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lol, and just to nit pick. Musk is probably the least innovative on this list. He did not found Tesla, he took it over. And SpaceX is using designs that had exi

lol, and just to nit pick. Musk is probably the least innovative on this list. He did not found Tesla, he took it over. And SpaceX is using designs that had existed for decades. His main "innovation" was betting large sums of money on existing technologies on the hopes that the market was finally ready for them. I will give him credit for starlink and autopilot, but it is too early to judge the impact of either of those yet. Bezos on the other hand radically transformed the entire retail sector. The logistics required to operate at that scale required healthy amounts of innovation. And AWS is a relatively original and transformative product. And whatever you think about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, they were both instrumental in defining the shift to personal computing, among many other impacts. Billions of people have been impacted by their work.

beaconstudios 6y ago
> Musk is probably the least innovative on this list. > Bezos on the other hand radically transformed the entire retail sector Who cares whether you're doing innovation if your goals are lame? I'd much rather we had more people trying to colonise the stars than people trying to make high availability shopping websites. That's exactly what I've been trying to say this whole time. I suppose ambition is a better word for it than innovation.
- qqqwerty 6y ago
  Fair enough. I still think there are no shortage of folks with ambition in this generation compared to previous ones. But the one thing that I do think missing is a "new frontier". Previous generations had oceans to sail, mountains to climb, etc... If definitely feels like there are fewer frontiers to explore in this era. But that is largely due to how much ground was already covered by previous generations and not really the fault of the current one. The stars are basically the last frontier, but unfortunately, exploring those requires budgets that only big governments can afford. Well out of the realm of your garage-scale inventor.
  - beaconstudios 6y ago
    I think there are more frontiers than we are generally aware of but for sure the lowest hanging fruit are already picked. Frontiers generally have to be invented by people willing to go out into the unknown, and I guess the willingness to try completely new things with no obvious benefit is what is missing. Startups are everywhere for those whose ambition is primarily "become wealthy", but most are funded and investors want a credible route to market. The clearest image that portrays this for me is the 60s scifi images where people were imagining robot butlers, flying cars and cities on the moon and under the sea, all by the year 2000. It really captures what's missing nowadays, and what Elon represents to a lot of people.

beaconstudios 6y ago

> Musk is probably the least innovative on this list. > Bezos on the other hand radically transformed the entire retail sector Who cares whether you're doing innovation if your goals are lame? I'd much rather we had more people trying to colonise the stars than people trying to make high availability shopping websites. That's exactly what I've been trying to say this whole time. I suppose ambition is a better word for it than innovation.

qqqwerty 6y ago
Fair enough. I still think there are no shortage of folks with ambition in this generation compared to previous ones. But the one thing that I do think missing is a "new frontier". Previous generations had oceans to sail, mountains to climb, etc... If definitely feels like there are fewer frontiers to explore in this era. But that is largely due to how much ground was already covered by previous generations and not really the fault of the current one. The stars are basically the last frontier, but unfortunately, exploring those requires budgets that only big governments can afford. Well out of the realm of your garage-scale inventor.
- beaconstudios 6y ago
  I think there are more frontiers than we are generally aware of but for sure the lowest hanging fruit are already picked. Frontiers generally have to be invented by people willing to go out into the unknown, and I guess the willingness to try completely new things with no obvious benefit is what is missing. Startups are everywhere for those whose ambition is primarily "become wealthy", but most are funded and investors want a credible route to market. The clearest image that portrays this for me is the 60s scifi images where people were imagining robot butlers, flying cars and cities on the moon and under the sea, all by the year 2000. It really captures what's missing nowadays, and what Elon represents to a lot of people.