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> It used to be: "Congrats to them for making the world better in some way and reaping the rewards." > Now it is: "What did they leverage to force another su

> It used to be: "Congrats to them for making the world better in some way and reaping the rewards." > Now it is: "What did they leverage to force another subscription on us?" Are you seriously asking how Elon Musk made the world better in some way? How about catalysing the move away from fossil fuels? How about inexpensive spaceflight?

ben_w 4mo ago
> How about catalysing the move away from fossil fuels? How about inexpensive spaceflight? Much as I appreciate the former, the latter is if questionable benefit to most people, as the cost of launching e.g. GPS constellations and weather satelites was not the limiting factor for them, and direct-to-satelite phones and broadband at whatever the subscription price is, while neat, are not life changing for 99% of the population. (Space is cool, I like space, he's free to spend his own money how he likes, but the IPO happened because he ran out of his own and private investors' money). Also Tesla has problems going with that benefit, between court cases over marketing of FSD & if he committed fraud by saying he had secured funding to take it private, and also the P/E ratio is unjustifiable as a mere car company so they're pushing an AI narrative that's also unjustifiable for reasons long enough I can't be bothered to type them in again. That and him selling Tesla shares worth more than the lifetime revenue of the business, which is sus.
MrBuddyCasino 4mo ago
History's first trillionaire is a guy who catches rockets out of the sky with chopsticks and beams internet to every dead zone on the planet. Same guy ships cars that drive themselves, humanoid robots for the factory floor, brain chips that let paralysed people move a cursor with pure thought, and an AI running on a supercomputer his team stood up in months instead of years. Your are debating people who sincerely believe that money is the economy and is not just a transaction mechanism lying on top of the actual goods and services that make up an economy. That the physical vectors of goods/services/logistics are just formalities relative to hard currency distribution, which, when implemented, would “solve world hunger” with $50 billion or whatever bunk number they claim is enough. Your are dealing with envious, deeply incurious people who, as history has demonstrated again and again, will kill millions in pursuit of their ideology. There is no convincing them, debating them, enlightening them. It is futile.
- nixon_why69 4mo ago
  Tesla's sales are down year over year and yet it's somehow trading at a 360x multiple to earnings. SpaceX has a really cool launch and satellite comms business saddled with multiple money-losing other businesses and is currently running at a loss despite the revolutionary aerospace part being profitable. There's pre-2020 Elon who did cool technical stuff and then there's post-covid Elon who spent $50B on Twitter and then cut it's revenue by 66% so that he could post more cringe memes. The sad part, relevant to TFA above, is that all of the financial chicanery turns out to have been vastly more profitable than inventing re-usable rockets or shipping the first viable electric car. That's not me being a jealous hater, that's me being mournful about what's rewarded.
  - FeloniousHam 4mo ago
    I don't own shares in any Musk company, and agree that Tesla as a car company is grossly overvalued. But as the parent states, dude gets shit done. It is _hard_ to start a successful car company, let alone one on an untested platform. He did it, and it taught China how to build the future of cars. It is _impossible_ to build a successful rocket company from nothing. He did it, and SpaceX is now ~60% of _worldwide_ launches. He's had plenty of failures, but Musk is what people are buying. He's gross and annoying, but I wouldn't count him out, and I'm rooting for his success.
    - nixon_why69 4mo ago
      I guess I'm rooting for his success too, my point was that the actual product successes as I see them all happened pre-2020. Covid era broke some people and Musk seems to be one of them. If he were still mission focused, he would have used his time in the Trump administration on cool missions instead of "ctrl-f trans" and defund random projects with "transducer" or "transfusion" in them.
      - FeloniousHam 4mo ago
        I read the Isaacson biography a few months ago. Quit reading before he buys Twitter.
_carbyau_ 4mo ago
The article is about how to become a billionaire. Are you seriously saying you think Elon Musk falls into the "now it is" category? That's making up something to get angry about. He's been a billionaire for quite a while. IE he falls into the "used to be" category.
peterashford 4mo ago
The guy who is on track for causing 9 million deaths? That guy is your example of someone who made the world a better place? The guy who supports far right groups, white supremacists, throws nazi salutes, pushes an AI that makes child porn and turned Twitter into a right wing nazi loving cess pool? Yeah, the world is just swell now he's here. https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/04/world/lancet-usaid-global-aid-cuts-intl https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/04/world/lancet-usaid-global...
- mrankin 4mo ago
  Every “nazi” i speak to seems to formulate their opinions on actual science, evidence, and logical thinking although sometimes incorrect in my opinion. Every left leaning person i speak to has no understanding of evidence, logic, or the scientific method often displaying a severe lack of critical thinking.
  - peterashford 4mo ago
    You sound like someone who might be closer to one of those sides than the other

ben_w 4mo ago

> How about catalysing the move away from fossil fuels? How about inexpensive spaceflight? Much as I appreciate the former, the latter is if questionable benefit to most people, as the cost of launching e.g. GPS constellations and weather satelites was not the limiting factor for them, and direct-to-satelite phones and broadband at whatever the subscription price is, while neat, are not life changing for 99% of the population. (Space is cool, I like space, he's free to spend his own money how he likes, but the IPO happened because he ran out of his own and private investors' money). Also Tesla has problems going with that benefit, between court cases over marketing of FSD & if he committed fraud by saying he had secured funding to take it private, and also the P/E ratio is unjustifiable as a mere car company so they're pushing an AI narrative that's also unjustifiable for reasons long enough I can't be bothered to type them in again. That and him selling Tesla shares worth more than the lifetime revenue of the business, which is sus.

MrBuddyCasino 4mo ago

History's first trillionaire is a guy who catches rockets out of the sky with chopsticks and beams internet to every dead zone on the planet. Same guy ships cars that drive themselves, humanoid robots for the factory floor, brain chips that let paralysed people move a cursor with pure thought, and an AI running on a supercomputer his team stood up in months instead of years. Your are debating people who sincerely believe that money is the economy and is not just a transaction mechanism lying on top of the actual goods and services that make up an economy. That the physical vectors of goods/services/logistics are just formalities relative to hard currency distribution, which, when implemented, would “solve world hunger” with $50 billion or whatever bunk number they claim is enough. Your are dealing with envious, deeply incurious people who, as history has demonstrated again and again, will kill millions in pursuit of their ideology. There is no convincing them, debating them, enlightening them. It is futile.

nixon_why69 4mo ago
Tesla's sales are down year over year and yet it's somehow trading at a 360x multiple to earnings. SpaceX has a really cool launch and satellite comms business saddled with multiple money-losing other businesses and is currently running at a loss despite the revolutionary aerospace part being profitable. There's pre-2020 Elon who did cool technical stuff and then there's post-covid Elon who spent $50B on Twitter and then cut it's revenue by 66% so that he could post more cringe memes. The sad part, relevant to TFA above, is that all of the financial chicanery turns out to have been vastly more profitable than inventing re-usable rockets or shipping the first viable electric car. That's not me being a jealous hater, that's me being mournful about what's rewarded.
- FeloniousHam 4mo ago
  I don't own shares in any Musk company, and agree that Tesla as a car company is grossly overvalued. But as the parent states, dude gets shit done. It is _hard_ to start a successful car company, let alone one on an untested platform. He did it, and it taught China how to build the future of cars. It is _impossible_ to build a successful rocket company from nothing. He did it, and SpaceX is now ~60% of _worldwide_ launches. He's had plenty of failures, but Musk is what people are buying. He's gross and annoying, but I wouldn't count him out, and I'm rooting for his success.
  - nixon_why69 4mo ago
    I guess I'm rooting for his success too, my point was that the actual product successes as I see them all happened pre-2020. Covid era broke some people and Musk seems to be one of them. If he were still mission focused, he would have used his time in the Trump administration on cool missions instead of "ctrl-f trans" and defund random projects with "transducer" or "transfusion" in them.
    - FeloniousHam 4mo ago
      I read the Isaacson biography a few months ago. Quit reading before he buys Twitter.

_carbyau_ 4mo ago

The article is about how to become a billionaire. Are you seriously saying you think Elon Musk falls into the "now it is" category? That's making up something to get angry about. He's been a billionaire for quite a while. IE he falls into the "used to be" category.

peterashford 4mo ago

The guy who is on track for causing 9 million deaths? That guy is your example of someone who made the world a better place? The guy who supports far right groups, white supremacists, throws nazi salutes, pushes an AI that makes child porn and turned Twitter into a right wing nazi loving cess pool? Yeah, the world is just swell now he's here. https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/04/world/lancet-usaid-global-aid-cuts-intl https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/04/world/lancet-usaid-global...

mrankin 4mo ago
Every “nazi” i speak to seems to formulate their opinions on actual science, evidence, and logical thinking although sometimes incorrect in my opinion. Every left leaning person i speak to has no understanding of evidence, logic, or the scientific method often displaying a severe lack of critical thinking.
- peterashford 4mo ago
  You sound like someone who might be closer to one of those sides than the other