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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: 0.23s | source
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djcooley ◴[15 Sep 16 21:09 UTC] No.12509856[source]▶
I have all the respect in the world for what Mr. Musk has accomplished, but it has come at an amazing cost to the people around him.

He is worshiped from afar but reviled by many the closer you get to his inner circle. Go read "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future."

The question I always ask myself with the people who move mountains is what cost did that progress come at? What would someone's spouse, kids, friends, etc. say about the person?

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ellyagg ◴[15 Sep 16 22:32 UTC] No.12510402[source]▶
Why is that question so important to you? A lot of people are drains on everyone around them and they don't move mountains. If the quest is valuable enough to society, it far outweighs the costs to a single man's relationships.

As a rationalization for why you yourself would not want to live that way, that's fair enough. Neither would I.

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1. noobermin ◴[16 Sep 16 00:55 UTC] No.12511176[source]▶
Precisely, I won't name names but there are a few "drains" on family that I know that didn't start spaceX or tesla, yet they are not utilitarian positive contributors, I'd say.