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Comment by kortilla | Hacker News Reader

Elon absolutely focuses on making money, which is why it was successful. I don’t know why your conclusion is completely backwards.

Do you think blue origin is focused on making money? They haven’t done anything that would indicate that.

SpaceX on the other hand focused on landing rockets completely to make money. There is no other reason to do it and it’s why NASA never focused on it.

Starlink is entirely to make money to feed the mars mission long term.

You might say that his visions aren’t focused on money, but the execution is ruthlessly so. It’s why both companies are famous for squeezing their suppliers so hard and inhousing when they can.

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Yea I have a hard time distinguishing focusing on return vs focusing on product. They’re complimentary, not mutually exclusive. I hope those implementing my investments are focused on both.

Disagree; consider enshittification; that process embodies the essence of focusing on return vs product.

In context it is too early in the cycle for SpaceX to begin enshittification. Wait until they start cutting Mars passenger’s legroom…

Oh gawd, now that's a not pleasant thought. Thinking of long haul space flights in terms of today's air travels. I shudder at the thought of being in the middle seat for the duration of that trip

There’s no reason for that. There’s no shortage of space in transit, and plenty of ideas for making transit comfortable (inflatable habitats or reusable cyclers, for example).

> There’s no reason for that.

It's the exact same reason as it is now for air travel...profits. It doesn't matter the size of the ship. If you can squeeze the space to increase the number of occupants per flight on the same ship, you increase revenue. That's all corporate bean counters will care about. I would not be surprised if they hire a similar team that airlines have now that get paid to specifically redesign seats to squeeze more in per flight.

There's no air in space, so there's no need for aerodynamics. Inflatable structures allow for quite a bit of volume during transit without much impact on structural mass. This is not analogous to airplanes.

Yes this exactly. Our entire economy is enshittified and becoming more so daily, and it's precisely because we've become a 100% production for profit economy. Eventually you lose the plot when you do that.

Hopefully they won't change propellant to high pressure cow manure

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