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Who made the bets on Merlin and Raptor engines, Falcon 9, reusability and Starship? SpaceX employees online say he was heavily involved in engineering, as chie

Who made the bets on Merlin and Raptor engines, Falcon 9, reusability and Starship? SpaceX employees online say he was heavily involved in engineering, as chief designer; but even imagining he did not, just allowing those crazy ideas to actually happen has incredible merit. This will go down in history as the most shameful descent into madness of the 21st century. I sincerely hope he gets hospitalized for his drug addiction or whatever is going on, allowing others to take back command of these companies before they run into the ground.

cheema33 2y ago
As someone who has followed Musk for some time, I agree. He seemed mostly normal in the early days. But when the money supply became large, he appears to have lost his mind. As many others, I suspect he is on some seriously potent drugs. His fate may not be all the different from Howard Hughes. A wealthy and influential figure from not so long ago who lost his mind towards the end.
- matwood 2y ago
  The problem is when someone becomes that rich, they remove anyone from their circle who tells them no. And for Musk, even all legal consequence has been fully removed now. We all need guardrails otherwise our worst basic instincts start to take over. You mention Hughes, but I also think about someone like Hsieh.
  - fragmede 2y ago
    Hsieh also had a famous musician pleading with him near his end, though for a different reason.
  - fxtentacle 2y ago
    Sadly, the similarity is there. Hsieh and Musk were both quite happy nerds and then they became very rich very quickly and drifted off into drugs. Both are/were really into Ketamines and openly talked about it. Both are/were strunggling with depression. Both had friends warn them that they are on a bad path. Let's hope Musk will manage to stop the drugs before they stop him.
- readthenotes1 2y ago
  "But when the money supply became large, he appears to have lost his mind. " One of my favorite insights applies: Power doesn't corrupt; it reveals. -- Robert Caro
JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> Who made the bets on Merlin and Raptor engines, Falcon 9, reusability and Starship? Merlin and Falcon 9, yes. Methane for Raptor, yes, but the integrated design and certainly Starship are not Musk. (Chopsticks, yes.)

cheema33 2y ago

As someone who has followed Musk for some time, I agree. He seemed mostly normal in the early days. But when the money supply became large, he appears to have lost his mind. As many others, I suspect he is on some seriously potent drugs. His fate may not be all the different from Howard Hughes. A wealthy and influential figure from not so long ago who lost his mind towards the end.

matwood 2y ago
The problem is when someone becomes that rich, they remove anyone from their circle who tells them no. And for Musk, even all legal consequence has been fully removed now. We all need guardrails otherwise our worst basic instincts start to take over. You mention Hughes, but I also think about someone like Hsieh.
- fragmede 2y ago
  Hsieh also had a famous musician pleading with him near his end, though for a different reason.
- fxtentacle 2y ago
  Sadly, the similarity is there. Hsieh and Musk were both quite happy nerds and then they became very rich very quickly and drifted off into drugs. Both are/were really into Ketamines and openly talked about it. Both are/were strunggling with depression. Both had friends warn them that they are on a bad path. Let's hope Musk will manage to stop the drugs before they stop him.
readthenotes1 2y ago
"But when the money supply became large, he appears to have lost his mind. " One of my favorite insights applies: Power doesn't corrupt; it reveals. -- Robert Caro

JumpCrisscross 2y ago

> Who made the bets on Merlin and Raptor engines, Falcon 9, reusability and Starship? Merlin and Falcon 9, yes. Methane for Raptor, yes, but the integrated design and certainly Starship are not Musk. (Chopsticks, yes.)