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Comment by sephamorr | Hacker News Reader

Elon has been consistently playing down the risk from coronavirus/

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/13/21179291/elon-musk-corona...

Who would have thought that a loudmouthed self promoter with an overinflated sense of his own intelligence and a history of making thoroughly unrealistic and unscientific predictions would get this one wrong too?

> a history of making thoroughly unrealistic and unscientific predictions

I thought you were going to say "a history of making thoroughly unrealistic goals come to fruition" because that seems more accurate.

How're those Mars flights treating you? https://nypost.com/2018/03/11/elon-musk-flights-to-mars-will...

Good place to hide out from COVID-19, I'd reckon.

Musk has missed just about every goal he's ever set by a wide margin and has only managed to pull through because hordes of taxpayers and investors continue to line up to dump money into his black hole projects on the back of his self-aggrandising.

> Musk has missed just about every goal he's ever set by a wide margin

Yes, but everyone else in the space sector has missed by a bigger margin.

How’s the Bush Mars mission coming along? Bush senior that is, initiative announced 1989.

> and has only managed to pull through because hordes of taxpayers and investors continue to line up to dump money into his black hole projects on the back of his self-aggrandising.

You mean the rockets which are half the cost of any other provider including both government and private launch agencies?

Or do you mean the car company which turned electric cars from a hippy fantasy into a rich person fantasy and just made its millionth vehicle?

> Bush senior that is, initiative announced 1989

That seems like a disingenuous comparison given how much control a President has vs a CEO in this context. Bush Sr. had less than four years.

This isn’t meant to bash Musk, just to point out the somewhat unfair comparison. I actually think entities like SpaceX are necessary to combat the political risk inherent in administration turnover

You have a valid point; however the point I had been trying to make was more along the lines of “Musk isn’t particularly bad even when he doesn’t meet his own goals; the goals are really hard”.

Yeah it’s hard to knock the man for failure when he did shoot for the stars and landed on Mars instead.

With the cars, I've come to the realization that most people just don't realize how hard it is or how many people have tried. I'm a big fan of the car industry and have looked at many of the past attempts (eg, Tucker, Bricklin, Delorean, Fisker, and now Tesla).

I can only think of one that topped 20,000 units, and they've hit 1 million. Being the only company since WWII to startup and do that is not a small feat.

Sure, I could listen to all of his hype and crazy rosy projections. I could also listen to the things his worst detractors say sometimes. Both sets are just as wrong, though, so I prefer to pay attention to what his businesses are actually doing.

It's good for the stock market.

Musk is probably right. I seriously doubt the UK would be considering just infecting all the youth with nCoV if he weren’t.

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