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Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

(www.ycombinator.com)
1106 points sama | 1 comments | 15 Sep 16 18:05 UTC | HN request time: 0.204s | 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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clydethefrog ◴[15 Sep 16 19:13 UTC] No.12508934[source]▶
>has been using the money to fund cool projects

Musk and his companies' investors enjoy most of the financial upside of the government support, while taxpayers shoulder the cost. [1]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-2015...

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1. TeMPOraL ◴[15 Sep 16 20:01 UTC] No.12509348[source]▶
First of all, those subsidies exist exactly to be used like this, so at best you can complain the government uses money to incentivize businesses. Elon is one of the few people who uses subsidies as they should be.

Secondly, his companies have a good track record of paying governments loan back, in full, before the due time.

Funny how a success story can be twisted into a negative.