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Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

(www.ycombinator.com)
1106 points sama | 2 comments | 15 Sep 16 18:05 UTC | HN request time: 0.451s | source
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soufron[dead post] ◴[15 Sep 16 18:53 UTC] No.12508752[source]▶
Since when did entrepreneurs decided to speak in scifi-bullshit? "We have a digital tertiary self in the form of out email capabilities, our computers, phones, applications."

And also, arrogant to the point of being funny? "Interviewer: Do you think people that want to be useful today should get PhDs?Elon: Mostly not." LOL.

RodericDay[dead post] ◴[15 Sep 16 18:58 UTC] No.12508788[source]▶
Elon Musk isn't the kind of person I thought he was.

> "Politically, Musk has described himself as "half Democrat, half Republican". In his own words: "I'm somewhere in the middle, socially liberal and fiscally conservative."[116]

> Musk is a self-described American exceptionalist and nationalist, describing himself as "nauseatingly pro-American". According to Musk, the United States is "[inarguably] the greatest country that has ever existed on Earth", describing it as "the greatest force for good of any country that's ever been". Musk believes outright that there "would not be democracy in the world if not for the United States"

> Musk has directly contributed to Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who has been accused of holding [skeptical] positions regarding climate change.[121]"

I thought he was like John Carmack or something, but at the end of the day he's mostly a sales guy with big dreams. The self-taught rocket engineer stuff is mostly self-promotion.

bbctol ◴[15 Sep 16 19:09 UTC] No.12508893[source]▶
I like Elon Musk, but the hero-worship disturbs me. Yeah, he founded one pretty successful company, got in early at a very successful company, and has been using the money to fund cool projects ever since. I think Tesla and SpaceX are both interesting, but still experimental: he hasn't been singlehandedly Tony Starking up the future in a lab, he's just used a lot of money from making some smart/lucky decisions to hire good people.
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kstenerud ◴[15 Sep 16 19:19 UTC] No.12508990[source]▶
"he hasn't been singlehandedly Tony Starking up the future in a lab"

So this is the measure of progress now? How can this sentence sound like anything other than sour grapes?

You use the tools available to you for the betterment of your species in some way.

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bbctol ◴[15 Sep 16 19:24 UTC] No.12509031[source]▶
Like I said, I like him! I just don't understand why we should think he has special knowledge of what the future holds.
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1. TeMPOraL ◴[15 Sep 16 19:45 UTC] No.12509206[source]▶
He doesn't! He's a smart guy, for sure, he has some pretty interesting ideas - but as for the interview, it was done just because he's famous. He's stating his opinions. If you treat them as anything more, then it's not exactly his fault.

I think people overestimate the value of interviews. It's just individuals talking, not a compressed textbook!

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2. babyrainbow ◴[17 Sep 16 13:17 UTC] No.12520363[source]▶
>he has some pretty interesting ideas...

Can you list a few? I think only Hyperloop was a truly new idea. And I don't think it is going anywhere. It now feels like something that he did to capture the attention of the geek world.