4 ms·

With one caveat that he's not an engineer. At best he has some experience as a web developer but is largely a money guy having gotten his start from his family'

With one caveat that he's not an engineer. At best he has some experience as a web developer but is largely a money guy having gotten his start from his family's emerald mine in apartheid South Africa.

tim333 6y ago
He claims otherwise. His rockets seem to work quite well. https://youtu.be/cIQ36Kt7UVg?t=175 https://youtu.be/cIQ36Kt7UVg?t=175
thu2111 6y ago
That's a pretty absurd slur. If you're going to claim Musk isn't an engineer then you're defining the term so narrowly it stops being interesting. Biographies of him are quite clear that when he decided to make SpaceX he spent a very long period of time indeed doing nothing but reading rocket science textbooks; it was the knowledge of rocketry he gained by doing that which allowed him to realise which problems needed to be solved, that they could be solved, who could do the work to solve them and most importantly to gain the confidence of other rocket engine designers and convince them to join him. He pretty routinely engages in technical discussion about rockets, what happened, what went wrong etc. That's on top of his experience as a software developer. So if you're going to claim Musk isn't an engineer then really neither was Bill Gates, Larry Page, or other people who did some initial work and had some expertise in what their company did but rapidly became a professional executive.
- starkd 6y ago
  The criticism that Elon Musk is "not an engineer" is an example of loserthink if ever there was one.
tim333 6y ago
Wikipedia has >Elon Reeve Musk FRS (/ˈiːlɒn/; born June 28, 1971) is an engineer, industrial designer, technology entrepreneur, scientist and philanthropist Still haters gonna hate.
- tfehring 6y ago
  The fact that his Wikipedia byline is the strongest evidence of any engineering expertise is telling.
  - tim333 6y ago
    Well, the easiest to cut and paste more than the strongest.

tim333 6y ago

He claims otherwise. His rockets seem to work quite well. https://youtu.be/cIQ36Kt7UVg?t=175 https://youtu.be/cIQ36Kt7UVg?t=175

thu2111 6y ago

That's a pretty absurd slur. If you're going to claim Musk isn't an engineer then you're defining the term so narrowly it stops being interesting. Biographies of him are quite clear that when he decided to make SpaceX he spent a very long period of time indeed doing nothing but reading rocket science textbooks; it was the knowledge of rocketry he gained by doing that which allowed him to realise which problems needed to be solved, that they could be solved, who could do the work to solve them and most importantly to gain the confidence of other rocket engine designers and convince them to join him. He pretty routinely engages in technical discussion about rockets, what happened, what went wrong etc. That's on top of his experience as a software developer. So if you're going to claim Musk isn't an engineer then really neither was Bill Gates, Larry Page, or other people who did some initial work and had some expertise in what their company did but rapidly became a professional executive.

starkd 6y ago
The criticism that Elon Musk is "not an engineer" is an example of loserthink if ever there was one.

tim333 6y ago

Wikipedia has >Elon Reeve Musk FRS (/ˈiːlɒn/; born June 28, 1971) is an engineer, industrial designer, technology entrepreneur, scientist and philanthropist Still haters gonna hate.

tfehring 6y ago
The fact that his Wikipedia byline is the strongest evidence of any engineering expertise is telling.
- tim333 6y ago
  Well, the easiest to cut and paste more than the strongest.