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Interesting thread today. I see lots of haters here in the comments. While you all very well may be right about his future failure with Twitter, I think it’s i

by MR4D 3y ago

Interesting thread today. I see lots of haters here in the comments. While you all very well may be right about his future failure with Twitter, I think it’s important to highlight that Musk is very different from most people in that he looks like he’s failing until he succeeds, and he’s done that with just about every company he’s run. Twitter make look like a dumpster fire now, but based on past history, I’m betting he’s going to make a ton of money here (but it won’t happen over night).

542458 3y ago
> in that he looks like he’s failing until he succeeds Is that true? When I look at very old SpaceX or Tesla posts on HN the comments are generally very positive on product direction.
- MR4D 3y ago
  Today they are, but it wasn’t always that way. SpaceX only exists today because he somehow found enough money to launch one more time (his 4 launch attempt) which finally worked. Even after that, people thought he would fail at landings rockets and also fail at reusing them. He upended the entire industry. Tesla was considered bankrupt and a fraud so much that well-respected shortsellers gambled tons of money that it would go bankrupt. The Boring company is still considered by many to not be a success despite raising nearly a billion dollars last year. Solar City (now part of Tesla) was ridiculed for its battery approach to power grids, but that approach now is being emulated by numerous competitors.
  - 542458 3y ago
    No, what I'm saying is that posts on HN a decade-plus ago were always very optimistic about Tesla and SpaceX. It's not like everybody here was hating on him and he suddenly succeeded, people (at least on here) always saw the benefits to "The Car of the Future" or "Private Space Launches, Done Cheap". Tesla posts pre profitability: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=317921 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=317921 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=534198 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=534198 SpaceX posts pre profitability: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=409653 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=409653 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=320362 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=320362 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=317918 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=317918 (Please excuse the low comment counts. That's not because I'm cherry-picking, old HN was just a much quieter place.)
    - MR4D 3y ago
      Ah - I misread your comment. I was thinking “posts” instead of “comments”. It seems you’re correct and that HN has generally been more positive than my recollection. I’ve been focused on the titles of posts that appeared, but of course those can be very different from the comments as you pointed out.

by MR4D 3y ago

542458 3y ago

> in that he looks like he’s failing until he succeeds Is that true? When I look at very old SpaceX or Tesla posts on HN the comments are generally very positive on product direction.

MR4D 3y ago
Today they are, but it wasn’t always that way. SpaceX only exists today because he somehow found enough money to launch one more time (his 4 launch attempt) which finally worked. Even after that, people thought he would fail at landings rockets and also fail at reusing them. He upended the entire industry. Tesla was considered bankrupt and a fraud so much that well-respected shortsellers gambled tons of money that it would go bankrupt. The Boring company is still considered by many to not be a success despite raising nearly a billion dollars last year. Solar City (now part of Tesla) was ridiculed for its battery approach to power grids, but that approach now is being emulated by numerous competitors.
- 542458 3y ago
  No, what I'm saying is that posts on HN a decade-plus ago were always very optimistic about Tesla and SpaceX. It's not like everybody here was hating on him and he suddenly succeeded, people (at least on here) always saw the benefits to "The Car of the Future" or "Private Space Launches, Done Cheap". Tesla posts pre profitability: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=317921 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=317921 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=534198 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=534198 SpaceX posts pre profitability: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=409653 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=409653 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=320362 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=320362 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=317918 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=317918 (Please excuse the low comment counts. That's not because I'm cherry-picking, old HN was just a much quieter place.)
  - MR4D 3y ago
    Ah - I misread your comment. I was thinking “posts” instead of “comments”. It seems you’re correct and that HN has generally been more positive than my recollection. I’ve been focused on the titles of posts that appeared, but of course those can be very different from the comments as you pointed out.