> We (humans) should help humanity flourish. I understand that not everyone agrees. I have been called a “speciesist” for being “too human-centric”.
this is insane. the "speciesist" people aside (the best way for all other species to flourish is for humans to eradicate themselves right now, which is completely mad), i have the opposite problem: the _axiom_ seems to be: we should help ME flourish. "Me" as in people who are raking in trillions for their own very special selves right now, at the cost of everyone else's future, while none of them can be trusted to hold my cell phone for a second.
> if an industry commits to the axiom of helping humanity flourish
where does he see such industries, outside of maybe nonprofits?
> working 12~18 hours doing one moonshot after another.
Does anyone actually beleive Musk works 12 - 18 hour days?
He hires the right people and his companies solve hard problems, but they make a few electric cars, design and build some rockets, and launch some satelites. Most of that shouldn't require much of Musk's time since he has experts working on it.
Other than designing new rockets, there doesn't seem to be many new innovations coming out of Musk-owned companies.
To me, it feels like we all think he must be doing a ton of work even though his companies don't seem to be generating much output.
Feel free to name the recent innovations. Has Tesla released a new car with an incredible range? Have US homes adopted solar using Tesla batteries and ow we don't know what to do with our excess energy?
Catching rockets on landing for one, and making made electric cars actually popular & desirable.
Man either the jealousy or hate on Elon is on another level on HackerNews
Those aren't recent. Electric cars were popular 15 years ago. There are now multiple groups with reusable rockets. Elon doesn't need to work 12 hours/day on things his employees have already built.
I can't believe the rewriting of history on this topic. They were definitely not popular. The Model S had just been released 14 years ago. They were not popular. Tesla transformed the world in terms of rolling out electric cars.
> There are now multiple groups with reusable rockets
Not really, and nowhere near the same operational experience. They are still figuring out Starship. They're deploying new types of Starlink satellites.
My point was that the work to make them popular was done back then. The model s is what made Tesla cool to the public and made people want electric cars. Since then there have been some improvements to the car like better FSD, but no huge technical leaps.
The things you're talking about aren't things Elon is likely spending his days on. He has teams of people marketing Tesla and working on improving starship. Do you think Elon is actually handing design himself vs sitting in a bunch of meetings and giving feedback?
If he isn't doing the hands-on work, so you think he's in 18hrs of meetings each day?
I'm struggling to make out what your point is, other than to agree that electric cars definitely weren't popular back then until Elon Musk and Tesla made them so through solving a lot of difficult engineering, regulatory and financial challenges.
However I can answer your first question: I've no idea what Elon Musk does, but obviously he has a lot of very very bright people working for him. Just as how Bill Gates wouldn't write specs but he would critique them in detail[0] to make sure that the right things were being built. Whether or not that's "sitting in meetings" or "handling design himself" who knows, because I don't know what "handling design" means, and why it wouldn't involve meetings.
weird to me that people still fall for Musk's propaganda
i had hoped him lying about being an amazing video game player, literally paying someone else to play for him and taking all the credit, would open folks' eyes to the fact that he lies about the most basic things
It takes a odd kind of person to look at someone who can't tell the truth if their life depended on it... And then start bending over backwards to explain how brilliant they are.
Most of the rest of us understand that once you've said enough brazen bullshit, you forfeit the right to be believed.
I've heard people that work/worked with Musk that say he works a lot and is very knowledgeable about technical matters. I have never found someone that worked with him or knows him personally that contradicts this. So this idea that Musk just got lucky in the 7 companies he founded and he's just a bozo who happened to trip upon some new rocket designs is just insane.
> So this idea that Musk just got lucky in the 7 companies he founded and he's just a bozo who happened to trip upon some new rocket designs is just insane
I don't know who's saying that. Of course he's smart, but the amount of hours he works each day is almost certainly exaggerated to maintain this "Tony Stark-like genius narrative" he needs to keep the money coming in.
Elon knows how to hire, how to raise money, and how to profit from govt subsidies. That doesn't mean he's this lone genius who works himself to death, and that's a very unlikely story.
twelve40 · · focus · HN ↗
this is insane. the "speciesist" people aside (the best way for all other species to flourish is for humans to eradicate themselves right now, which is completely mad), i have the opposite problem: the _axiom_ seems to be: we should help ME flourish. "Me" as in people who are raking in trillions for their own very special selves right now, at the cost of everyone else's future, while none of them can be trusted to hold my cell phone for a second.
> if an industry commits to the axiom of helping humanity flourish
where does he see such industries, outside of maybe nonprofits?
unsupp0rted · · focus · HN ↗
[dead]
PretzelPirate · · focus · HN ↗
Does anyone actually beleive Musk works 12 - 18 hour days?
He hires the right people and his companies solve hard problems, but they make a few electric cars, design and build some rockets, and launch some satelites. Most of that shouldn't require much of Musk's time since he has experts working on it.
Other than designing new rockets, there doesn't seem to be many new innovations coming out of Musk-owned companies.
To me, it feels like we all think he must be doing a ton of work even though his companies don't seem to be generating much output.
oilkillsbirds · · focus · HN ↗
[dead]
PretzelPirate · · focus · HN ↗
What else has he delivered?
nxm · · focus · HN ↗
PretzelPirate · · focus · HN ↗
philipallstar · · focus · HN ↗
I can't believe the rewriting of history on this topic. They were definitely not popular. The Model S had just been released 14 years ago. They were not popular. Tesla transformed the world in terms of rolling out electric cars.
> There are now multiple groups with reusable rockets
Not really, and nowhere near the same operational experience. They are still figuring out Starship. They're deploying new types of Starlink satellites.
This is an utterly insane thesis.
PretzelPirate · · focus · HN ↗
The things you're talking about aren't things Elon is likely spending his days on. He has teams of people marketing Tesla and working on improving starship. Do you think Elon is actually handing design himself vs sitting in a bunch of meetings and giving feedback?
If he isn't doing the hands-on work, so you think he's in 18hrs of meetings each day?
philipallstar · · focus · HN ↗
However I can answer your first question: I've no idea what Elon Musk does, but obviously he has a lot of very very bright people working for him. Just as how Bill Gates wouldn't write specs but he would critique them in detail[0] to make sure that the right things were being built. Whether or not that's "sitting in meetings" or "handling design himself" who knows, because I don't know what "handling design" means, and why it wouldn't involve meetings.
[0] <a href="https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review" rel="nofollow">https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-rev...
myko · · focus · HN ↗
i had hoped him lying about being an amazing video game player, literally paying someone else to play for him and taking all the credit, would open folks' eyes to the fact that he lies about the most basic things
vkou · · focus · HN ↗
Most of the rest of us understand that once you've said enough brazen bullshit, you forfeit the right to be believed.
bko · · focus · HN ↗
PretzelPirate · · focus · HN ↗
I don't know who's saying that. Of course he's smart, but the amount of hours he works each day is almost certainly exaggerated to maintain this "Tony Stark-like genius narrative" he needs to keep the money coming in.
Elon knows how to hire, how to raise money, and how to profit from govt subsidies. That doesn't mean he's this lone genius who works himself to death, and that's a very unlikely story.