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Comment by AussieWog93 | Hacker News Reader

Poor bastard.

I think a lot of older people really don't understand this, but our generation (late millennials, or at least middle-class late millennials) were genuinely fed the lie our whole life that we were special and could do anything.

At some point, you have to admit to yourself that you're just an ordinary human being and Elon Musk has something special that you don't have.

Only when you're in this mindset can you reason about your own limits, what you can achieve and discover that you're actually a pretty decent dishwasher technician.

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Elon had starting capital. Never forget that he had the ability to have a soft landing all his life.

Elon had starting capital.

So do millions of people. The vast majority end up doing absolutely nothing of interest or value with it.

Starting capital and social connections is like having thousands of lottery tickets.

You need to be smart enough to check the winning numbers, but that's far from enough to win.

Elon Musk also definitely had a lot of luck.

If you got the capital he had could you replicate Tesla’s success?

I know I couldn’t.

Every immigrant has starting capital, be it money or knowledge or courage. What you make out of it is totally uncertain. Do you know there used a time when he was a broke teenager, in a foreign individualist society, scrambling for cash to pay rent or take a shower?

Let's see what that Prince from England will do in the next five years in North America. He's got all it takes to succeed in a capitalist country. So, can we expect for him a much brighter financial success than Musk's? I have many doubts.

> you have to admit to yourself that you're just an ordinary human being

This sort of thinking comes from place when you see that to achieve anything ahead in your life you need different skill set than you got and also most of time influence over people. I myself am victim of this thinking, it seems rational but it is demotivating.

What I found comforting in this thought chain is there may be limited possibilities that really can happen for me but can I find the best one of them, if I could that would still make me a Elon for so many people around me.

Unfortunately the truth is something much simpler: sheer petty luck.

Thank you for a good laugh. I feel exactly like that, although I work a cushy tech job instead of fixing dishwashers, I know I don't have what it takes to make the history books. Hell, not even a history blog.

>Elon Musk has something special that you don't have

I think this kind of determinism is not only wrong, but damaging, should you choose to believe it, especially when it's used as a failure coping mechanism, because then it ultimately leads to forfeit, which removes any chance you may have had.

>He is successful. Therefore, it must be the case that he is able to bend The Laws Of The Universe. It is certainly not the case that Good Fortune and social effects were the major factors in his success.

Even if it were true, I'm not sure why one would want to believe that. At least fool yourself into believing either: (1) you're also special, and success can also come to you through your own "specialness" (2) no one is special, and success comes from tenacity and luck. What do you lose from believing either of these two things?

> Elon Musk has something special that you don't have

I believe that there are many Elon Musks in the world but due to various circumstances (born in the wrong place at the wrong time, bad luck, terrible parents) they never get the chance to shine.

>Elon Musk has something special that you don't have

Yeah, and I don't want it. Even he admitted it's not good being himself.

Elon Musk was born privileged and is probably wrong about a whole bunch of things.

I don't think it's an appropriate or useful point of comaprison.

I read the comment above yours as implying the inherited wealth being one of the things that Musk has and most people don't. Might just be my own bias 'reading in'.

Doesn't matter in this context though: > has something special that you don't have

OP's point is that it's not solely up to you to just "do anything".

Elon Musk was born privileged

Only relatively speaking. There are a whole lot of people grew up with a hell of a lot more "privilege" than Musk and who have accomplished far far less.

And theres even more less privileged who cant take a risk because they dont have anything to catch them when they fail.

Of course. As someone who ticks most boxes on the privilege checklist I can witness first hand how much easier that has made my life compared to several of my friends and colleagues who ticked far fewer boxes. At the same time I've known people from even more privileged backgrounds than me completely fuck their lives.

So while coming from a 'privileged' background is important, and perhaps even necessary, in becoming the next Elon Musk, it is far from the determining factor.

As Bourdieu presents it, there are the economic, social and cultural capitals from your parents. I believe more and more that the social and cultural capitals can vary wildly even among seemingly privileged families. We can only gauge the economic capital from the outside after all. I saw it firsthand where rich parents educated their children way too softly, which made their children unable to cope with challenges of real life. Maybe Elon got the luck to be born in a family with very good capitals on all axes. It does not mean that he has no talent, just that his initialization may have been particularly good.

> and perhaps even necessary

> is far from the determining factor.

Pick one. There is a reason why low class kids are heavily underrepresented and high class privileged kids are highly overrepresented among VC-backed founders.

You must be at least 'this' privileged to succeed. However there are a lot of people that are at least that privileged and most don't "succeed" either. And among that cohort predicting their chance of success cannot be done by simply looking at their relative level of privilege.

Also I feel like you just moved the goal for success. Getting 1 round of VC funding for your startup and getting your startup into the Fortune 500 or two wildly different levels of success.

If we're defining success as "1 round of VC funding for your startup" then, yes, I will happily concede the 'privilege' plays a much larger role.

One could argue that Musk's achievements are nagative net sum to human race.

Better car? With all this money and influence personalities like that could shape for much better future - livable, walkable cities, public transport, social guarantees.

Private cars in private tunnels for the rich? Is this what we call "achievement"? "There will be no traffic jams in LA because I will be riging my car in private tunnel"?

Rocket's are super cool. Then again a lot of people would argue that instead of aiming for the Mars we should aim to fix Eath's problems - climate, pollution etc.

Depending on how you look, Musk is actually who accomplished far far less. Just made the world better for individualist rich men not much more. Growing up rich and just spending inherited money on expensive stuff might be better for the human race in the end.

>Private cars in private tunnels for the rich? Is this what we call "achievement"? "There will be no traffic jams in LA because I will be riging my car in private tunnel"?

https://www.reddit.com/r/BoringCompany/comments/rxduxn/elon_...

It's kind of amusing how Elon Musk has to discover the car problem his own way. The tunnel is basically only lacking rails and an appropriately sized tram. Maybe he will catch on?

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