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I think it's just lazy to dismiss everyone's criticism as one thing. Sure, there are idiots out on the internet who are going to crap all over what anyone does

I think it's just lazy to dismiss everyone's criticism as one thing. Sure, there are idiots out on the internet who are going to crap all over what anyone does for literally any reason. However, the people are criticising are actual people and they do actually have arguments that you should think about. Some of those arguments are bad, but a lot of them aren't. When Elon Musk decided he was going to revolutionize travel with the Boring company a load of experts in town planning and infrastructure came out and said - "Hey, we're experts, we understand this problem, you aren't even solving the right problem" and so far, they seem basically correct. The boring company could completely succeed at its goal, and it wouldn't matter. There are going to be lightweight criticisms of this concept (Musk invites those by making someone dress up in a morph suit and dance like a robot). But there are also going to be more realistic criticisms such as the fact that whilst Humanoid robots have remained science fiction, non-humanoid robots have proliferated massively across industries that were previously fully manual. It'd be great if we could build a humanoid robot to replace all those humans trudging around Amazon fulfillment centres- but we don't need to, because those robots have no reason to be humanoid in the first place. I'm tired of people pretending that just the aspiration to change the world excuses you from real criticism of your ideas. There are plenty of people out there changing the world- some of them mentioned in the article, and those people actually thought out what they were doing before getting a guy in a morph suit to dance in front of the worlds press. Let's not forget, we're still waiting for the autonomous driving promises Musk has failed to deliver on for years now.

elurg 5y ago
> "Hey, we're experts, we understand this problem, you aren't even solving the right problem" and so far, they seem basically correct. The boring company could completely succeed at its goal, and it wouldn't matter. A lot of experts in cars and rockets claimed that Tesla and SpaceX are terrible ideas and they were proved wrong many times. Incumbents are too often dismissive of new ideas. Many of the arguments against the boring company are "social arguments" from people who are ideologically committed to bikes and public transport. They have very little to do with whether it is possible to build cheaper tunnels.
- jedrek 5y ago
  > A lot of experts in cars and rockets claimed that Tesla and SpaceX are terrible ideas and they were proved wrong many times. Can we see some references to these experts?
  - onethought 5y ago
    Look up anything Toyoda says about electric cars.
- Traster 5y ago
  I think you're missing the point - which was to engage on the actual criticism and not just hand wave about "Oh lots of people said stuff". Sure, in any given case you can find someone making a bad argument on the internet, it doesn't mean there aren't good arguments, and in many cases if you listen to the good arguments, you realise what Musk is taking years to realise.

elurg 5y ago

> "Hey, we're experts, we understand this problem, you aren't even solving the right problem" and so far, they seem basically correct. The boring company could completely succeed at its goal, and it wouldn't matter. A lot of experts in cars and rockets claimed that Tesla and SpaceX are terrible ideas and they were proved wrong many times. Incumbents are too often dismissive of new ideas. Many of the arguments against the boring company are "social arguments" from people who are ideologically committed to bikes and public transport. They have very little to do with whether it is possible to build cheaper tunnels.

jedrek 5y ago
> A lot of experts in cars and rockets claimed that Tesla and SpaceX are terrible ideas and they were proved wrong many times. Can we see some references to these experts?
- onethought 5y ago
  Look up anything Toyoda says about electric cars.
Traster 5y ago
I think you're missing the point - which was to engage on the actual criticism and not just hand wave about "Oh lots of people said stuff". Sure, in any given case you can find someone making a bad argument on the internet, it doesn't mean there aren't good arguments, and in many cases if you listen to the good arguments, you realise what Musk is taking years to realise.