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Comment by eloff | Hacker News Reader

This supports Peter Theil's theory that innovation has stagnated. When companies give their profits back to the shareholders instead of investing in continued innovation, because they can't figure out a way to innovate with that capital.

The world needs more Elon Musk type of entrepreneurs.

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I agree wholeheartedly. The whole world seems to be in a consolidation phase where every innovation from before 2010 is being milked dry (see iPhone derivatives, streaming services, Lithium-ion tech, carbon composites, airliner designs :P, etc...) but very little new tech is being invested in outside of academia (and even within academia sometimes...). Everyone has figured out it's more profitable to rehash existing ideas instead of take a risk and markets are encouraging it. Want more profit? Buy your competitors instead of invest in some moonshots. We've become very complacent as a society.

Your praise for Musk can't be repeated enough. Whatever you think of the guy, he is completely fearless regarding big investments in things that are possible in principle, but with a large risk of failure.

Most people shy away from those kinds of risks. I really wish we had more people with capital that took big risks on things that are unlikely to succeed, but would materially bring the world forward if they did.

>I really wish we had more people with capital that took big risks on things that are unlikely to succeed, but would materially bring the world forward if they did.

If this is the desired outcome, how do you tell the difference between an entrepreneur and a con-man?

Savvy investors should know the laws of physics and be able to make a decent educated guess regarding what limitations are caused by fundamental limits, and what are instead the result of a e.g. any random local maximum, institutional inertia, lack of imagination, a long-standing duopoly and so on. Plus factor changing technological possibilities into this.

I don't think it's such a big deal if a few private investors lose their investment to a con, but there are a lot of smart people out there. Not everyone stated boldly that reusable rockets are impossible, that no social network could have better success than MySpace, that mobile phones had to have a keypad and only run pre-installed software or that electric cars could never be a viable competitor.

Strongly agree. Elon Musks' $40k USD Cybertruck reveal was one of the first times in years it felt like our present was making some kind of headway into the future, but while also being accessible to common people ($40k truck is still a huge luxury don't get me wrong).

> 40k truck is still a huge luxury don't get me wrong)

I don’t think you have priced trucks in awhile. You can buy a 60k Jeep truck, an 85k RAM 2500, a 95k GMC Sierra ATR4 (or whatever), a 65k Bison Colorado, etc etc. Trucks got expensive. I think you price new 40k trucks you’re going to be looking at Tacomas.

40k for a specialty electric truck is absolutely too good to be true, and I promise you it won’t happen like that.

All that said, that Tesla truck isn’t even remotely real. There is almost no way it passes crash testing with 1/8th stainless steel panels as is, let alone European homologation requirements, it has no mirrors or wipers. It’s all for show right now so pardon me while I don’t join in the hyper parade.

(Source: Automotive Engineer)

You're not wrong, but I'm considering it a luxury outside the real of automotive. I've been working full time as software developer for 3 years and I cannot afford a Cybertruck. Not even close lol.

You just need to do what everyone else does and stop doing the math, just go in to debt! (Don’t do that)

Or we could tax excess capital and reinvest it in ourselves as a country upgrading our infrastructure, educational attainment, health, and the common wealth.

This is not a popular idea in the US, but I think it would be smart to invest in the common health, education, and infrastructure.

I think there is a world of difference in invest in infrastructure and tax ourselves into prosperity.

One is an ends, the other is a means but not the only means.

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