5 ms·

Elon Musk Fireside Chat Video

136 points by littlesparkvt 14y ago

sgt 14y ago
Already submitted to HN, but I'm sure a few missed out so thanks for posting again.
- littlesparkvt 14y ago
  I must have missed it the first time around on HN, sorry for the repost. Hope new people find it this time around.
guynamedloren 14y ago
Recent HN discussion about this (and all things Elon Musk): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4238984 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4238984
beefman 14y ago
Which company he was asked (but declined) to be cofounder of? Ah, must be Solar City. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_City http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_City "SolarCity was founded in July 2006 by brothers Peter and Lyndon Rive, based on a suggestion for a solar company concept from Elon Musk." And the douchebag remark was directed at Eberhard? No, it was Randall Stross. http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/10/teslas-elon-musk-grows-a-pair-good-for-him/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/10/teslas-elon-musk-grows-a-pa... Thiel and he riding in an F1? I thought it only had one seat. No, three seats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mclaren_f1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mclaren_f1
- henrymazza 14y ago
  They thought that someone with a F1 would like to show it to their friends. So they manage to put 2 extra seats behind the driver. http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/rydeordiekid570/MCLARENF1SEATS.jpg http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/rydeordiekid570/MC...
ajays 14y ago
You know what I'd love Elon Musk to tackle next? The education system in the US. We are producing a generation of illiterates here. Today's economy demands a more educated workforce (face it, the manufacturing jobs are disappearing), but we're getting the opposite. Yesterday, at the doctor's office, there was a young kid there (college age). He was writing out a receipt for my copay. He had a hard time spelling out "fifteen", and wrote "fifthteen" after several attempts. Yes, English was his first language. And the fact that he's working in the doc's office means he must be at least average.
- littlesparkvt 14y ago
  I've seen similar from well educated people, truly a shame.
- samstave 14y ago
  Actually, I disagree. What I think would be more beneficial would be not only healthcare - but the health insurance market. We need to commoditize hospital services while paying a great wage to nursing and physician staff and make for an easy payment protection plan. This was ostensibly the basis for the health ins industry - but when they realized they could easily get evil/greedy they farked everyone. The better model would be ubiquitous clinics with hospital services deployed via low-cost modular modality units. Think "MRI in a shipping crate" "OR in a shipping crate" "Davinci OR in a shipping crate with recovery attached - lower cost nursing staff on-site but the actual surgeon is remote from their home in Boston/SF/Dallas" You build these modality modules like legos. You then take these legos and deploy them to places like walmart, target and malls. You pay a set scale for physicians and offer STOCK and recruit med staff students to be lead by higher paid leaders who are the first generations mentors. You then provide an insurance plan through this service that is a set stepped payment scale based on income that is much more competitive than modern insurance. You have a fixed fee, transparent schedule of services. So, you have a known cost for the modules. You have a set fee schedule, pay schedule and premiums schedule. Make all this COMPLETELY transparent and partner with walmart, target and other entities to place these modular, full service, clinics. The common questions that will come up will be: how do you provide ICU, ER, Acute etc.. care. These services could be provided - but the truth is that this overall model is needed to disrupt the current failure of the US health system. We are building multi-billion-dollar hospitals EVERYEWHERE - but have you seen a reduction in cost of services ANYEWHERE? There is a clear way to disrupt US health, but it takes a multi billion dollar commitment over 10 years. This is the type of problem Elon is perfect to get moving... (Disclaimer: I design hospital systems, consult on healthcare operations for opening these new facilities and do technology consulting for the design of very large hospital networks - although at the very moment I am focusing on enterprise infrastructure consulting.)
MikeCapone 14y ago
Great one. Elon is so fascinating. We definitely need more people like him. I wish I could see what our civilization would look like if more of our smart and driven people tackled important problems rather than go into finance or Web 2.0 startups..
- jmj4 14y ago
  Musk is one of my hero's, but his first company was a web start up that help publisher's get news articles and other content online. He then built a money management system, which eventually became part of Paypal. These are hardly the world's important problems. But the exits from these wins allowed him to do what he is doing. I think that's important to keep in mind if you want to belittle guys building Web 2.0 apps like Flipboard, reddit, ect.
  - MikeCapone 14y ago
    Of course, he got the capital that allowed him to go into these capital-intensive businesses doing internet startup (though at the time he did it, the internet was a lot less mature and he helped move that forward to, mostly with Paypal). But I still wish more smart and driven people did more important things than photo-sharing apps. It might be impossible to jump directly into capital-intensive industries unless you can join an existing startup (go work for someone like Musk?), but there are also lots of non-capital intensive ways to do very important things that would move our civilization forward more rapidly than one more Web 2.0 company. Same for all the brainiacs who go into investment banking rather than in engineering or biology or whatever. Totally up to them, but it doesn't change the end result.
jc4p 14y ago
While I absolutely loved this video, I absolutely despised the former Facebook employee's long winded question that wasn't relevant to anything Elon Musk could've talked about but was instead an advertisement.
- Mizza 14y ago
  Ugh, tell me about it. What a slimeball. I loved Elon's response to it though. It sounded a bit like he was implying that he doesn't mind running public companies because he doesn't cook his books in the first place.
- krschultz 14y ago
  I think that clip should be exhibit A when you want to prove that MBAs are bad entrepreneurs.
suprgeek 14y ago
Even more exciting - He is going to go into details about the Transportation Idea (Hyperloop) that he alludes to in the video in a few weeks https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/224406502188916739 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/224406502188916739. Can't wait...
dojomouse 14y ago
I'd bet a large chunk of change that the HyperLoop is some variant of vacumn tube maglev. Not an idea Musk came up with by any stretch, but he's someone who might actually be able to make it happen which would be very awesome. His patent is going to hit a fair bit of prior art though. Also think his dismissal of fuel cells is a bit disingenuous - Nissan apparently have them down to $50/kW (volume production estimate) which, given the low cost of energy storage ($/kWh), means they could be entirely viable at least as a range extension option. But still, overall, admire the hell out of the guy. Legend.
- beefman 14y ago
  He's already said it's not a vac tube (on twitter). I'm betting on some sort of launch loop (Lofstrom loop). When he says there's a physics problem with fuel cells he's not being flippant. They're less efficient than batteries, have lower volumetric power density, and cars using off-the-shelf batteries already match the range of gasoline cars (so there's no energy density problem to solve). The only problem with batteries currently is cost, and fuel cells are no help there. Pretty much the only attractive thing about fuel cells is that they can run on energy-dense liquid fuels like methanol, which can do greater power fluxes than last-mile grid. But battery swaps are even better. Ultimately, lithium and gasoline have about the same energy density, methanol half as much, and compressed hydrogen about 1/10 as much. And there are good reasons why hydride storage is unlikely to become practical in cars any time soon.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- DaniFong 14y ago
  Where can you get a fuel cell to $50/kW? Would appreciate a source.

136 points by littlesparkvt 14y ago

sgt 14y ago

Already submitted to HN, but I'm sure a few missed out so thanks for posting again.

littlesparkvt 14y ago
I must have missed it the first time around on HN, sorry for the repost. Hope new people find it this time around.

guynamedloren 14y ago

Recent HN discussion about this (and all things Elon Musk): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4238984 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4238984

beefman 14y ago

Which company he was asked (but declined) to be cofounder of? Ah, must be Solar City. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_City http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_City "SolarCity was founded in July 2006 by brothers Peter and Lyndon Rive, based on a suggestion for a solar company concept from Elon Musk." And the douchebag remark was directed at Eberhard? No, it was Randall Stross. http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/10/teslas-elon-musk-grows-a-pair-good-for-him/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/10/teslas-elon-musk-grows-a-pa... Thiel and he riding in an F1? I thought it only had one seat. No, three seats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mclaren_f1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mclaren_f1

henrymazza 14y ago
They thought that someone with a F1 would like to show it to their friends. So they manage to put 2 extra seats behind the driver. http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/rydeordiekid570/MCLARENF1SEATS.jpg http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/rydeordiekid570/MC...

ajays 14y ago

You know what I'd love Elon Musk to tackle next? The education system in the US. We are producing a generation of illiterates here. Today's economy demands a more educated workforce (face it, the manufacturing jobs are disappearing), but we're getting the opposite. Yesterday, at the doctor's office, there was a young kid there (college age). He was writing out a receipt for my copay. He had a hard time spelling out "fifteen", and wrote "fifthteen" after several attempts. Yes, English was his first language. And the fact that he's working in the doc's office means he must be at least average.

littlesparkvt 14y ago
I've seen similar from well educated people, truly a shame.
samstave 14y ago
Actually, I disagree. What I think would be more beneficial would be not only healthcare - but the health insurance market. We need to commoditize hospital services while paying a great wage to nursing and physician staff and make for an easy payment protection plan. This was ostensibly the basis for the health ins industry - but when they realized they could easily get evil/greedy they farked everyone. The better model would be ubiquitous clinics with hospital services deployed via low-cost modular modality units. Think "MRI in a shipping crate" "OR in a shipping crate" "Davinci OR in a shipping crate with recovery attached - lower cost nursing staff on-site but the actual surgeon is remote from their home in Boston/SF/Dallas" You build these modality modules like legos. You then take these legos and deploy them to places like walmart, target and malls. You pay a set scale for physicians and offer STOCK and recruit med staff students to be lead by higher paid leaders who are the first generations mentors. You then provide an insurance plan through this service that is a set stepped payment scale based on income that is much more competitive than modern insurance. You have a fixed fee, transparent schedule of services. So, you have a known cost for the modules. You have a set fee schedule, pay schedule and premiums schedule. Make all this COMPLETELY transparent and partner with walmart, target and other entities to place these modular, full service, clinics. The common questions that will come up will be: how do you provide ICU, ER, Acute etc.. care. These services could be provided - but the truth is that this overall model is needed to disrupt the current failure of the US health system. We are building multi-billion-dollar hospitals EVERYEWHERE - but have you seen a reduction in cost of services ANYEWHERE? There is a clear way to disrupt US health, but it takes a multi billion dollar commitment over 10 years. This is the type of problem Elon is perfect to get moving... (Disclaimer: I design hospital systems, consult on healthcare operations for opening these new facilities and do technology consulting for the design of very large hospital networks - although at the very moment I am focusing on enterprise infrastructure consulting.)

MikeCapone 14y ago

Great one. Elon is so fascinating. We definitely need more people like him. I wish I could see what our civilization would look like if more of our smart and driven people tackled important problems rather than go into finance or Web 2.0 startups..

jmj4 14y ago
Musk is one of my hero's, but his first company was a web start up that help publisher's get news articles and other content online. He then built a money management system, which eventually became part of Paypal. These are hardly the world's important problems. But the exits from these wins allowed him to do what he is doing. I think that's important to keep in mind if you want to belittle guys building Web 2.0 apps like Flipboard, reddit, ect.
- MikeCapone 14y ago
  Of course, he got the capital that allowed him to go into these capital-intensive businesses doing internet startup (though at the time he did it, the internet was a lot less mature and he helped move that forward to, mostly with Paypal). But I still wish more smart and driven people did more important things than photo-sharing apps. It might be impossible to jump directly into capital-intensive industries unless you can join an existing startup (go work for someone like Musk?), but there are also lots of non-capital intensive ways to do very important things that would move our civilization forward more rapidly than one more Web 2.0 company. Same for all the brainiacs who go into investment banking rather than in engineering or biology or whatever. Totally up to them, but it doesn't change the end result.

jc4p 14y ago

While I absolutely loved this video, I absolutely despised the former Facebook employee's long winded question that wasn't relevant to anything Elon Musk could've talked about but was instead an advertisement.

Mizza 14y ago
Ugh, tell me about it. What a slimeball. I loved Elon's response to it though. It sounded a bit like he was implying that he doesn't mind running public companies because he doesn't cook his books in the first place.
krschultz 14y ago
I think that clip should be exhibit A when you want to prove that MBAs are bad entrepreneurs.

suprgeek 14y ago

Even more exciting - He is going to go into details about the Transportation Idea (Hyperloop) that he alludes to in the video in a few weeks https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/224406502188916739 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/224406502188916739. Can't wait...

dojomouse 14y ago

I'd bet a large chunk of change that the HyperLoop is some variant of vacumn tube maglev. Not an idea Musk came up with by any stretch, but he's someone who might actually be able to make it happen which would be very awesome. His patent is going to hit a fair bit of prior art though. Also think his dismissal of fuel cells is a bit disingenuous - Nissan apparently have them down to $50/kW (volume production estimate) which, given the low cost of energy storage ($/kWh), means they could be entirely viable at least as a range extension option. But still, overall, admire the hell out of the guy. Legend.

beefman 14y ago
He's already said it's not a vac tube (on twitter). I'm betting on some sort of launch loop (Lofstrom loop). When he says there's a physics problem with fuel cells he's not being flippant. They're less efficient than batteries, have lower volumetric power density, and cars using off-the-shelf batteries already match the range of gasoline cars (so there's no energy density problem to solve). The only problem with batteries currently is cost, and fuel cells are no help there. Pretty much the only attractive thing about fuel cells is that they can run on energy-dense liquid fuels like methanol, which can do greater power fluxes than last-mile grid. But battery swaps are even better. Ultimately, lithium and gasoline have about the same energy density, methanol half as much, and compressed hydrogen about 1/10 as much. And there are good reasons why hydride storage is unlikely to become practical in cars any time soon.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
DaniFong 14y ago
Where can you get a fuel cell to $50/kW? Would appreciate a source.