Elon's Musk is the only scent I'll wear to a business meeting.

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

It's the same problem with Hollywood actors, athletes and anyone famous. For some strange reason, the public think the people who are good at one thing have great insight into everything...

I'd like to see him start his own health care/ hospitals. He could join up with Google, Amazon and Apple. Sure rockets and electric cars are cool but do something that can really help society.

You don't think the future state of renewable energy is something that helps society? Some of SpaceX's innovations have been leaps and bounds beyond what other space programs have done, one simple example is the recoverable rocket technology which saved billions on launches. Is Mars a pipe dream? Maybe but space travel will be fractions of the current cost because of SpaceX. The gigafactory (or whatever it's called) will make lithium ion batteries much less expensive which is great for so many purposes.

I think Elon Musk is a lot like Steve Jobs, and with these types you take the good with the bad. Yeah he's opinionated, yeah he talks a big game--about everything-- and yeah the tech world treats him like a demi-god, but he's also doing some great things with his companies that will benefit everyone in the long run.

Pretty much this. Also the limelight is addicting and people will say/do whatever to keep in it.

If it wasn't for his adeptness at cronie capitalism Tesla wouldn't even be a company.

Also, I think he's a little bit crazy. Mostly in a good way.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

 
You don't think the future state of renewable energy is something that helps society?

Yes, absolutely. I just think the way we have health care now, it stifles a lot of the energy and creativeness of lot of people. People won't take chances, won't leave jobs, won't move to another area of the country, won't start a business, in part because they don't want to lose their coverage. I just think it would be a relatively easy venture for someone like him. You don't have to invent the health care or doctors, just a new way for people to get and pay for it.

His space programs are great, but it's trickle down great.

The healthcare problems you describe are (kind of) unique to USA. Musk goals are at a grander scale, like saving humanity from annihilation.

You know what my alternate term for crony capitalism is? Capitalism.

How quaint.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Don't hate him but at the end of the day Elon Musk is about Elon Musk. He will get what he can out of you and toss you aside when he has no more need of you. His cars and rocket stuff are cool but electric cars were coming with or without him he is speeding it up though.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Recoverable rocket technology is not w SpaceX invention. There are numerous examples of various rocket/spaceflight components that were recoverable and reusable. And SpaceX can do things for less in part because of the labor model. Don't get me wrong - they do great stuff. But I also know numerous current and former employees...

I'd be interested to know what innovations they made that are leaps and bounds beyond other space programs.

I think you're under estimating somewhat the effect Tesla has had on the EV marketplace and the plans of its rivals.
Before the Model S, no one would have considered building an EV anything like it. Tesla demonstrated that there was a market for such a vehicle and now others are following his lead.
I think its pretty safe to say that if it wasn't for the Model S, we would be looking at more "mainstream" offerings from competitors like the Nissan Leaf, with far less powerful motors and far lower range (albeit for less money)

I do think it takes some balls to go straight at the defense, automotive and petroleum industries all at the same time.

I'm a much bigger fan of Musk than I was of Jobs. Jobs' end goal always seemed to be money. Musk seems to see money as merely a means of achieving his ends, and has openly stated that his companies are likely to disrupt and then ultimately fail when the next wave of disruption comes. I think he genuinely wants to revolutionise the transport and energy markets more than he wants to make himself rich.

Even I doubted what he was claiming a few years ago, that a rocket could land itself an be reused. SpaceX is literally blowing away the competition. They are selling something that even national space programs with huge government subsidies and low labor costs can't compete with.

I can't think of many situations where a small company came to dominate an industry with such established competitors in such a short period of time.

SpaceX is selling something, IMO, because of their labor costs. Labor is the biggest expense in any hardware development program, and SpaceX is notorious for working their employees hard. 10-12 hour days, 6-7 days a week, getting paid that 40-hour/week salary. Plus their salaries are lower than other aerospace companies.

And, BTW, SpaceX essentially gets a government subsidy. They depended on NASA to develop their hardware. They were getting paid even before they had any launches, and many times these lifelines kept the company afloat. https://www.nasa.gov/..._setc_nnj06ta26a.pdf

Compared to the Russians and Chinese, they are doing pretty well. I bet a lot of those employees have options as well, which will make them a mint.

Edit: Nevermind, I had a reading comprehension problem this morning prior to my caffeine intake :-)

Musk is my hero. Why? Simply because he has vision. He's looking way out at the horizon. He's thinking big and instead of saying "someday" he's saying "fuck it, let's do it now". I don't really even care how he gets it done.

I also like his approach to risk management (which is basically the whole point of his business ventures). If you listen to him speak and his comments on risk, he seems to think very much like Nassim Taleb.