4 ms·

I'm really surprised Elon Musk only got 11 votes.

by level09 13y ago

tehwalrus 13y ago
I'm not - he's only a businessman, not a political activist, and his companies haven't done anything particularly spectacular this year (Model S was released in 2012). Remember that the Graun is still a UK-based paper, and we don't idolise business-folk the way the US does.
- smackfu 13y ago
  >we don't idolise business-folk the way the US does Well, only if they are on television shows.
  - walshemj 13y ago
    And are dodgy barrow boys (who fucked up his chance at the big time because of poor attention to detail), property developers oh and the accountant who got lucky. I have seen some of the Drgons den types do a live session at a business start up show and my god if there was anything at all technical in the pitch you could see the poor dears eyes glaze over and how out of their depth they where.
  - tehwalrus 13y ago
    I don't think laughing at how ridiculously they act as entertainment counts as 'idolising' them, really :)
- TomGullen 13y ago
  I get the feeling in the UK we idolise wealth in entrepreneurship more than the US. People talk about Musk and his electric cars and space ships, Zuckerberg for Facebook, Bill Gates for Microsoft, Steve Jobs for Apple, etc. Here in the UK no one knows what any of the Dragons really do, except that they are all wealthy and we should admire them mostly for that.
  - tehwalrus 13y ago
    I don't know anyone from the UK who idolises the dragons. Come to that, I don't know anyone who watches the show, even.
    - pessimizer 13y ago
      >Come to that, I don't know anyone who watches the show, even. Then you should know that your experience isn't very representative, because the ratings for the show can be objectively confirmed.
      - tehwalrus 13y ago
        I don't think anyone knows a representative sample of the population.
        pessimizer 13y ago
        But you have evidence that your sample is not representative in exactly the area that you're discussing.
    - cs02rm0 13y ago
      Meaden's a trailer park owner who tried and failed miserably to do some dancing, Bannatyne runs a gym, Hoppen lines cushions up, Jones is the only one who actually has any money despite the only thing I know he's behind is expansys.com (I suppose that backs the HTC accessories store so I have used it) and Linney... well, apparently has something to do with cloud computing but when he first appeared I looked him up and didn't recognise anything he'd been involved in. I'm not surprised no one idolises them. Especially Meaden.
      - tehwalrus 13y ago
        They have names? And they're not called "Smaug" and "Alduin" and "Parthonaax"?
eterm 13y ago
He's not at all a household name in the UK. I've heard of him only through HN.
arethuza 13y ago
I've probably seen more mentions of Horacio Pagani in UK media than Elon Musk.
mortehu 13y ago
Any time I've seen an article from The Guardian (or Washington Post) in the past 7 months, it's been Snowden related. If the poll was conducted in some other newspaper, maybe the distribution would be different, and there would be more than a meager 2,200 votes.
alan_cx 13y ago
In the UK? Im surprised he got that many.

I'm really surprised Elon Musk only got 11 votes.

by level09 13y ago

I'm really surprised Elon Musk only got 11 votes.

I'm not - he's only a businessman, not a political activist, and his companies haven't done anything particularly spectacular this year (Model S was released in 2012). Remember that the Graun is still a UK-based paper, and we don't idolise business-folk the way the US does.

smackfu 13y ago
>we don't idolise business-folk the way the US does Well, only if they are on television shows.
- walshemj 13y ago
  And are dodgy barrow boys (who fucked up his chance at the big time because of poor attention to detail), property developers oh and the accountant who got lucky. I have seen some of the Drgons den types do a live session at a business start up show and my god if there was anything at all technical in the pitch you could see the poor dears eyes glaze over and how out of their depth they where.
- tehwalrus 13y ago
  I don't think laughing at how ridiculously they act as entertainment counts as 'idolising' them, really :)
TomGullen 13y ago
I get the feeling in the UK we idolise wealth in entrepreneurship more than the US. People talk about Musk and his electric cars and space ships, Zuckerberg for Facebook, Bill Gates for Microsoft, Steve Jobs for Apple, etc. Here in the UK no one knows what any of the Dragons really do, except that they are all wealthy and we should admire them mostly for that.
- tehwalrus 13y ago
  I don't know anyone from the UK who idolises the dragons. Come to that, I don't know anyone who watches the show, even.
  - pessimizer 13y ago
    >Come to that, I don't know anyone who watches the show, even. Then you should know that your experience isn't very representative, because the ratings for the show can be objectively confirmed.
    - tehwalrus 13y ago
      I don't think anyone knows a representative sample of the population.
      - pessimizer 13y ago
        But you have evidence that your sample is not representative in exactly the area that you're discussing.
  - cs02rm0 13y ago
    Meaden's a trailer park owner who tried and failed miserably to do some dancing, Bannatyne runs a gym, Hoppen lines cushions up, Jones is the only one who actually has any money despite the only thing I know he's behind is expansys.com (I suppose that backs the HTC accessories store so I have used it) and Linney... well, apparently has something to do with cloud computing but when he first appeared I looked him up and didn't recognise anything he'd been involved in. I'm not surprised no one idolises them. Especially Meaden.
    - tehwalrus 13y ago
      They have names? And they're not called "Smaug" and "Alduin" and "Parthonaax"?

eterm 13y ago

He's not at all a household name in the UK. I've heard of him only through HN.

arethuza 13y ago

I've probably seen more mentions of Horacio Pagani in UK media than Elon Musk.

mortehu 13y ago

Any time I've seen an article from The Guardian (or Washington Post) in the past 7 months, it's been Snowden related. If the poll was conducted in some other newspaper, maybe the distribution would be different, and there would be more than a meager 2,200 votes.

alan_cx 13y ago

In the UK? Im surprised he got that many.