6 ms·

there's plenty of larry ellisons in the world as it is. walk into a casino and put a trillion dollars on red. thats musk. can you imagine the rush? he probably

there's plenty of larry ellisons in the world as it is. walk into a casino and put a trillion dollars on red. thats musk. can you imagine the rush? he probably takes drugs to take the edge off his insane business ventures.

javier123454321 1y ago
I just cannot relate at all to someone actually thinking that equates Elon's success to gambling on roulette. Of the million things you could criticize him for, there is this fixation by his detractors on trying to tear down his character as though he is not competent. It seems important for people that disagree with him to attack that angle, even when there's a mountain of evidence to the contrary. It is as though people need it to be true that someone holding opposing opinions CANNOT possibly also be smart and competent, it's like the ideology possessing his detractors can't conceive of opposition as intelligent. (Notice that this is a phenomenon from left leaning to right leaning, though the right to left version of this phenomenon is something along the lines of: 'this person is smart but ${"evil" | "lacking common sense"}'). I'm fascinated by this.
- ryanwaggoner 1y ago
  From my perspective, it's more that he used to be competent, but something has changed over the last 5-10 years, and now he's essentially coasting (or more nefarious things) off the massive amount of wealth he's piled up. If you or I could come up with many better ways to accomplish Musk's stated goals than he seems to be able to execute, why would I not conclude that something has changed and he's no longer as competent as he once was? Or maybe I'm just blinded by partisan hatred. Who knows, but I'm still not interested in supporting anything Musk produces these days. I guess we'll see in another few decades whether I'm seeing it correctly.
- webdevver 1y ago
  not a detractor (quite the opposite), maybe i am putting too much weight on 'gambling', atleast party because it appeals to my own tastes. to a clueless outside observer, starting a rocket company seems quite risky, then again maybe it wasn't really his money after all? i dont really know the details, but the impression i got was that atleast initially, it was his private venture. tesla is more sensible but still, building out massive manufacturing chains is risky, because youve got all that capital tied up in it, and you're making a 'gamble' that youre gonna sell millions of cars to get that money back. twitter to me seemed like a big gamble. social media comes and goes awfully quickly, but the X rebrand seems to have worked, atleast for now. grok was another weird play. competing with openai/google? but they did it and it seems to be holding its own pretty well.
- throwaway-11-1 1y ago
  I would say he is less competent than Wang Chuanfu, but then again I'm not a HN reader that jacks off every time Elon posts some race science eugenic shit
  - javier123454321 1y ago
    What a great addition to the conversation. Thank you.

javier123454321 1y ago

I just cannot relate at all to someone actually thinking that equates Elon's success to gambling on roulette. Of the million things you could criticize him for, there is this fixation by his detractors on trying to tear down his character as though he is not competent. It seems important for people that disagree with him to attack that angle, even when there's a mountain of evidence to the contrary. It is as though people need it to be true that someone holding opposing opinions CANNOT possibly also be smart and competent, it's like the ideology possessing his detractors can't conceive of opposition as intelligent. (Notice that this is a phenomenon from left leaning to right leaning, though the right to left version of this phenomenon is something along the lines of: 'this person is smart but ${"evil" | "lacking common sense"}'). I'm fascinated by this.

ryanwaggoner 1y ago
From my perspective, it's more that he used to be competent, but something has changed over the last 5-10 years, and now he's essentially coasting (or more nefarious things) off the massive amount of wealth he's piled up. If you or I could come up with many better ways to accomplish Musk's stated goals than he seems to be able to execute, why would I not conclude that something has changed and he's no longer as competent as he once was? Or maybe I'm just blinded by partisan hatred. Who knows, but I'm still not interested in supporting anything Musk produces these days. I guess we'll see in another few decades whether I'm seeing it correctly.
webdevver 1y ago
not a detractor (quite the opposite), maybe i am putting too much weight on 'gambling', atleast party because it appeals to my own tastes. to a clueless outside observer, starting a rocket company seems quite risky, then again maybe it wasn't really his money after all? i dont really know the details, but the impression i got was that atleast initially, it was his private venture. tesla is more sensible but still, building out massive manufacturing chains is risky, because youve got all that capital tied up in it, and you're making a 'gamble' that youre gonna sell millions of cars to get that money back. twitter to me seemed like a big gamble. social media comes and goes awfully quickly, but the X rebrand seems to have worked, atleast for now. grok was another weird play. competing with openai/google? but they did it and it seems to be holding its own pretty well.
throwaway-11-1 1y ago
I would say he is less competent than Wang Chuanfu, but then again I'm not a HN reader that jacks off every time Elon posts some race science eugenic shit
- javier123454321 1y ago
  What a great addition to the conversation. Thank you.