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Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

(www.ycombinator.com)
1106 points sama | 3 comments | 15 Sep 16 18:05 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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kstenerud ◴[15 Sep 16 19:30 UTC] No.12509079[source]▶
It always saddens me when I see a slew of Debbie Downer comments from the HN crowd.

"Yes, he ushered in the electric car revolution, but the production carbon footprint is still huge!"

"Yes, he's building rockets, but he took a bunch of government money!"

"Yes, he's paving the way to Mars, but what has he done for world hunger?"

And it not just with Musk, but really with anyone who has been successful. I would have thought that the technologists were above such petty envy. We're here to improve humanity's lot, aren't we?

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guelo ◴[15 Sep 16 19:39 UTC] No.12509150[source]▶
Au contraire, people that know the technology and industry can see through the PR much more clearly.
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TeMPOraL ◴[15 Sep 16 19:47 UTC] No.12509224[source]▶
Bullshit. Two of the three items on the GP's list have already been done and complainers seem to be in denial about that.

Startup industry is a great place to find tons of PR bullshit though, so I wonder if this isn't people projecting their own guilt...

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hueving ◴[15 Sep 16 20:21 UTC] No.12509497[source]▶
Only one has been done, building rockets. It's not safe to say he paved the way for the electric car revolution since there hasn't been one.
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1. TeMPOraL ◴[15 Sep 16 20:39 UTC] No.12509636{3}[source]▶
Don't look at the puck's position, look at the first derivative.
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2. idlewords ◴[15 Sep 16 20:42 UTC] No.12509659[source]▶
And make sure there's ice
3. dredmorbius ◴[15 Sep 16 22:29 UTC] No.12510379[source]▶
Last time I checked, not only were the number of EVs produced and sold in the US minuscule, but the derivative was negative. I don't recall the precise year, probably 2013-2014, but fewer cars were sold in the second than the first.

I can't locate the post presently, and don't know how trends have progressed. The statistic surprised me when I found it.