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Tesla has finished building the biggest battery in the world

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Re: Tesla has finished building the biggest battery in the world

#41
post #30
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon Musk is a brand, it is only coincidental that he happens to be a real person as well.

So if I'd given you the Elon Musk brand 20 years ago and thrown the man in a Gulag, we'd still have Tesla electric cars, SpaceX rockets and solar roof tiles now?

Well, for Tesla, that depends on whether Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning would have gotten funding from someone else. Musk wasn't the founder you know.

Re: Tesla has finished building the biggest battery in the world

#42
post #28
post #15

Am I the only one who is completely fed up of this "cult of personality" mentality in tech and tech-related media? The article itself is not that bad, but the title here on HN makes it look like he built the damn thing himself. I know everybody is smart enough to understand that there were tons of people involved, but why put Elon Musk instead of, idk, Tesla. I don't have any problem with any single article on Musk/J…

To be fair though, if Tesla build say a giant electic powered jet airplane next year, it will happen because Elon Musk decides he wants an electric jet airplane, not because John Doe in the Tesla workshops is really good a welding. Some people really do make that much of a difference. If none of the other people at SpaceX had existed in 2002 when Elon decided to build the company, so he'd had to hire all different pe…

The only difference being made in your story is that Elon Musk is the one holding the capital.

The beauty of capitalism. Inovation will happen only when it aligns with the whims of those sitting on piles of money.

Think about the fact that SpaceX only exists because Musk wants to go to Mars. What if he had instead decided to retire in Hawaii?

Re: Tesla has finished building the biggest battery in the world

#43
post #30
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon Musk is a brand, it is only coincidental that he happens to be a real person as well.

So if I'd given you the Elon Musk brand 20 years ago and thrown the man in a Gulag, we'd still have Tesla electric cars, SpaceX rockets and solar roof tiles now?

[deleted]

Re: Tesla has finished building the biggest battery in the world

#44
post #28
post #15

Am I the only one who is completely fed up of this "cult of personality" mentality in tech and tech-related media? The article itself is not that bad, but the title here on HN makes it look like he built the damn thing himself. I know everybody is smart enough to understand that there were tons of people involved, but why put Elon Musk instead of, idk, Tesla. I don't have any problem with any single article on Musk/J…

To be fair though, if Tesla build say a giant electic powered jet airplane next year, it will happen because Elon Musk decides he wants an electric jet airplane, not because John Doe in the Tesla workshops is really good a welding. Some people really do make that much of a difference. If none of the other people at SpaceX had existed in 2002 when Elon decided to build the company, so he'd had to hire all different pe…

IMO Above average smart people feel better about themselves, if they keep thinking to themselves that there aren't any obscenely smart successful people that can make decisions and produces results that they could have produced only by being part of a large group. Because if they didn't, then their lack of success would have been attributed to them not being lucky or not being at a right place/time, not that they themselves simply are just not as good as they thought they are.

Re: Tesla has finished building the biggest battery in the world

#45
post #28
post #15

Am I the only one who is completely fed up of this "cult of personality" mentality in tech and tech-related media? The article itself is not that bad, but the title here on HN makes it look like he built the damn thing himself. I know everybody is smart enough to understand that there were tons of people involved, but why put Elon Musk instead of, idk, Tesla. I don't have any problem with any single article on Musk/J…

To be fair though, if Tesla build say a giant electic powered jet airplane next year, it will happen because Elon Musk decides he wants an electric jet airplane, not because John Doe in the Tesla workshops is really good a welding. Some people really do make that much of a difference. If none of the other people at SpaceX had existed in 2002 when Elon decided to build the company, so he'd had to hire all different pe…

That's orthogonal to my argument though, isn't it?

I'm just saying that he didn't build the thing himself. He decided to do it and did whatever he does at Tesla, then a lot of smart people worked like crazy to finish by the deadline.

Stretching it a bit (maybe too much): think of going to war. The President gets to decide it, but when you win you don't say "President X won the war". Yet a single soldier is likely as replaceable as a factory worker (before I get more hate, I know they are different but I hope you get my point).

Re: Tesla has finished building the biggest battery in the world

#46
post #26

I am not sure about that (biggest battery in the world). This looks like a battery "pack" (an array of batteries connected in parallel/series). This looks like just a marketing thing to me, because there is nothing new or special about it. Just "the biggest". Germany is also working on big batteries for years, but with a completely different strategy. A redox-flow battery with polymers and saline solution ( https://w…

A battery is an array of cells.

The usage of "battery" is completely proper in this case, and it can be argued that the common usage is improper.

("prescriptive" vs "descriptive" rejoinder omitted for brevity)

Re: Tesla has finished building the biggest battery in the world

#47
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair though, if Tesla build say a giant electic powered jet airplane next year, it will happen because Elon Musk decides he wants an electric jet airplane, not because John Doe in the Tesla workshops is really good a welding. Some people really do make that much of a difference. If none of the other people at SpaceX had existed in 2002 when Elon decided to build the company, so he'd had to hire all different pe…

IMO Above average smart people feel better about themselves, if they keep thinking to themselves that there aren't any obscenely smart successful people that can make decisions and produces results that they could have produced only by being part of a large group. Because if they didn't, then their lack of success would have been attributed to them not being lucky or not being at a right place/time, not that they the…

I think that your reasoning can be applied to a lot of people, independently from the "above average smart" condition. Still, I believe that one can both recognize Musk's abilities and give due credit to the people in the company.

As for being at the right place/time, I hope you agree with me in saying that success is a mix of hard work and luck. But again, this is not the point of my first comment.

Btw, I had a hard time understanding what you wrote so forgive me if I got the wrong meaning out of it.

Re: Tesla has finished building the biggest battery in the world

#48
post #28
post #15

Am I the only one who is completely fed up of this "cult of personality" mentality in tech and tech-related media? The article itself is not that bad, but the title here on HN makes it look like he built the damn thing himself. I know everybody is smart enough to understand that there were tons of people involved, but why put Elon Musk instead of, idk, Tesla. I don't have any problem with any single article on Musk/J…

To be fair though, if Tesla build say a giant electic powered jet airplane next year, it will happen because Elon Musk decides he wants an electric jet airplane, not because John Doe in the Tesla workshops is really good a welding. Some people really do make that much of a difference. If none of the other people at SpaceX had existed in 2002 when Elon decided to build the company, so he'd had to hire all different pe…

> not because John Doe in the Tesla workshops is really good a welding.

As a counterpoint, the idea and concept of the now-successful HondaJet light jet was developed by a then-mid-level Honda engineer, Michimasa Fujino.

It took nearly two decades for the idea to take form but at least there was capacity for the organisation to evolve an idea from bottom-up.

Re: Tesla has finished building the biggest battery in the world

#49
post #15

Am I the only one who is completely fed up of this "cult of personality" mentality in tech and tech-related media? The article itself is not that bad, but the title here on HN makes it look like he built the damn thing himself. I know everybody is smart enough to understand that there were tons of people involved, but why put Elon Musk instead of, idk, Tesla. I don't have any problem with any single article on Musk/J…

The original title of the article had been changed. The one I used here was in fact the original one they chose. Edit: even Musk himself acknowledged that in a tweet — https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/933576358793318401 — so don't freak out over a poor choice of words that later got updated by the news site... I would be super happy to update it here if that was possible (or mods could do this, please?)

Yes, we've updated the title here. We would've done it even if the article hadn't because “Elon Musk builds X” is indeed clickbait.

Re: Tesla has finished building the biggest battery in the world

#50
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if I'd given you the Elon Musk brand 20 years ago and thrown the man in a Gulag, we'd still have Tesla electric cars, SpaceX rockets and solar roof tiles now?

Well, for Tesla, that depends on whether Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning would have gotten funding from someone else. Musk wasn't the founder you know.

I know, but the only reason he took over was because they both bailed or got pushed. I suppose it's possible he was behind that, but he must at least have had the backing of the rest of the board and it seems unlikely they'd do that for nothing.
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