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>Good for the World that not everybody is working on another app. Couldn't agree more with that. I'm just explaining the reason you are seeing this is primari

by jrkelly 13y ago

>Good for the World that not everybody is working on another app. Couldn't agree more with that. I'm just explaining the reason you are seeing this is primarily for PR purposes -- which is a huge part of his job. HN should be able to tell the difference between good PR and good tech.

thisishugo 13y ago
>HN should be able to tell the difference between good PR and good tech. The two are not mutually exclusive. This is as valid a tech demo as, say, some esoteric ECMAScript 6 feature no one can yet use.
skore 13y ago
> HN should be able to tell the difference between good PR and good tech. You know what? I make an exception to that in Elons case. There are plenty of people who do that and who leave us pretty much where we were before. Think of the tons of Microsoft Research projects that are mighty cool and are thrown in our face every half year or so... but never go anywhere expect right in the basket of "well, I guess Microsoft isn't entirely dead, yet" PR. Is this extremely exciting stuff in itself? No. But it is still exciting to me because I know if Elon does it, he will follow up and make the best of the opportunity. It is the marriage between the person and the project - in the Microsoft example, some, probably mostly PR, division comes up with "oh, I suppose that's neat" on a regular basis, but what they do has no direct link to any real life implementation. What you need is that connection of being able to dream big and execute big - and for that, the impulse has to come from engineering, not PR. It's like knowing that Carmack is hooked on VR goggles. For some things, the person doing the thing really makes all the difference in the world.
- HCIdivision17 13y ago
  Just how I feel about his brand: he'll probably build it. And that is pretty big. We face a lot of disappointment when it comes to tech promises. They don't all have to me amazing and change out lives now, so long as they credibly _could_ later. Musk seems to actually implement things and has the power to actually drive a project forward, so this is neat.
farmdawgnation 13y ago
Why do good PR and good tech have to be mutually exclusive? Especially in a community such as Hacker News, shouldn't they be the same thing, in a way?
- 6d0debc071 13y ago
  Rating systems are going to tend towards the median understanding. If you're doing something that requires specific knowledge to appreciate, then you're going to be inherently penalised by being in competition with the projects that are cool and everyone can appreciate - regardless of the comparative utility of your posts.
TomAnthony 13y ago
Need there be a "difference" between the two? Can this not be both - using cool tech they've developed for PR?

by jrkelly 13y ago

thisishugo 13y ago

>HN should be able to tell the difference between good PR and good tech. The two are not mutually exclusive. This is as valid a tech demo as, say, some esoteric ECMAScript 6 feature no one can yet use.

skore 13y ago

> HN should be able to tell the difference between good PR and good tech. You know what? I make an exception to that in Elons case. There are plenty of people who do that and who leave us pretty much where we were before. Think of the tons of Microsoft Research projects that are mighty cool and are thrown in our face every half year or so... but never go anywhere expect right in the basket of "well, I guess Microsoft isn't entirely dead, yet" PR. Is this extremely exciting stuff in itself? No. But it is still exciting to me because I know if Elon does it, he will follow up and make the best of the opportunity. It is the marriage between the person and the project - in the Microsoft example, some, probably mostly PR, division comes up with "oh, I suppose that's neat" on a regular basis, but what they do has no direct link to any real life implementation. What you need is that connection of being able to dream big and execute big - and for that, the impulse has to come from engineering, not PR. It's like knowing that Carmack is hooked on VR goggles. For some things, the person doing the thing really makes all the difference in the world.

HCIdivision17 13y ago
Just how I feel about his brand: he'll probably build it. And that is pretty big. We face a lot of disappointment when it comes to tech promises. They don't all have to me amazing and change out lives now, so long as they credibly _could_ later. Musk seems to actually implement things and has the power to actually drive a project forward, so this is neat.

farmdawgnation 13y ago

Why do good PR and good tech have to be mutually exclusive? Especially in a community such as Hacker News, shouldn't they be the same thing, in a way?

6d0debc071 13y ago
Rating systems are going to tend towards the median understanding. If you're doing something that requires specific knowledge to appreciate, then you're going to be inherently penalised by being in competition with the projects that are cool and everyone can appreciate - regardless of the comparative utility of your posts.

TomAnthony 13y ago

Need there be a "difference" between the two? Can this not be both - using cool tech they've developed for PR?