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Elon Musk looks increasingly like someone straight out of Ayn Rand's work. He's the present day Ellis Wyatt or Henry Rearden, tackling grand projects that other
by jwr 13y ago
Elon Musk looks increasingly like someone straight out of Ayn Rand's work. He's the present day Ellis Wyatt or Henry Rearden, tackling grand projects that others shy away from.
He deserves respect just for that — looking beyond the next quarter's bottom line. Just look at the contrast this creates with all the managers whose plans for the next quarter are "let's spend slightly more on marketing".
- seehafer 13y agoI want to archive your comment and bring it up again next time there's a discussion of Rand on HN. Musk is her idea of a businessman-hero (yes, government loans notwithstanding... he doesn't have the luxury of playing in a free market to begin with, energy is already highly regulated and subsidized), not the current crop of Wall Street bankers.
- jwr 13y agoActually, I didn't intend to discuss Rand. I just wanted to use an example of some characters that she created. I'm surprised people get immediately worked up once Ayn Rand gets mentioned.
- mkr-hn 13y agoA lot of people who read and talk about her works turn in to (or reveal themselves as) babbling idiots, so it's easy to mistakenly associate the babbling idiocy with her. From what I've read, she was much more pragmatic than the angry anti-government types who glom on to objectivism.
- nichols 13y agoYes, I am shocked, shocked! that Ayn Rand gets people worked into a lather. How could we have ever predicted this?????
- newnewnew 13y agoLove Rand or hate her, she was one of the few authors that glorified successful people instead of vilifying them. Objectivist principles may not be perfect, but they are a far healthier base for society than "you didn't build that".
- mkr-hn 13y agoSimplistic moralizing is problematic whether it's pro/anti government, corporation, or anything else. I don't know if Ayn Rand's writing is like that since I can't stay awake through all the exposition, but it seems like a lot of simple-minded people love her books. The "you didn't build it" thing kind of makes my point for me, but I don't want to just call you an idiot and move on since I might be misunderstanding your intent. The speaker had a long, well-presented message with that one line that became a slogan for the more idiotic of anti-government talking heads and their followers, and it's a gross mis-representation of the truth to present it without context [1]: "There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me – because they want to give something back. They know they didn't – look, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something – there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)" "If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business – you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet." "The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don't do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires." You are of course free to disagree, but at least show the basic respect of not misrepresenting the statement or the people who agree with the overall message. Yes, it sounds a lot like he meant it as he worded it in the heat of the moment--by many accounts, he often goes off-script--but you can't possibly believe he meant it the way it's been taken given the speech that surrounded it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_didn%27t_build_that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_didn%27t_build_that
- alphydan 13y agowell, Ayn Rand modulo all the public money he uses in his ventures (state environmental credits for Tesla, contracts with NASA ... ie. taxpayers money, research grants, etc, etc). Then again Ayn Rand did suck state bottle with medicaire and social security. I'm not saying the projects are not ambitious and amazing. But they would not grow so quickly without the State.
- ricardobeat 13y agohttp://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-repays-department-energy-loan-nine-years-early http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-repays...
- tptacek 13y ago(a) They were financially incentivized to repay early. (b) They got the sweetheart-deal to end all sweetheart-deals: a gigantic cash infusion structured as a loan with a market-beating interest rate, rather than as equity which would have entitled the government to a share of the upside.
- ricardobeat 13y agoIsn't that a standard deal as far as government loans go? It's nothing compared to the auto industry bailouts, where even the equity taken turned up a loss.
- tptacek 13y agoI'm not sure how the government intervening even more in different companies has anything to do with my point.
- v13inc 13y agoThose two points seem to be at odds with each other. How were they incentivized to repay early? Having a below-market interest rate seems like it would do the opposite.
- nikster 13y agoElon Musk is the last big industrialist alive, after Jobs passing. If his endeavors succeed he'll be remembered alongside Edison, Franklin, Ford, Jobs etc. It's admirable. I just don't think it has anything to do with Ayn Rand and her philosophy. Strangely I just had a discussion about rational thinking and I kind of failed to make a point. Rational thinking is better than irrationality and crazy Bible-thumpers, but you really need to get over that. You need to see past this, you need to pass it by and leave it behind as a neat idea born out of the greatest misconception there ever has been: "I think therefore I am". The reality is - I am, therefore I can think.
- eru 13y ago> Elon Musk is the last big industrialist alive, after Jobs passing. If his endeavors succeed he'll be remembered alongside Edison, Franklin, Ford, Jobs etc. It's admirable. I think you don't know enough about the world's industrialists. (And neither do I.) Most of them are less well known than Elon Musk. So just because you don't know them doesn't mean they don't exist. My guess is that China has quite a few people with grand ideas and capabilities.
- rayiner 13y agoIndustrialists in the developing world are disproportionately not those with grand ideas, but political connections and ties to resource extraction industries.
- alphakappa 13y agoThat's an unfair generalization. There are many industrialists in the developing world who started from scratch [1] and without connections, but managed to build something amazing. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhirubhai_Ambani http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhirubhai_Ambani
- eru 13y agoAnd the US more than 100 years ago wasn't too different from contemporary developing countries, either.
- jacquesm 13y agoShall we keep the economic kooks & Elon Musk in separate bins?
- jwr 13y agoEither I don't understand your comment, or you did not understand mine. I used examples of (fictional) characters portraying impressive industrialists/entrepreneurs. I am not sure why you would call these characters 'kooks'. Pick another example if you don't like mine — my point does not depend on this particular choice.