18 ms·

Didn't Musk get rich solving complex problems? The ink isn't even dry yet and there is a rush to judgement, speculation, and wild assumptions that are simply sh

Didn't Musk get rich solving complex problems? The ink isn't even dry yet and there is a rush to judgement, speculation, and wild assumptions that are simply shameful. How many cars did Tesla sell on the day after his investment?

chadlavi 4y ago
- BurningFrog 4y ago
  That's a dumb internet myth that will never die.
- infinityio 4y ago
  he may have been rich from his family, but he became Rich from zip2 and x.com/paypal (and subsequent re-investments)
- ergocoder 4y ago
  His family's mine is $100B usd? wowza. TIL
LouisSayers 4y ago
People always do this with Elon... it doesn't matter if he's making cars, building rockets or taking on social media, the general consensus is that he doesn't know what he's doing and will fail. But, who's the richest man in the room? Who was right and who was wrong? People can hate on Elon all they want, but it's pure ignorance to think that we know any better. Let the man work his magic, I'm curious to see what he comes up with.
- georgeg23 4y ago
  He was given the money, team, idea, and government connections by this guy for SpaceX at least: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Griffin#Career https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Griffin#Career
  - LouisSayers 4y ago
    I'm glad there are enough people out there helping to support his ventures. Can totally understand how people say "it's lonely at the top"...
- scaramanga 4y ago
  Or as they say in devout circles "the lord works in mysterious ways, who are we to question his divine judgement?"
  - LouisSayers 4y ago
    If we do get to Mars, the least we could do is have a giant Elon statue :)
    - scaramanga 4y ago
      We could use his coffin/capsule for it. A sad, but poignantly dignified monument that shall serve as a warning to others. I suggest the epitaph: "We repeatedly told you that Mars was uninhabitable." Edit: or perhaps more relevantly: "well, we tried to but you fired us."
      - LouisSayers 4y ago
        So the moral of the story is "never try"?
        kyleamazza 4y ago
        It's not a matter of never try, it's more of a matter of what's even practical. Inhabiting Mars is not as simple as just landing a rocket on there with a bunch of people and materials. Space travel requires immense physical training, enormous costs just to get into space, plus there's the issue of handling emergencies if anything goes wrong while on Mars. It's an idea that's so far off in terms of the technology that we'd need, and there's so many more useful things that are closer to within reach that are still similar pursuits that would be more valuable investments (i.e. asteroid mining, advanced satellite technology, etc.). Making incremental progress is great, but there's still the question of "what would we even gain from going to Mars?". There's no ore that'd make sense to mine, making/terraforming a civilization there when we can't even make one in Death Valley (which already has oxygen) is preposterous, and tourism would be impossible due to the physical limitations of space travel. It's not that we should "never try", it's that there's no practical reason (right now at least) _to_ try.
- voxl 4y ago
  Being rich has almost nothing to do with your ability, talent, or intelligence. It the single most important factor is luck. This is why you often find CEOs looking down on those with PhDs, because they have an inflated sense of self-worth for being "more rich." When in reality a PhD is a very difficult test of your work ethic and creativity, and being a successful CEO is a matter of luck and connections.
  - LouisSayers 4y ago
    Let us assume that is 100% true. Was it lucky that he happened to start what became PayPal with some others? Was it lucky that he took on an Electric car company and turned it into what it is today? Was it luck that he happened to stumble into launching reusable rockets into space? What is "luck" exactly?
    - voxl 4y ago
      > Was it lucky that he happened to start what became PayPal with some others? Yes, it was luck. You could say it was 95% luck, because of course the product has to exist to get lucky so it's not entirely luck. If you made a copy of PayPal tomorrow, would you be rich? What if 100 people did? A thousand? You will misattribute this to idea that there must have been _something_ special about PayPal, but the reality is it was luck. > Was it lucky that he took on an Electric car company and turned it into what it is today? This one has less to do with luck, because Elon is already very,very rich by the time he is working with Tesla, same thing for SpaceX. However, remember that prior example about your starting up a copy of PayPal? Tesla is not the only electronic car company, and I would personally never recommend someone buy a Tesla, there are simply better electric cars. So at this point, it is, in my opinion, hero worship, marketing, and giant coffers.
    - fzeroracer 4y ago
      Are you going to go further on the whole Paypal situation? The fact that he was running the company into the ground, had to be ousted and replaced all of which occurred before Paypal saw any success? The 'luck' there is that he got removed and replaced by someone far more successful, but retained a large share of stock.

chadlavi 4y ago

BurningFrog 4y ago
That's a dumb internet myth that will never die.
infinityio 4y ago
he may have been rich from his family, but he became Rich from zip2 and x.com/paypal (and subsequent re-investments)
ergocoder 4y ago
His family's mine is $100B usd? wowza. TIL

LouisSayers 4y ago

People always do this with Elon... it doesn't matter if he's making cars, building rockets or taking on social media, the general consensus is that he doesn't know what he's doing and will fail. But, who's the richest man in the room? Who was right and who was wrong? People can hate on Elon all they want, but it's pure ignorance to think that we know any better. Let the man work his magic, I'm curious to see what he comes up with.

georgeg23 4y ago
He was given the money, team, idea, and government connections by this guy for SpaceX at least: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Griffin#Career https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Griffin#Career
- LouisSayers 4y ago
  I'm glad there are enough people out there helping to support his ventures. Can totally understand how people say "it's lonely at the top"...
scaramanga 4y ago
Or as they say in devout circles "the lord works in mysterious ways, who are we to question his divine judgement?"
- LouisSayers 4y ago
  If we do get to Mars, the least we could do is have a giant Elon statue :)
  - scaramanga 4y ago
    We could use his coffin/capsule for it. A sad, but poignantly dignified monument that shall serve as a warning to others. I suggest the epitaph: "We repeatedly told you that Mars was uninhabitable." Edit: or perhaps more relevantly: "well, we tried to but you fired us."
    - LouisSayers 4y ago
      So the moral of the story is "never try"?
      - kyleamazza 4y ago
        It's not a matter of never try, it's more of a matter of what's even practical. Inhabiting Mars is not as simple as just landing a rocket on there with a bunch of people and materials. Space travel requires immense physical training, enormous costs just to get into space, plus there's the issue of handling emergencies if anything goes wrong while on Mars. It's an idea that's so far off in terms of the technology that we'd need, and there's so many more useful things that are closer to within reach that are still similar pursuits that would be more valuable investments (i.e. asteroid mining, advanced satellite technology, etc.). Making incremental progress is great, but there's still the question of "what would we even gain from going to Mars?". There's no ore that'd make sense to mine, making/terraforming a civilization there when we can't even make one in Death Valley (which already has oxygen) is preposterous, and tourism would be impossible due to the physical limitations of space travel. It's not that we should "never try", it's that there's no practical reason (right now at least) _to_ try.
voxl 4y ago
Being rich has almost nothing to do with your ability, talent, or intelligence. It the single most important factor is luck. This is why you often find CEOs looking down on those with PhDs, because they have an inflated sense of self-worth for being "more rich." When in reality a PhD is a very difficult test of your work ethic and creativity, and being a successful CEO is a matter of luck and connections.
- LouisSayers 4y ago
  Let us assume that is 100% true. Was it lucky that he happened to start what became PayPal with some others? Was it lucky that he took on an Electric car company and turned it into what it is today? Was it luck that he happened to stumble into launching reusable rockets into space? What is "luck" exactly?
  - voxl 4y ago
    > Was it lucky that he happened to start what became PayPal with some others? Yes, it was luck. You could say it was 95% luck, because of course the product has to exist to get lucky so it's not entirely luck. If you made a copy of PayPal tomorrow, would you be rich? What if 100 people did? A thousand? You will misattribute this to idea that there must have been _something_ special about PayPal, but the reality is it was luck. > Was it lucky that he took on an Electric car company and turned it into what it is today? This one has less to do with luck, because Elon is already very,very rich by the time he is working with Tesla, same thing for SpaceX. However, remember that prior example about your starting up a copy of PayPal? Tesla is not the only electronic car company, and I would personally never recommend someone buy a Tesla, there are simply better electric cars. So at this point, it is, in my opinion, hero worship, marketing, and giant coffers.
  - fzeroracer 4y ago
    Are you going to go further on the whole Paypal situation? The fact that he was running the company into the ground, had to be ousted and replaced all of which occurred before Paypal saw any success? The 'luck' there is that he got removed and replaced by someone far more successful, but retained a large share of stock.