Ask HN: Who are the other Elon Musk's?
He is not the only one, right? There must be other people who are doing extraordinary things on a same level. Or does he occupy all the space on this stage?
The thing that really sets him apart, in my opinion, and something that a lot of people don't fully appreciate - is that he is the lead engineer / chief designer at Tesla and SpaceX.
So, you basically have in one person, someone who is both able to grow a multi-billion dollar company, while also leading the design and engineering of the products. It's very rare to find an individual with this type of skill running such a large company. For example, the CEOs of SpaceX and Tesla's competitors cannot really delve too deep into the engineering details.
If that were it, Elon would still be impressive, but he goes way further than this.
He is not only running one multi-billion dollar company, but two simultaneously. (You can almost say he is running 4 multi-billion dollar companies simultaneously if you include Solar City, and if you see the Gigafactory as a separate entity, not to mention he also oversees Open AI, which is very impressive by itself (he says he spends one day a week on it).
If that were it, Elon would be in a league of his own already, but what makes it even more impressive is that the companies he runs are both in very complex industries, and he is revolutionizing both industries.
I would wait until that is achieved. I mean, with what he did with the hyperloop thing, I will take what ever thing he says with a huge grain of salt....
One thing is certain. Elon Musk knows his audience and knows them well and knows very well how to milk them. That way, I would say he is the Christopher Nolan of entrepreneurs...
Jeff Bezos is in many markets as well though he seems more focused on making money than directing the course of humanity.
All in all I'd say Google has had a much bigger impact on our lives than either Amazon or Tesla / SpaceX has had thus far.
It's also important to note that his goals with x.com - the company he merged with PayPal - were to create online banking. The impact the company had might've been much greater had things gone differently.