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You obviously don't need to be an actual engineer to pull this off. Elon Musk provided the vision and the money to assemble a great team of engineers. However,

You obviously don't need to be an actual engineer to pull this off. Elon Musk provided the vision and the money to assemble a great team of engineers. However, I find it hard to believe he does actual electric car or spacecraft engineering, given he has no education in these fields.

WalterBright 1y ago
"Musk had spent months studying the aerospace industry and the physics behind it. From Cantrell and others, he'd borrowed Rocket Propulsion Elements, Fundamentals of Astrodynamics, and Aerothermodynamics of Gas Turbine and Rocket Propulsion, along with several more seminal texts." "Elon Musk" by Vance pg 108 All three of those books are advanced engineering books (I have a copy of each).
- spacechild1 1y ago
  So a biography says he borrowed some books. Do you want me to believe he suddenly became a genius rocket engineer over the course of a few months? With no prior track record or any indication of his supposedly extraordinary talent?
  - WalterBright 1y ago
    Hal Finney wouldn't show up for class at Caltech. He'd flip through the textbook at the end of the semester, and ace the final. Yes, there are people like Hal. Not many, but they exist. If you prefer to think that Elon bungled his way into inspiring top people to implement his ideas, and bungled his way into launching payload at 10% of the best cost NASA could do, feel free. P.S. Buy those books, and look through them. They're the real deal.
    - spacechild1 1y ago
      There are certainly people like that! I just doubt that Musk is one of them. First there are is no hard evidence for his supposedly engineering genius and second he has a long public track record of lying and gross hyperbole. What I find more likely: Musk throws around wild ideas and his engineers figure out what might work or not. (After all, he also comes up with pretty dumb ideas.) This approach can be successful, but it doesn't make you an engineer yourself. I am still confused why you would claim that Musk was better than many engineers you know, based on what little we actually know about his technical skills.

WalterBright 1y ago

"Musk had spent months studying the aerospace industry and the physics behind it. From Cantrell and others, he'd borrowed Rocket Propulsion Elements, Fundamentals of Astrodynamics, and Aerothermodynamics of Gas Turbine and Rocket Propulsion, along with several more seminal texts." "Elon Musk" by Vance pg 108 All three of those books are advanced engineering books (I have a copy of each).

spacechild1 1y ago
So a biography says he borrowed some books. Do you want me to believe he suddenly became a genius rocket engineer over the course of a few months? With no prior track record or any indication of his supposedly extraordinary talent?
- WalterBright 1y ago
  Hal Finney wouldn't show up for class at Caltech. He'd flip through the textbook at the end of the semester, and ace the final. Yes, there are people like Hal. Not many, but they exist. If you prefer to think that Elon bungled his way into inspiring top people to implement his ideas, and bungled his way into launching payload at 10% of the best cost NASA could do, feel free. P.S. Buy those books, and look through them. They're the real deal.
  - spacechild1 1y ago
    There are certainly people like that! I just doubt that Musk is one of them. First there are is no hard evidence for his supposedly engineering genius and second he has a long public track record of lying and gross hyperbole. What I find more likely: Musk throws around wild ideas and his engineers figure out what might work or not. (After all, he also comes up with pretty dumb ideas.) This approach can be successful, but it doesn't make you an engineer yourself. I am still confused why you would claim that Musk was better than many engineers you know, based on what little we actually know about his technical skills.