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People have been trying to tell Elon Musk and Silicon Valley this for years now. https://pedestrianobservations.com/2013/08/13/loopy-ideas-are-fine-if-youre-an

People have been trying to tell Elon Musk and Silicon Valley this for years now. https://pedestrianobservations.com/2013/08/13/loopy-ideas-are-fine-if-youre-an-entrepreneur/ https://pedestrianobservations.com/2013/08/13/loopy-ideas-ar... "Musk’s real sin is not the elementary mistakes; it’s this lack of context. The lack of references comes from the same place, and so does the utter indifference to the unrealistically low costs. This turns it from a wrong idea that still has interesting contributions to make to a hackneyed proposal that should be dismissed and forgotten as soon as possible. I write this not to help bury Musk; I’m not nearly famous enough to even hit a nail in his coffin. I write this to point out that, in the US, people will treat any crank seriously if he has enough money or enough prowess in another field. A sufficiently rich person is surrounded by sycophants and stenographers who won’t check his numbers against anything. There are two stories here. In the less interesting one, Musk is a modern-day streetcar conspiracy mogul: he has a car company, he hopes to make money off of it in the future and uses non-generally accepted accounting to claim he already does, and he constantly trash-talks high-speed rail, which competes with his product. Since he’s not proposing to build Hyperloop soon, it could be viewed as clever distraction or FUD. The more interesting possibility, which I am inclined toward, is that this is not fraud, or not primarily fraud. Musk is the sort of person who thinks he can wend his way from starting online companies to building cars and selling them without dealerships. I have not seen a single defense of the technical details of the proposal except for one Facebook comment that claims, doubly erroneously, that the high lateral acceleration is no problem because the tubes can be canted. Everyone, including the Facebook comment, instead gushes about Musk personally. The thinking is that he’s rich, so he must always have something interesting to say; he can’t be a huckster when venturing outside his field. It would be unthinkable to treat people as professionals in their own fields, who take years to make a successful sideways move and who need to be extremely careful not to make elementary mistakes. The superheros of American media coverage would instantly collapse, relegated to a specialized role while mere mortals take over most functions."

kjeetgill 8y ago
There's plenty of legitimate criticism to make of Elon. He gets investments for his "big ideas" on sheer reputation and bravado but it's pretty unfair to say it's not even partly deserved. He's legitimatly pulled off a tremendous amount between Space X and Tesla even if he disld promise much more. I'm not saying don't hold him accountable, and he's been eratic on social media lately, but Jesus ... Have some perspective. Selecting a handful of quotes from you: > I write this to point out that, in the US, people will treat any crank seriously if he has enough money or enough prowess in another field. > Since he’s not proposing to build Hyperloop soon, it could be viewed as clever distraction or FUD. > The thinking is that he’s rich, so he must always have something interesting to say; he can’t be a huckster when venturing outside his field. Do you think maybe there's a middle ground between infallible god and delusional crank and huckster?
- cmurf 8y ago
  Of course, just not in America right now which really is at it's peak for adoration of celebrities, conspicuous consumption, and prosperity theology/philosophy. If any of us peons start handing out pedophile accusations at the next family or work meeting, how would that go down? We'd be invited to a. take a time out or b. to get stuffed. It's worth reading the book of Job. God: "No, FU, you do not get to question me! No matter whether I may have made bad things happen to you on purpose, or I merely let them happen while taking a bet with Satan. Who are you? You've done nothing. I've done everything. All of your accumulations are incidental to everything I made possible. And they have nothing at all to do with sucking up to me. Sometimes wicked people prosper. Oh and thanks for playing to the best of your abilities. Hey Satan, you owe me a $1 I won our bet. Oh and Job since you didn't question me, you get double the bounty. Good luck with those 14,000 sheep you've got now!" Obviously a human wrote it, and humans have been grappling with these questions for a long time. Are rich people better than poor people? And if god lets wicked people prosper then are we all responsible for holding rich people accountable? Or should we take bribes and let them get away with things? And right now American is absolutely to its core worshiping the wealthy. It's full on idolatry. Rich people are ethically better, morally better, they are higher class, they deserve more breaks from the rules that apply to the everyone else, hey cut the rich guy some slack! It's in business. It's in every day life. It's taught in evangelical churches. God wants you to be rich! What can god do? Anything he wants! What can a rich person do? Almost anything they want! What does everyone else do? Serve god and the rich. Clearly the rich are very close to god! The wealthy are deified in this country. And it's totally perverse to me. Hilarious I'm an atheist, loving the book of Job! I really look forward to the day when America can tone down this money cult. God really did make a bet with Satan though. Check it out. Prosperity theology is Satan's idea.
  - 67_45 8y ago
    How would it go down if you told people to shove submarines up their asses?
  - jacobush 8y ago
    Seriously, you should preach, like in a church. You'd draw a crowd, with your atheist stance and all. Edit: not meant in an ironic or sarcastic way.
laaph 8y ago
> I write this to point out that, in the US, people will treat any crank seriously if he has enough money or enough prowess in another field. I once attended a lecture given by Donald Knuth on the topic of a verse in the bible. The first thing that he said was "I'm not sure why people would come to a computer scientist for his thoughts on religion". The celebrity effect is real; by being a celebrity you can venture in to worlds you know nothing about and people will take you seriously. I know why I went to see Donald Knuth that day, and I got to hear his reviews on his religious life. Even though I recognized him for his work in comp sci I still listened to him. (Not that I will accuse him of not knowing what he was talking about, I'm the one unfamiliar with that topic.)

kjeetgill 8y ago

There's plenty of legitimate criticism to make of Elon. He gets investments for his "big ideas" on sheer reputation and bravado but it's pretty unfair to say it's not even partly deserved. He's legitimatly pulled off a tremendous amount between Space X and Tesla even if he disld promise much more. I'm not saying don't hold him accountable, and he's been eratic on social media lately, but Jesus ... Have some perspective. Selecting a handful of quotes from you: > I write this to point out that, in the US, people will treat any crank seriously if he has enough money or enough prowess in another field. > Since he’s not proposing to build Hyperloop soon, it could be viewed as clever distraction or FUD. > The thinking is that he’s rich, so he must always have something interesting to say; he can’t be a huckster when venturing outside his field. Do you think maybe there's a middle ground between infallible god and delusional crank and huckster?

cmurf 8y ago
Of course, just not in America right now which really is at it's peak for adoration of celebrities, conspicuous consumption, and prosperity theology/philosophy. If any of us peons start handing out pedophile accusations at the next family or work meeting, how would that go down? We'd be invited to a. take a time out or b. to get stuffed. It's worth reading the book of Job. God: "No, FU, you do not get to question me! No matter whether I may have made bad things happen to you on purpose, or I merely let them happen while taking a bet with Satan. Who are you? You've done nothing. I've done everything. All of your accumulations are incidental to everything I made possible. And they have nothing at all to do with sucking up to me. Sometimes wicked people prosper. Oh and thanks for playing to the best of your abilities. Hey Satan, you owe me a $1 I won our bet. Oh and Job since you didn't question me, you get double the bounty. Good luck with those 14,000 sheep you've got now!" Obviously a human wrote it, and humans have been grappling with these questions for a long time. Are rich people better than poor people? And if god lets wicked people prosper then are we all responsible for holding rich people accountable? Or should we take bribes and let them get away with things? And right now American is absolutely to its core worshiping the wealthy. It's full on idolatry. Rich people are ethically better, morally better, they are higher class, they deserve more breaks from the rules that apply to the everyone else, hey cut the rich guy some slack! It's in business. It's in every day life. It's taught in evangelical churches. God wants you to be rich! What can god do? Anything he wants! What can a rich person do? Almost anything they want! What does everyone else do? Serve god and the rich. Clearly the rich are very close to god! The wealthy are deified in this country. And it's totally perverse to me. Hilarious I'm an atheist, loving the book of Job! I really look forward to the day when America can tone down this money cult. God really did make a bet with Satan though. Check it out. Prosperity theology is Satan's idea.
- 67_45 8y ago
  How would it go down if you told people to shove submarines up their asses?
- jacobush 8y ago
  Seriously, you should preach, like in a church. You'd draw a crowd, with your atheist stance and all. Edit: not meant in an ironic or sarcastic way.

laaph 8y ago

> I write this to point out that, in the US, people will treat any crank seriously if he has enough money or enough prowess in another field. I once attended a lecture given by Donald Knuth on the topic of a verse in the bible. The first thing that he said was "I'm not sure why people would come to a computer scientist for his thoughts on religion". The celebrity effect is real; by being a celebrity you can venture in to worlds you know nothing about and people will take you seriously. I know why I went to see Donald Knuth that day, and I got to hear his reviews on his religious life. Even though I recognized him for his work in comp sci I still listened to him. (Not that I will accuse him of not knowing what he was talking about, I'm the one unfamiliar with that topic.)