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Comment by coarise | Hacker News Reader

>feels very Elon

why

The history of rocket accidents involving problems handling liquid oxygen is long and considering a sniper as the reason was considered quite unique perspective for someone to propose.

Well, because it is very Elon. In Reentry: SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the Reusable Rockets that Launched a Second Space Age, Eric Berger recounts how Elon was the only person on the planet who believed his sniper theory.

Elon is a true genius, up there with Euler and Feynman. So when things don't go perfectly with his initial idea surely it must be a conspiracy to get him down

Comparing Elon Musk, a rich kid that got lucky by investing his money in to "cool shit" with some of the most significant scientists and mathematicians of humankind is just wrong.

I think that's the joke

Ah, didn't get the /s :D

:D I am starting to understand why his stock is as high as it is.

Musk is a competent manager, amazing bser, but he is not a genius.

edit: Competent manager is not a slight. There are very few competent managers these days.

The people I know who have worked for him would not call him a competent manager

Hmm, you do have a point. What if I asked you to look at him through the lens of the shareholder?

I hear what you're saying but ... clearly SpaceX has made some broad technical decisions - I'm think of using metholox or making starship out of steel or falcon first stage re-usability - that seem to have been the correct choice.

I doubt Musk originated these idea but he was the one who ultimately made the decision on them. There were a lot of other people who had the same choice and either didn't come down that way or took a lot longer to come to the same place.

Like I said, genius? I personally wouldn't use that word. He's not an idiot though. He might be the minimum viable product for technical knowledge combined with a large amount of money but that's still pretty remarkable.

> making starship out of steel

The whole reason for this was because of SS's supposed strength under the heat of reentry. Yet they now need to cover the whole thing in thermal insulating tiles. So I wonder if a composite Starship would not have been a better decision?

>why

hubris

Because it’s both delusional and paranoid.

I'd probably throw "grandiose" in there somewhere as well, but that may just be me

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