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This. People apparently have a little self reflection, if at all. Let's get something straight: every person is a piece of shit, in some ways, granted some a bi

This. People apparently have a little self reflection, if at all. Let's get something straight: every person is a piece of shit, in some ways, granted some a bit more and some a bit less. Your project manager is a piece of shit in some ways, the new intern is, in her ways, your parents are, like it or not, in their own little ways. And finally you are a piece of shit, in your own distinct ways. But of all the pieces of shit we have talked about, none of them are creating companies which can vertically land 70m by 3.7m rocket boosters from orbit. Compared to utility of Musk's initiatives to the society, he is actually a pretty nice person. Heck he is okay even in normal standards. Please consider the contents of both scales and judge responsibly.

SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
Indeed. Rocket technology itself is all derived from work done by the Nazis. As far as pieces of shit go these guys are pretty much top of the list. I'd rather have pieces of shit like Musk working on this technology, if I'm honest.
oblio 8y ago
That's an awfully cynical perspective. I have personally met and know several people who I would in no way classify as being "in some way, pieces of shit". I feel shame when I meet them, but they do exist. And the rest of us shouldn't get a pass because we suck.
- Fifer82 8y ago
  I think that is just because you are a shit within that piece group rather than an exception.
  - oblio 8y ago
    I didn't even say they were a group, just individuals :) And can't you just accept that some people are good?
    - khamoud 8y ago
      I don’t think so. I think it’s pretty naive to think some people exist without personality flaws. Everything people do is out of some sort of greed. Some of it results in good deeds others not so much. You volunteer or donate to charity because it makes you feel good, boosts your ego, and/or inflates your sense of self worth but you ARE being helpful in the grand scheme of things.
      - oblio 8y ago
        I know someone who is genuinely altruistic. She does things for other people cause she enjoys helping other people. If you're consistently doing good for reasons which are in no way indistinguishable for pure goodness, to me it's the same. Call it "boosting your ego" or "inflating your sense of self worth". Some people just feel good knowing they've helped other people. I don't see how these people can be considered "shit".
        Fifer82 8y ago
        Say the same person is having Lamb after she finishes an exhausting 12 hour shift helping people be safe. She tweets "Off home for some tasty lamb after a hard day!". Within 5 minutes, someone is going to say she is a 'pos' for eating baby animals!
- NateEag 8y ago
  You haven't known those people for their whole lives. You haven't seen them at their very worst, in the moments where they did the things that haunt them for decades. That's the point here - some people do less nasty stuff than others, but all of us have treated others horribly at some point. "Pieces of shit" may not be the best phrasing. I'd say "When you meet a person, no matter what they seem like, you can be highly confident that they have done something wonderful for someone at some point, and that they have mistreated someone horribly at some point."
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
dingaling 8y ago
Landing boosters from orbit wasn't an original objective of Space-X. It arose as an off the cuff suggestion from an engineer after they failed to obtain Russian engines. Mr Musk deserves credit for running with the idea despite incredulity, but it wasn't due to his vision.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- compton_effect 8y ago
  Well that is just a vast misrepresentation and distortion of the facts. The idea of landing boosters came about from spacex wanting to pursue reusable orbital vehicles from the beginning. Now spacex never wanted to acquire Russian engines. Where this russian connection comes from is before Elon started spacex, he wished to buy a few Russian ICBMS to launch a small greenhouse project to mars. The idea was to spur interest and investment into a mars program. This was back in the early 2000s and the russians basically laughed him out the door. From this, Elon founded spacex thinking he will build the rockets himself. A founding tenet of spacex was to decrease the cost of access to space. To achieve this, they set about trying to reuse rockets in the very the beginning. Their first rocket, the falcon 1, had parachutes on board to test first stage reusability. Later, on the first 2 launches of their falcon 9 rocket they again tried using parachutes. It became apparent that using parachutes wasn’t working and so, in 2011, they began the grasshopper program to practice their rockets propulsively. Within 4 years from the start of the program, spacex was successful and had landed a first stage from a rocket launching a payload To suggest it wasn’t part of the original inception of spacex or it was just an off the cuff response is blatant exaggeration. Listen, Elon has quite a few problems and in my opinion he should not be in charge of the day to day management of his companies. He should be the ideas man, pushing the companies vision and letting others get bogged down in implementing his ideas.
  - MaupitiBlue 8y ago
    Musk’s talent is the ability to raise capital for ridiculous sci-fi projects. This skill at least partially requires the subject to believe that Musk will be at the helm to navigate the cannonball run endeavor. If Musk isn’t actually pushing the buttons at Tesla then the magic is gone.

SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago

Indeed. Rocket technology itself is all derived from work done by the Nazis. As far as pieces of shit go these guys are pretty much top of the list. I'd rather have pieces of shit like Musk working on this technology, if I'm honest.

oblio 8y ago

That's an awfully cynical perspective. I have personally met and know several people who I would in no way classify as being "in some way, pieces of shit". I feel shame when I meet them, but they do exist. And the rest of us shouldn't get a pass because we suck.

Fifer82 8y ago
I think that is just because you are a shit within that piece group rather than an exception.
- oblio 8y ago
  I didn't even say they were a group, just individuals :) And can't you just accept that some people are good?
  - khamoud 8y ago
    I don’t think so. I think it’s pretty naive to think some people exist without personality flaws. Everything people do is out of some sort of greed. Some of it results in good deeds others not so much. You volunteer or donate to charity because it makes you feel good, boosts your ego, and/or inflates your sense of self worth but you ARE being helpful in the grand scheme of things.
    - oblio 8y ago
      I know someone who is genuinely altruistic. She does things for other people cause she enjoys helping other people. If you're consistently doing good for reasons which are in no way indistinguishable for pure goodness, to me it's the same. Call it "boosting your ego" or "inflating your sense of self worth". Some people just feel good knowing they've helped other people. I don't see how these people can be considered "shit".
      - Fifer82 8y ago
        Say the same person is having Lamb after she finishes an exhausting 12 hour shift helping people be safe. She tweets "Off home for some tasty lamb after a hard day!". Within 5 minutes, someone is going to say she is a 'pos' for eating baby animals!
NateEag 8y ago
You haven't known those people for their whole lives. You haven't seen them at their very worst, in the moments where they did the things that haunt them for decades. That's the point here - some people do less nasty stuff than others, but all of us have treated others horribly at some point. "Pieces of shit" may not be the best phrasing. I'd say "When you meet a person, no matter what they seem like, you can be highly confident that they have done something wonderful for someone at some point, and that they have mistreated someone horribly at some point."

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

dingaling 8y ago

Landing boosters from orbit wasn't an original objective of Space-X. It arose as an off the cuff suggestion from an engineer after they failed to obtain Russian engines. Mr Musk deserves credit for running with the idea despite incredulity, but it wasn't due to his vision.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
compton_effect 8y ago
Well that is just a vast misrepresentation and distortion of the facts. The idea of landing boosters came about from spacex wanting to pursue reusable orbital vehicles from the beginning. Now spacex never wanted to acquire Russian engines. Where this russian connection comes from is before Elon started spacex, he wished to buy a few Russian ICBMS to launch a small greenhouse project to mars. The idea was to spur interest and investment into a mars program. This was back in the early 2000s and the russians basically laughed him out the door. From this, Elon founded spacex thinking he will build the rockets himself. A founding tenet of spacex was to decrease the cost of access to space. To achieve this, they set about trying to reuse rockets in the very the beginning. Their first rocket, the falcon 1, had parachutes on board to test first stage reusability. Later, on the first 2 launches of their falcon 9 rocket they again tried using parachutes. It became apparent that using parachutes wasn’t working and so, in 2011, they began the grasshopper program to practice their rockets propulsively. Within 4 years from the start of the program, spacex was successful and had landed a first stage from a rocket launching a payload To suggest it wasn’t part of the original inception of spacex or it was just an off the cuff response is blatant exaggeration. Listen, Elon has quite a few problems and in my opinion he should not be in charge of the day to day management of his companies. He should be the ideas man, pushing the companies vision and letting others get bogged down in implementing his ideas.
- MaupitiBlue 8y ago
  Musk’s talent is the ability to raise capital for ridiculous sci-fi projects. This skill at least partially requires the subject to believe that Musk will be at the helm to navigate the cannonball run endeavor. If Musk isn’t actually pushing the buttons at Tesla then the magic is gone.