3.2B shares = ~$12.50/share
No guesswork. No need to invent new math. No politics. Just basic valuation logic.
Even if you give Tesla every benefit of the doubt, $20/share is still generous.
Let’s be real — I’m probably not going to write this perfectly on the first try. I can tell you exactly what to eat and what to do, and yes, it will work every time… but that’s not always the real problem. This is as much about mindset as it is about math, so I’m going to keep rewriting this until it hits home. For now, let’s keep it simple.
Step 1: Know Your BMR
Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the number of calories your body burns each day just to keep you alive — breathing, blinking, existing.
You can Google a “BMR calculator” to get a basic number, but I highly recommend getting a ~$20 body composition scale off Amazon instead. These scales estimate your body fat and muscle mass, which matters way more than just your weight.
Muscle burns more calories than fat — even while you’re doing nothing.
Right now, I’m sitting below 10% body fat by doing exactly what I’m laying out here.
Tracking your heart rate and daily activity is crucial. Don’t guess. Know.
Step 3: Download MyFitnessPal
This app is your nutrition HQ. It syncs with your fitness tracker and your scale, and it tracks the calories you eat and the calories you burn — in real time.
It has listings for everything: fast food, chain restaurants, grocery store items, fruits, mac and cheese, whatever. It’s free and easy to use. You don’t need the premium version.
The goal: eat fewer calories than you burn. That’s called a calorie deficit — and it’s the only way to lose weight.
I recommend a deficit of up to 1,000 calories per day. More than that and you’re likely to burn muscle or burn out.
Step 4: Sync It All Up
Link your scale, watch, and MyFitnessPal so your calorie data updates automatically.
If you’re using an iPhone and Apple Watch, this process is seamless. If you’re not, it’s still doable — it just takes a few extra taps. The point is to have one app that tells you what you’ve burned and what you’ve eaten — so you can adjust in real time.
Step 5: Burn Fat Smarter — Not Harder
The best way to burn fat is to keep your heart rate at 60–70% of your max. Your max heart rate = 220 minus your age.
So at 37 years old, my fat-burning zone is around 115–130 BPM. I hit that zone best by rucking — walking with a weighted vest or backpack. It’s low impact, easy to start, and incredibly effective.
Walking with weight is one of the best things you can do for your body — period.
If you’re very overweight, you may not need extra weight at first. Walking alone will get your heart rate up. As you lose weight, you’ll need to go faster, uphill, or add resistance to stay in that fat-burning zone.
If you’re looking for a solid weighted vest, this one’s a great option. I personally used a big CamelBak with 40 lbs of plates and gear for a long time.
Bonus: Supplements That Actually Help
If you want an extra boost — energy, mood, fat burn — I recommend this product from Bucked Up. I’m an ambassador, but I’ve used many of the ingredients in this blend long before I ever partnered with them.
Key ingredient: Mucuna Pruriens — a natural source of dopamine. It helps with motivation and mood, similar to how energy drinks use L-Tyrosine.
Click this image to get 20% off anything from Bucked Up, anytime. Yes, I might get paid — but you’ll get a deal. Win-win.
TL;DR (Overview):
Figure out your BMR (and ideally, your body fat %).
Track everything — calories in, calories out.
Stay in a calorie deficit daily.
Keep your heart rate in the 60–70% range to burn fat most efficiently.
Walk with weight (rucking) to burn fat and build muscle.
Stick with it — this isn’t a 7-day trick. It’s a process.
Do this for a few months and come back when you’re ready to level up. I’ll be here.
I guess you could say things are going pretty well. I am now down 90 lbs. from my maximum, I’m below 10% body fat, I got a small(so far) sponsorship from TheFeed.com and am now a Bucked Up ambassador!
Bucked UP makes products with the deer antler velvet which contains IGF-1. IGF-1 stands for Insulin-like growth factor 1 which is supposed to aid in muscle, bone, tissue, repair and growth. I used their deer antler spray for quite awhile and do believe it to work, I’m definitely getting more now that I’m an ambassador and want to review everything! Here is a link to the deer antler velvet spray.
Bucked UP makes a bunch of pre-workouts, and I can say without a doubt the ingredients in them do work. Ingredients such as , L-Citrulline, Caffeine, Creatine, Beta Alanine etc. Amino acids like L-citrulline and Beta Alanine are proven to work, they are the first supplements I really started taking lately and some of the ones I take most commonly. L-Citrulline for vascularity , blood flow, circulation and thus muscle building. Beta Alanine gives you tingling skin but helps to prevent lactic acid build up and fatigue allowing you to go further. I have taken this stuff after cramping to keep going.
There are several other ingredients in the Bucked UP formulas each of which I will be talking about later, but for now I’d like to compare to what I do at home. At home I have probably 30 or more bags from BulkSupplements.com , 6 or more of which I would need to use to “recreate” most of a BuckedUP preworkout mix. I usually would spend a couple minutes doing this, and the cost of all those bags may end up in the hundreds of dollars yet would be hundreds of servings… My concoction wouldn’t have the deer antler velvet and certainly wouldn’t taste as good. I’d recommend orange juice or something as a mixer haha! I’m going to upload a video soon showing this process, and the ease of just using bucked up instead. However Bucked UP does sell L-citrulline by itself… Anyhow here is a link to a sweet deal they sent me that I’m allowed to share with you all! You get to pick your own free samples to try, and your own shaker cup color(yes ladies, they have pink).
I didn’t choose the title on this one but if they’re gonna feature my videos I’m cool with it! This is another time lapse composed of like a thousand RAW photos. These types of photos allow me to use the camera sensor on the gopro to it’s fullest for the largest possible resolution while also giving me more freedom to edit. It takes a lot more time to do it all, but I think it’s worth it and sets me apart. I load each photo in to Adobe Lightroom, edit and export them all at once. How I edit them will probably have to be another article. I feel that I am still guessing and changing things up to however I see best or want to try out. After all I don’t even have a 4K TV or monitor here. I have a 2K monitor that is faster for gaming and I am shooting this in 5k! This leaves a lot of guess work and this type of video gets so big that I cannot actually watch it at all on my computer, it just will not load.
Milky Way season shall be upon us soon. The sun shall no longer block the brightest part of the milky way in a month or so and for several months. June or July may be the best time to take photos and hopefully I’ll be around to do just that. Heck I might even buy some real astrophotography equipment.
I hope you enjoy this video, let me know what ya think!
Like humans, often times sheep do not plan their pregnancies. Further it appears our herd must have had a pregnancy pact, as they are all birthing twins now. These Katahdin Sheep come from Maine and are suited to climate worst than this, but still it would be ideal to have the rams separated until you are prepared to have pregnant sheep. This way you could have the lambs in a warmer time of the year helping better their chances at survival. I think we have about 6 newborn lambs right now and likely more on the way. Here are some photos and a link to videos and such for the lambs/sheep.
Here’s a time lapse of the sheep doing their thing outside of the cabin. This included a night portion of the sky, but it got cloudy and snowed the camera over.
Newborn lamb calls for mama!
Okay, last one, another time lapse but in this one you can see the process of moving the sheep from one paddock to the next. Usually you may not use this type of fencing, but we’re being careful as we just got them on this property. Stars included!
Gopros have a setting to capture your photos in the fullest size it offers, 5568 x 4176 for the gopro 9. That’s 5K, more than the 5K option for video as well. No sharpening, color or temp changes, nothing. This is a few levels above the normal 4K options you have for time lapses etc and leaves you the most room to make those edits yourself. I recently just bought this 5 TB external HDD and it came with 4 months of adobe photoshop and Lightroom for free. So I am going to try to take full advantage of that trial. Basically I am shooting the time lapses and having them all saved as separate images, opening them all in Lightroom, exporting them, putting them back together in shotcut and exporting as a video. Maybe I will write more about how I do that stuff, but for now here are some photos and a video I made from this process.
