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Elon Musk is what happens when an 8-year-old boy is the richest man in the world. He builds cars and trains and tunnels and flamethrows and rockets.
by dehrmann 3y ago
Elon Musk is what happens when an 8-year-old boy is the richest man in the world. He builds cars and trains and tunnels and flamethrows and rockets.
- ethbr0 3y agoThe last time might have been Louis XIV, who would have been 8 and 3 years into his reign in 1646. He staged mock naval battles in the lake/canal behind Versailles. Which, admittedly, sounds pretty awesome.
- hef19898 3y agoIn his defence, Louis XIV turned into one of the most successful kings, one doesn't earn the moniker Roi de Soleil, the sun king, for nothing.
- abdela 3y agoExactly, Louis XIV had a great reign and was a politically gifted ruler who kept relative peace for 50 years.
- ethbr0 3y agoWell, relative peace within France. With-out, France was involved in a lot of wars.
- philistine 3y agoNo de. It's Roi Soleil.
- webnrrd2k 3y agoIm sure there are other good comparisons to Elon Must, but I think avreally good one is Howard Hughes... Started an aircraft company because he liked flying, same with movie production, etc... Howard Hughes also had some mental health issues, similar to Elon Musk.
- maxlin 3y agoConsidering being in a comfortable position on the spectrum can be an absolute win for many engineers like for yours truly and for Musk, I don't think its fair to compare that to Hughes's decline
- perihelions 3y agoNot the first to think of it, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naumachia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naumachia
- woooooo 3y agoThis is a great take. Also, is it really so bad? It's fun. All the adults are clucking their tongues at him but presumably they'd be fine with him being a quiet entry in the Panama Papers and the Epstein flight logs with the other billionaires.
- reaperducer 3y agois it really so bad? It's fun. It would be "fun" if it only affected him. But there are real people who get caught in the blast radius of his "fun."
- exodust 3y ago"Blast radius"? Bit dramatic. Where's the trauma normally associated with blast zones? I don't see it. Who are these "real people" you talk of? I find it interesting in this age of diversity and acceptance of differences, that a "Musk character" can't exist without a constant deluge of backlash, ridicule and grumpiness!
- reaperducer 3y agoWho are these "real people" you talk of? Seriously? OK, I'll give you an easy one: Google "Twitter layoffs."
- ethbr0 3y agoHN consensus for years was that Twitter spent an insane amount on salary for the product they had.
- reaperducer 3y agoHN consensus for years was that Twitter spent an insane amount on salary for the product they had. That doesn't mean that people's lives weren't upended. You're arguing a completely different point.
- mschuster91 3y agoThing is, he managed to seriously kick the arses of the establishment. There's many bad things to say about Musk, but at least he gave a solid whooping towards Boeing/ULA and just about every car manufacturer in the world who all thought they didn't need to improve.
- red-iron-pine 3y agoyeah you can't knock him for making stuff, and that its having an impact. tesla QA on the cars is still not great but getting there, and spacex actually launches stuff. someone else posted a howard hughes comparison and i think that is quite apt, including the dating of movie or music stars, and the inevitable mental health issues
- vGPU 3y agoI drove two model Y’s recently. One, I was pretty impressed by. The second? I’ve had less wind noise riding my motorcycle. Still very hit and miss. Doesn’t mean I’m not looking to buy one after they refresh them next year, but you definitely don’t get Lexus quality for your Lexus money.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dehrmann 3y agoI don't give him credit for much, but he did show the world lithium ion EVs are viable.
- KingMob 3y agoA gentle reminder: Musk doesn't build any of that, he's just a source of cash, like a bank crossed with a toddler. Thousands of employees build it. In the case of SpaceX and Tesla, they frequently build it in spite of Musk, dedicating time and effort to preventing him from screwing things up when he breezes in.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- maxlin 3y agoA gentle reminder that this easily digestible lie isn't true. A cursory look at Elon with a technically critical hat on proves this wrong. https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/k1e0ta/evidence_that_musk_is_the_chief_engineer_of_spacex/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/k1e0ta/eviden... https://youtu.be/t705r8ICkRw?t=378 https://youtu.be/t705r8ICkRw?t=378 This lie seems mostly accepted only by non-technical people in technical fields from what I've found out. Leads me to believe Elon actually is one of those great people that will be more appreciated after his passing.
- martin8412 3y ago[flagged]
- maxlin 3y agoI take it you didn't even check the links because they disprove your comment but instead took something completely irrelevant but dislikeable and are now trying to somehow connect it to the context with chewgum. Congratulations for making the internet worse.
- SgtBastard 3y agoI on the other hand did read your links and they prove the point being made by person you’re replying to, especially the second quoted source. No said Musk isn’t smart. No one said he isn’t capable nor a multi-disciplinarian. But to pretend he’s the chief/lead engineer of either SpaceX or Tesla (let alone both, at the same time) is laughably naive.
- reaperducer 3y agoElon Musk is what happens when an 8-year-old boy is the richest man in the world. He builds cars and trains and tunnels and flamethrows and rockets. Elon Musk is what happens when a 17-year-old stoner is the richest man in the world. He builds cars and trains and tunnels and flamethrows and rockets. Everyone tries to blame his money or his childishness, when the obvious answer is right there lighting up in public and blowing smoke on podcasts.
- elpocko 3y agoReefer madness. That one marijuana he did back then, it ruined him.
- DropInIn 3y agoAs someone who used to smoke an Oz a day and excel, the issue isn't That he smokes weed, it's the Why and How that is problematic.
- Teever 3y agoAre you serious? As a seasoned stoner it doesn't look like Musk has much experience smoking weed if the Rogan video is anything to go by.
- maxlin 3y agoI mean this really doesn't sound that bad to non-stuck-up people. Elon is currently the greatest single person in tech fighting climate change and working towards providing a solution to a planet-level apocalypse while also being the 8-year boy creating the inspiration of a lifetime for many. So I have hard time accepting ad hominem arguments as anything but jealous, uninformed, or just plain conformist. Or maybe some people like to just speak untruths with the mindset that the billionaire can take it, but find that anti-intellectual and unnecessarily polarizing. (This is a comment in general, not an attack on the parent comment but critiquing the generally hateful air I'd expect the HN crowd to be above of)
- gambiting 3y ago[flagged]
- maxlin 3y agoDo you know of another person that single-handedly revived EV's and ambitious human spaceflight at the same time? I want to know what planet you live on because I can't seem to find another one on mine.
- vGPU 3y agoWho else has done more for furthering the use of electrical power? Tesla solar. Tesla powerwall. The single biggest infrastructure for EV charging in the world, without which EV’s would have never taken off.
- hef19898 3y agoTesla Solar is a dud, had to be saved by Tesla using SpaceX money. Or rather Elon's cousin had to. PV tech is solidly in Chinese hands by now, and getting cheaper every year, Tesla has nothing to do with it. Same for powerwalls. What Tesla figures out so, was that charging infrastructure was the early EV winner, nobody else did that. Whether Tesla's netwirk is still the largest in the world, no idea.