5 ms·

Are all tech companies just copying Elon now?

ulfw 7y ago
Elon God Musk. Sole inventor of online payments, solar panels, electric cars, tunnels and satellites. Silicon Valley hubris at its best
- sgt 7y ago
  I don't think Elon claims any of those things. I think what he brings is a unique clarity that is hard for others to replicate when looking at ideas that already exist. By leveraging this clarity he can Get Things Done™, and we've seen tangible proof of that already with Tesla and SpaceX.
  - m11a 7y ago
    Elon may not, but his followers do. And Elon takes advantage of his Tony Stark persona people have made for him greatly. I don't blame him for that, of course. For everything he does deliver, there's 5 promises that he didn't. Humans on Mars by 2024, infrastructure on Mars by 2022? Model 3 was greatly delayed. $35k price point promise? I'm not anti-Elon, the opposite actually; he does great work and his companies have contributed a lot and indeed solved many problems. But I really do wish people would tone down the hype over him sometimes. Half of what he says isn't even in realistic development, it just sees a trailer, and the next thing you know there's another product announced and people have forgotten all about that one.
dimator 7y ago
Yeesh, the Elon idolizing is getting tedious.
- Dylan16807 7y ago
  Idolizing? The idea that some skunkworks segment of Apple is copying him is not a statement about whether his ideas are good or bad.
threeseed 7y ago
You do know that Elon didn't invent nor is the first company to have internet satellites. They are actually pretty common.
- coding123 7y ago
  Low earth orbit peer-to-peer low cost internet is very different from what the old guard in this "space" is up to. And it is in that sense that they are copying Elon. (edit: I thought Facebook was first to announce this, but apparently it was indeed first inspired by SpaceX).
  - jerich 7y ago
    Take a look at what Teledesic was planning in the late 90s. Elon’s a great guy, but nothing I see about Starlink is innovative over what they were working on over 20 years ago.
    - mft_ 7y ago
      This is something I see people misunderstand time and time again; “innovation” isn’t just inventing an entirely new novel product. Musk is not about innovation in terms of entirely new products. As other posters have commented, rockets, electric cars, and Internet satellites have all been done before. Where he seems to be special is having the vision to see opportunities to develop or scale existing products much further than incumbents, and having the confidence/chutzpah/bloody-mindedness to pull it off. However, through the development required to meet his challenging goals, his teams often need to innovate significantly - this innovation is often exceptional. And of course, what makes a large-scale global Internet satellite service viable is actually the ability to reuse launch rockets - one of his other major innovations.
- tnel77 7y ago
  Elon is god /s
- dayaz36 7y ago
  Global high speed satellite internet is "pretty common"? Cool. Where do I sign up?
taneq 7y ago
Musk's playbook is actually much more likely based on Apple's than vice versa. Apple doesn't make entirely new things, they spot emerging fields and finesse the state of the art until it looks like an entirely new product. The original (Apple / Macintosh / MacBook / iPod / iPhone) didn't do anything that other X couldn't do, it was just better integrated and slicker.

ulfw 7y ago

Elon God Musk. Sole inventor of online payments, solar panels, electric cars, tunnels and satellites. Silicon Valley hubris at its best

sgt 7y ago
I don't think Elon claims any of those things. I think what he brings is a unique clarity that is hard for others to replicate when looking at ideas that already exist. By leveraging this clarity he can Get Things Done™, and we've seen tangible proof of that already with Tesla and SpaceX.
- m11a 7y ago
  Elon may not, but his followers do. And Elon takes advantage of his Tony Stark persona people have made for him greatly. I don't blame him for that, of course. For everything he does deliver, there's 5 promises that he didn't. Humans on Mars by 2024, infrastructure on Mars by 2022? Model 3 was greatly delayed. $35k price point promise? I'm not anti-Elon, the opposite actually; he does great work and his companies have contributed a lot and indeed solved many problems. But I really do wish people would tone down the hype over him sometimes. Half of what he says isn't even in realistic development, it just sees a trailer, and the next thing you know there's another product announced and people have forgotten all about that one.

dimator 7y ago

Yeesh, the Elon idolizing is getting tedious.

Dylan16807 7y ago
Idolizing? The idea that some skunkworks segment of Apple is copying him is not a statement about whether his ideas are good or bad.

threeseed 7y ago

You do know that Elon didn't invent nor is the first company to have internet satellites. They are actually pretty common.

coding123 7y ago
Low earth orbit peer-to-peer low cost internet is very different from what the old guard in this "space" is up to. And it is in that sense that they are copying Elon. (edit: I thought Facebook was first to announce this, but apparently it was indeed first inspired by SpaceX).
- jerich 7y ago
  Take a look at what Teledesic was planning in the late 90s. Elon’s a great guy, but nothing I see about Starlink is innovative over what they were working on over 20 years ago.
  - mft_ 7y ago
    This is something I see people misunderstand time and time again; “innovation” isn’t just inventing an entirely new novel product. Musk is not about innovation in terms of entirely new products. As other posters have commented, rockets, electric cars, and Internet satellites have all been done before. Where he seems to be special is having the vision to see opportunities to develop or scale existing products much further than incumbents, and having the confidence/chutzpah/bloody-mindedness to pull it off. However, through the development required to meet his challenging goals, his teams often need to innovate significantly - this innovation is often exceptional. And of course, what makes a large-scale global Internet satellite service viable is actually the ability to reuse launch rockets - one of his other major innovations.
tnel77 7y ago
Elon is god /s
dayaz36 7y ago
Global high speed satellite internet is "pretty common"? Cool. Where do I sign up?

taneq 7y ago

Musk's playbook is actually much more likely based on Apple's than vice versa. Apple doesn't make entirely new things, they spot emerging fields and finesse the state of the art until it looks like an entirely new product. The original (Apple / Macintosh / MacBook / iPod / iPhone) didn't do anything that other X couldn't do, it was just better integrated and slicker.