> However, his competence leaves something to be desired.
Elon: The richest and most successful business person in the history of humanity
Hacker news: he's not competent
Elon: The richest and most successful business person in the history of humanity
Hacker news: he's not competent
Why don't we go a step further and say that poor people deserve to be poor because they're incompetent?
>in the history of humanity [citation needed]
Growing your wealth more than a hundred fold in 10 years implies competence.
Rockefeller probably still has him bet, never mind historical figures such as Mansa Munsa or Augustus Caesar (though in rather different contexts).
Personally, I wouldn't frame things in terms of competence, but trustworthiness. However, his disdain for public transport does seem rather myopic...
I also weight "success" with how much is inherited. Elon obviously inherited a ton, but Augustus literally inherited the most powerful state on the planet.
One of Elon's most visible projects (Hyperloop) is literally public transit.
Elon does not actively work on the Hyperloop, and critics have argued it may even be a red herring that he put out there deliberately to distract from more realistic and well-proven high speed rail technology. What Elon (or at least the Boring Company) did work on, though, is the 'Vegas Loop', a sad joke of a project.