Hacker News Reader

Comment by harborsong | Hacker News Reader

The craziest thing is, regardless how people feel about politics, Musk has achieved a lot for technology yet people in technology forums disparage him. I guess politics trumps technology.

View on HN

> The craziest thing is

I wouldn't call it crazy to point to someone with a documented history of lying and say that their word can't be trusted. Rather, that's called basic pattern recognition.

One man's lie is another man's "4D chess move".

The dancing robot has to be more than a 4D chess move. That's gotta be at least 7 or 8 D chess.

As an early owner of a Model S with FSD, he's also made a lot of objectively false claims that burned customers and have nothing to do with politics.

He successfully marketed and monetized an industry that already existed and would continue to exist without him, then reinvested in that industry to make himself more money. The way you and some others talk about him you would think he invented batteries and was the first one to discover you can use electricity to make a car move.

Integrity matters. He has none. You can't say things that aren't true over and over and expect to be believed the next time.

The parroted introduction has me reading this comment in bad faith, but I'll bite anyway. What are some of his personal tech achievements? Emphasis on personal.

"Achieving a lot for technology" does not put one above criticism.

both are true. he's achieved amazing things, seriously pushing technology forwards

he also makes outlandish public claims which are ridiculous at the time and get worse with age. you can appreciate what he's done while simultaneously believing 0% of what leaves his mouth

He has a notorious habit of overpromising and underdelivering. I thought that habit of his was well established even before he became so vocally political.

You have to wonder if working for four or five different companies while, allegedly, being on _all the drugs_ has an impact on his performance.

If Musk ran Apple we'd still be waiting on the iPhone XS, though he'd insist it'll be ready by "end of year", a phone that launched around the time Musk was crowing about these trucks.

It was, but it was the politics that swung the opinion pendulum from pathological "admire wins, ignore losses" to pathological "ignore wins, disparage losses."

Nonetheless

I have to agree with both you and parent reply

it's possible if it wasn't or trade wars it would've been easy to source batteries from china but who can control geo politics :)

But Musk himself has said that American EV makers can't compete against Chinese EVs without trade barriers. Barriers that western governments have been more than happy to establish.

> "If there are no trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world," he said. "They're extremely good."

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-...

Or maybe, just maybe, it’s that the dude spews whatever out of his mouth and the broader public and media take him at his word when time again its been seen that his word doesn’t mean shit.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com