For those interested in their clinical trials:
I guess people have always idolized the creeps of the world, though.
So sure maybe I miss out on his generous acts but honestly he does enough bad that I don’t particularly care about any good he does. He’s only doing it for himself anyway.
I don't think he's short of technical skill. I think he is a genius, and I think he's sincere in his desire to make humanity multiplanetary.
I recommend reading the biography to get the facts that aren't penetrating your bubble.
I think Musk is going kind of insane due to ketamine abuse, bipolar disorder, and/or whatever caused his father to go insane around his current age.
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/PaL38q9a4e8Bzsh3S/elon-musk-...
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/03/ketamine-...
Is this the thing about California high-speed rail? I looked into that when it came up on HN the other day, and concluded that Musk had basically nothing to do with the failure of that project. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43299460
So -- Do you have actual solid evidence to defend this "kneecaping of public transit projects" claim? Or shall I assume that the rest of your claims are also liable to be based on half-truths and internet rumors?
Because from my POV there appears to be no end of BS floating around the internet about Musk: https://www.snopes.com/collections/musk-rumors-collection/
In any case, I'm not "defending" Musk in the sense of saying he's a good person. I'm just saying people should try to see him accurately. If you judge people negatively for giving you any information that challenges your worldview, I'd say you're basically admitting that your worldview isn't likely to be very accurate. You can persuade yourself of anything you like, if you're selective in the evidence you admit.
1. he created the capital he had
2. he is not the only person with capital
3. the opportunities he saw, no one else did
When someone wins the lottery 3 times in a row, it is no longer credible to call it "luck". He's simply a genius.
The only way Elon makes money is through people voluntarily giving it to him in exchange for what he creates.
The subsidies were EV subsidies, which were available for all electric cars.
Everyone with motor dysfunction should suffer so we can stick it to a racist man child? Who’s the villain in that narrative?
Sometimes I'll play one of his songs to a friend, and gush a bit on how good Alpert played. My friends would invariably look at me in puzzlement. They simply didn't know enough about the trumpet to see the skill and virtuoso genius in his playing.
I've never heard another trumpet player play the instrument that well.
I could also say that the neuroscientists I follow don't seem particularly impressed with the research coming out of Neuralink (unlike the rocket people who are all impressed with SpaceX), and also the man himself seems to be using his wealth and sales skills to try to radically shift the Overton Window in several countries including both where I live now and where I grew up, so less benefit than the headline suggests for a higher cost than letting a man-child be a man-child.