Is it possible he did a good job with his successful ventures, and a bad job with the unsuccessful ones?
I find it difficult to believe both SpaceX and Tesla was 100% pure luck and chance. Not even the devil is that lucky.
I find it difficult to believe both SpaceX and Tesla was 100% pure luck and chance. Not even the devil is that lucky.
It's rather political, and debated within the clearance community. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Griffin#Career
In-Q-Tel is basically DARPA but for the CIA, btw. It's private mostly to help obfuscate initiatives and cashflows, as that's been the SOP for a lot of US black ops kinda stuff for a while; see also: Blackwater aka Academi aka whatever-they're-called-now, plus other chunks of the contractor sphere. Wagner, the Russian mercs, were an attempt to duplicate that effort.
The extreme nature of the focused attacks on him today are fascinating to watch in terms of how angry, irrational mobs form on targets and attack until there's nothing left (and then they keep attacking, because some people are late to the party).
They attack his parenting.
They attack his business successes.
They attack his mental capabilities and rationality.
They attack his character.
They attack his family and background.
They lie about all of the above to whatever extent is necessary.
This goes on here, on Reddit, Twitter, wherever a discussion about Musk arises. The only difference between HN and Reddit on this topic is that HN is slightly more highbrow, although the same general attacks get repeated here as they do on Reddit.
Someone on Reddit yesterday was proclaiming that he "attached" himself to the SpaceX success and deserved zero credit for it. That rather nicely encompasses what's going on.
It's one of the biggest shit shows in the history of the Internet. It's embarrassing - as a human - to watch so many people desperately rolling around in the muck to participate.
Go back 2 or 3 years ago and the level of idolization and fanboyism was just incredibly high.
Tons of 'Elon is a genius' or 'Elon could fix [insert global issue]' like comments.
It was just really annoying for a lot of people. And now, with Musk's recent 'reversals', some of these people are becoming very vocal, swinging things at the other extreme.
My casual observation says that HN has become more "Reddit-Like" in terms of low quality and off-topic posting since the whole Reddit API/MOD debacle.
And yes, I see the irony. I get it.
People have been saying this pretty much as long as HN has been around
This place was IMHO pretty toxic during the pandemic. It felt like half of the threads were some covid-related "controversies" and the other half was about whether or not WFH is a fundamental human right.
What a letdown.
Of course you can go the "morality is meaningless, the guy has highly successful businesses so he deserves respect" route.
Or you could figure out that a self-made genius that pushes nonsense like the hyperloop, rocket mass transportation, tunnels for taxis and terraforming mars to save humanity while denying climate change, is probably neither a genius nor self-made.
If you’re honest with yourself I think you’ll fine these are all caricatures you’ve created because he’s no longer politically aligned enough with you.
TDS has been replaced with EDS.
We're talking about the same internet in which Facebook's algorithms contributed to violence against the Rohingya. What people think about Elon Musk is simply of no significance by comparison.
I do think his recent decisions have been quite poorly thought through, independent of the results. I suspect X/Twitter are going to get hammered by regulatory bodies worldwide because they are not meeting requirements set by eg FTC consent orders.
Stealing credit for achievements that aren't truly yours is a very serious accusation.
> The extreme nature of the focused attacks on him today are fascinating to watch in terms of how angry, irrational mobs form on targets and attack
You seem concerned about discussion quality, but you can't debunk the accusations, all you have to contribute is "everyone I disagree with is irrational!"
Curious.