I don't think you should diminish the great work of Lex Luther by associating Musk with him. Musk is not a genius, he just got rich with first mover advantage in Online banking (paypal) and disrupting a lazy industry (Cars but electric!).
The real measure of Musk will be seeing how well this all goes. If he's really is smart, this may work. But by all accounts we're seeing what taking 44 billion dollars and setting it on fire looks like.
Turns out this guy who consistently beat all odds and pushes progress further than imagine, is just completely randomly involved in all these events, as CEO but that's just a detail. And obviously he's a fraud, there's someone else all this time really running the show, probably a lizard.
Elon is brash, tough to work with and doesn't behave in upstanding ways, and I don't think I'd want to work for him; he's a jerk. But all this doesn't make wishful denial become true.
> Turns out this guy who consistently beat all odds
Where is the Hyperloop? Since he announced it China has build 3 thousand miles of high speed rail.
How many cars travelled through boring company tonnels?
How many years ago was Full Self Driving meant to be released?
> doesn't behave in upstanding ways
He was sued for sexual harrasment, unfair dismissal, dangerous working conditions, defamation, reneging on signed contract, by SEC for lying to investors, and countless others.
If an average person broke this many laws, their life would be ruined.
Yes, isn't that all proof that he's clearly not just a mere average joe? Everyone fails, he fails less than most all of us, and he does really daring things.
We can dislike him all we want for all his flaws, he's going to be in history books. If he wasn't so ruthless about achieving his goals, the moonshots he did achieve would have been failures as well.
We can dislike someone and still recognize their impact, people aren't black or white. Nuanced opinions are possible.
He fails less because he got lucky at some time and made his money, and then after that he acts like a bully and tries to beat down any opposition. Selling company at 420, what was he penalized? Other allegations, what did he lose? If there was a genuine fear of him losing something substantial, I am pretty sure his attitude will change.
No one is questioning his impact, but the people do question and have the right to question the methods. But we live in a corrupt system, we can point fingers in many directions, and rightly so. He is just one of a breed.
Why do you think the hyperloop should be anywhere? It was just an idea Elon threw out there for someone else to build, not a project he tried to build. (Don't confuse Boring Co Loop in vegas with an attempt to build high speed partial vacuum tunnel at human scale)
Yeah, but buying twitter isn't smart. It shows a glaring lack of critical thinking and foresight. So like most rich people. He got lucky in the past and the past may not be a measure of the future.
The mental gymnastics people on HN perform to diminish Musk's real achievements deserves 10s across the board.
I mean if you hate the guy just say so (for extra credit, explain why). Don't lie about his achievements and intelligence. They are so obviously real. Yes, luck is involved too, but it's not the only thing by far. He fucken self-learned rocket science in 6 years.
> When I met Elon it was apparent to me that although he had a scientific mind and he understood scientific principles, he did not know anything about rockets. Nothing. That was in 2001. By 2007 he knew everything about rockets - he really knew everything, in detail. You have to put some serious study in to know as much about rockets as he knows now. This doesn't come just from hanging out with people.
Robert Zubrin - aerospace engineer
> Elon is brilliant. He’s involved in just about everything. He understands everything. If he asks you a question, you learn very quickly not to go give him a gut reaction.
He wants answers that get down to the fundamental laws of physics. One thing he understands really well is the physics of the rockets. He understands that like nobody else. The stuff I have seen him do in his head is crazy.
He can get in discussions about flying a satellite and whether we can make the right orbit and deliver Dragon at the same time and solve all these equations in real time. It’s amazing to watch the amount of knowledge he has accumulated over the years.
Musk is a good project manager if you think that crash or crash through is a good project management methodology. And Telsa and SpaceX (Which is supported by defence industry) are very different in their offerings than twitter.....
So he lead first new major US car company in a century and started the first viable private rocket company in 50 years, but you’re concerned that he won’t be able to figure out how to make Twitter profitable?
People want cars, defence wants rockets. People use twitter, but in the list of things that are required in the future. A terse environment for people to shitpost each other may not be essential.
The skills to run SpaceX and Tesla transfer to running Twitter a lot more than basketball to cooking. For one thing, they all (leading SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter) have running a large business in common.
Does it need to be a good financial outcome for it to be smart?
I view the whole thing as Elon getting bored and wanting a new toy to play with. When you have as much wealth as he does, a loss hardly really matters. If he can make it profitable somehow, that's just a bonus.
The real measure of Musk will be seeing how well this all goes. If he's really is smart, this may work. But by all accounts we're seeing what taking 44 billion dollars and setting it on fire looks like.