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"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it." Dude literally is, to quote the author, "the next Steve Jobs, but better". Is h

by m0zg 8y ago

"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it." Dude literally is, to quote the author, "the next Steve Jobs, but better". Is he occasionally an idiot? Yes. Is he occasionally an asshole? Also yes. But he's on track to have done not one, not two, but _three_ things others widely consider impossible (SpaceX, Tesla, StarLink) and may even squeeze in 2-3 more of those things in his remaining lifespan. If that's not genius, I don't know what is.

xiphias2 8y ago
I wouldn't say PayPal is nothing, although lot of people hate it, I always prefer paying with it than giving my credit card number to a new merchant. What's the most important for me is that Elon showed people that clean great electric cars are possible (and China already has a higher growth rate in electric cars than Tesla). I'm literally sick of the toxic air pollution that cars make, which is a problem I didn't have when I was younger.
- m0zg 8y ago
  It's not "nothing". I only listed the "impossible" things he's done or is in the advanced stages of doing.
- wpietri 8y ago
  What exactly did Musk do at PayPal? He didn't start it. He was CEO for a hot minute, but that's about it. From what I can tell, his major initiative during his short CEO stint was to try to shift them from a Unix infrastructure to Windows, for which they fired him. I have no idea why people give him credit for it.
  - acover 8y ago
    Elon founded x.com which merged with confinity. The combined company was renamed PayPal [0]. Doesn't that mean he co-founded PayPal? [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.com
    - wpietri 8y ago
      No. PayPal, the money transfer service, was created before the merger. X.com was an online bank. PayPal clearly existed by October 1999: https://web.archive.org/web/19991013140707/http://paypal.com:80/ https://web.archive.org/web/19991013140707/http://paypal.com... Your web page shows the merger was in March 2000. Musk was pushed out by October 2000.
  - xiphias2 8y ago
    I don't think Peter Thiel would have given so much shares to Elon if he didn't think about X.com as a serious competitor. Peter still looks up to Elon for a reason. At the same time Elon is making huge mistakes and huge risks as well (and also has borderline lies that sometimes step over the border), so I'm not saying he's perfect, just the best we have right now.
    - wpietri 8y ago
      That avoids the question. What did he do at PayPal? As far as I can tell he deserves no credit for his success.
tejohnso 8y ago
Starlink, Tesla, and SpaceX are not at all considered impossible. In fact, all three have active competition. I'd put mars colonization and hyperloop under the "widely considered impossible" category though.
- m0zg 8y ago
  Sure, _now_ they have competition. But when he was starting out, they were all considered impossible. In fact, StarLink is still "impossible" to compete with. No one knows how to operate such an enormous satellite constellation, let alone do so profitably.
  - gamblor956 8y ago
    Starlink hasn't succeeded yet. Is Elon now getting pre credit for things he hasn't even done?
    - m0zg 8y ago
      Two satellites are in orbit already, and SpaceX employees are playing multiplayer games over that link. It's way past the point of where it was "impossible" for SpaceX to accomplish. I _can't wait_ to ditch Frontier, and I'm sure there are millions of others like me just in the US alone.
      - jcranmer 8y ago
        You yourself said that the difficulty of Starlink is in operating a large satellite constellation. By that metric, two satellites in orbit tells you almost nothing about SpaceX's ability to actually overcome the difficulty.
        tbabb 8y ago
        I would posit that StarLink is impossible for anyone except SpaceX, who can get launches at-cost or for free as piggyback on other customers. Without that, I am sure that it looks economically impossible. The technological challenges are probably more tractable.

by m0zg 8y ago

xiphias2 8y ago

I wouldn't say PayPal is nothing, although lot of people hate it, I always prefer paying with it than giving my credit card number to a new merchant. What's the most important for me is that Elon showed people that clean great electric cars are possible (and China already has a higher growth rate in electric cars than Tesla). I'm literally sick of the toxic air pollution that cars make, which is a problem I didn't have when I was younger.

m0zg 8y ago
It's not "nothing". I only listed the "impossible" things he's done or is in the advanced stages of doing.
wpietri 8y ago
What exactly did Musk do at PayPal? He didn't start it. He was CEO for a hot minute, but that's about it. From what I can tell, his major initiative during his short CEO stint was to try to shift them from a Unix infrastructure to Windows, for which they fired him. I have no idea why people give him credit for it.
- acover 8y ago
  Elon founded x.com which merged with confinity. The combined company was renamed PayPal [0]. Doesn't that mean he co-founded PayPal? [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.com
  - wpietri 8y ago
    No. PayPal, the money transfer service, was created before the merger. X.com was an online bank. PayPal clearly existed by October 1999: https://web.archive.org/web/19991013140707/http://paypal.com:80/ https://web.archive.org/web/19991013140707/http://paypal.com... Your web page shows the merger was in March 2000. Musk was pushed out by October 2000.
- xiphias2 8y ago
  I don't think Peter Thiel would have given so much shares to Elon if he didn't think about X.com as a serious competitor. Peter still looks up to Elon for a reason. At the same time Elon is making huge mistakes and huge risks as well (and also has borderline lies that sometimes step over the border), so I'm not saying he's perfect, just the best we have right now.
  - wpietri 8y ago
    That avoids the question. What did he do at PayPal? As far as I can tell he deserves no credit for his success.

tejohnso 8y ago

Starlink, Tesla, and SpaceX are not at all considered impossible. In fact, all three have active competition. I'd put mars colonization and hyperloop under the "widely considered impossible" category though.

m0zg 8y ago
Sure, _now_ they have competition. But when he was starting out, they were all considered impossible. In fact, StarLink is still "impossible" to compete with. No one knows how to operate such an enormous satellite constellation, let alone do so profitably.
- gamblor956 8y ago
  Starlink hasn't succeeded yet. Is Elon now getting pre credit for things he hasn't even done?
  - m0zg 8y ago
    Two satellites are in orbit already, and SpaceX employees are playing multiplayer games over that link. It's way past the point of where it was "impossible" for SpaceX to accomplish. I _can't wait_ to ditch Frontier, and I'm sure there are millions of others like me just in the US alone.
    - jcranmer 8y ago
      You yourself said that the difficulty of Starlink is in operating a large satellite constellation. By that metric, two satellites in orbit tells you almost nothing about SpaceX's ability to actually overcome the difficulty.
      - tbabb 8y ago
        I would posit that StarLink is impossible for anyone except SpaceX, who can get launches at-cost or for free as piggyback on other customers. Without that, I am sure that it looks economically impossible. The technological challenges are probably more tractable.