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Huh. Musk has a physics degree and just started doing a PhD when he dropped out to do business. I mean he is no Hawkings but to say he has no scientific trainin

Huh. Musk has a physics degree and just started doing a PhD when he dropped out to do business. I mean he is no Hawkings but to say he has no scientific training is just plain wrong.

tsimionescu 5y ago
He has a bachelor's degree in physics (which he got at the same time as a degree in economics). This does not qualify as training, in my book, to discuss complex processes such as terraforming. He has never practiced in the field, and dropped put of that PhD after 2 days. He is a businessman with an undergraduate degree in physics. It is literally true that he has some training, but less so than any junior engineer working in the field for a year or two.
- rowanG077 5y ago
  Well you can think that but that doesn't make it true. Considering someone who is qualified to do a Physics PhD at Stanford as someone who has no scientific training is really quite ridiculous. A Physics bachelor is 3 years of full-time scientific training. And I'd imagine it's not easy getting into a Stanford PhD program. Not that I disagree that Musk is selling bullshit a lot of the time. But that is completely separate from his academic career.
  - tsimionescu 5y ago
    He was accepted there ~25 years ago. And 3 or 4 years of a bachelor's degree don't mean much - hundreds of thousands of people get such degrees each year all over the world. And by and large, they are nowhere near qualified in discussing any realistic possibility of something like terraforming. Also, money opens many doors even in the top universities in the USA, so being accepted for a PhD you don't even start is not an iron-tight guarantee of that much (if he had finished his PhD, I would not say this).
    - rowanG077 5y ago
      I was not objecting to your claim that Musk is not qualified to make an assessment about terraforming. I was objecting to your claim that Musk has no scientific training.

Huh. Musk has a physics degree and just started doing a PhD when he dropped out to do business. I mean he is no Hawkings but to say he has no scientific training is just plain wrong.

tsimionescu 5y ago

He has a bachelor's degree in physics (which he got at the same time as a degree in economics). This does not qualify as training, in my book, to discuss complex processes such as terraforming. He has never practiced in the field, and dropped put of that PhD after 2 days. He is a businessman with an undergraduate degree in physics. It is literally true that he has some training, but less so than any junior engineer working in the field for a year or two.

rowanG077 5y ago
Well you can think that but that doesn't make it true. Considering someone who is qualified to do a Physics PhD at Stanford as someone who has no scientific training is really quite ridiculous. A Physics bachelor is 3 years of full-time scientific training. And I'd imagine it's not easy getting into a Stanford PhD program. Not that I disagree that Musk is selling bullshit a lot of the time. But that is completely separate from his academic career.
- tsimionescu 5y ago
  He was accepted there ~25 years ago. And 3 or 4 years of a bachelor's degree don't mean much - hundreds of thousands of people get such degrees each year all over the world. And by and large, they are nowhere near qualified in discussing any realistic possibility of something like terraforming. Also, money opens many doors even in the top universities in the USA, so being accepted for a PhD you don't even start is not an iron-tight guarantee of that much (if he had finished his PhD, I would not say this).
  - rowanG077 5y ago
    I was not objecting to your claim that Musk is not qualified to make an assessment about terraforming. I was objecting to your claim that Musk has no scientific training.