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Why is there only one Elon Musk?

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Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?

#61

Post by jessriedel »

JDGM wrote: post #50

I assume that we're taking Elon Musk's "Tony Stark"-ness in this context to mean electric cars, space travel, and solar power. To the best of my knowledge he is neither an alcoholic nor a superhero, though I did just look up his marital history on Wikipedia and with assistance from Google Images I have to award 8 Tony Starks out of 10 on that one. In all seriousness though, are we sure not one of those other 1,225 bi…

Could you elaborate on how Katja's idea in the OB post might be used here? To me, it seems like it supports the OP (quite nicely, actually). In particular, Elon Musk shows that Tony-Stark-ness (as you've correctly defined it) is pretty darn visible. If there were more Tony Stark's out there, I'm now more likely to expect expect that I would have heard about them in the same way I've heard about Musk. This increases my confidence that there are not many Tony Starks compared to my pre-Musk assessment.

And then, of course, the question is: with so many billionaires out there, why?

Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?

#62

Post by Egregore »

edw519 wrote: post #30

This post reminds me of that old joke: Husband: I am the head of the household! I determine our family's position on all of the major economic, political, and social issues of the day! Wife: I decide the little things, like where we'll live, what we'll eat, and where the kids go to school. As much as I admire the dreams and accomplishments of Elon Musk, I have trouble getting past the idea that he failed to maintain…

What's more importing preserving a marriage or flying to Mars?

Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?

#63

Post by JDGM »

jessriedel wrote: post #61
JDGM wrote: post #50

I assume that we're taking Elon Musk's "Tony Stark"-ness in this context to mean electric cars, space travel, and solar power. To the best of my knowledge he is neither an alcoholic nor a superhero, though I did just look up his marital history on Wikipedia and with assistance from Google Images I have to award 8 Tony Starks out of 10 on that one. In all seriousness though, are we sure not one of those other 1,225 bi…

Could you elaborate on how Katja's idea in the OB post might be used here? To me, it seems like it supports the OP (quite nicely, actually). In particular, Elon Musk shows that Tony-Stark-ness (as you've correctly defined it) is pretty darn visible. If there were more Tony Stark's out there, I'm now more likely to expect expect that I would have heard about them in the same way I've heard about Musk. This increases m…

"Could you elaborate on how Katja's idea in the OB post might be used here?"

Exactly in the way you describe. I was indeed using it to support the OP and not myself: "I'm not sure which of us is right, quite possibly the author and not me - LINK".

Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?

#64

Post by jessriedel »

Me1000 wrote: post #49
edw519 wrote: post #30

This post reminds me of that old joke: Husband: I am the head of the household! I determine our family's position on all of the major economic, political, and social issues of the day! Wife: I decide the little things, like where we'll live, what we'll eat, and where the kids go to school. As much as I admire the dreams and accomplishments of Elon Musk, I have trouble getting past the idea that he failed to maintain…

Are we really going to start analyzing a man's marriage now? This is not a tabloid. :/

If you're looking to understand either (1) why there's a dearth of Elon Musks (like the OP) or (2) whether you and I should want to be like Musk (like edw519), then the complete man's life seems very pertinent. The thing that makes analysis of celebrity personal lives in tabloids such a waste of time is that it's done for titillation and emotional shallowness (i.e. I can feel good about myself because this supposed big shot can't even keep his marriage together), rather than thoughtful analysis.

Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?

#65

Post by andyjohnson0 »

manaskarekar wrote: post #18

James Gosling: Liquid Robotics http://www.liquidr.com/news_events/press/2011/2011-08-30-gos... John D. Carmack: Armadillo Aerospace http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home I'm tempted to throw in Google's Sergey Brin (Larry Page too?) for Google Glass. And I'm sure there are a few others. Elon Musk just shows up more in the news due to his success. Also, not all billionaires are technically inclined geek…

Gosling is a senior employee of Liquid Robotics, joining four years after it started. He didn't found it.

Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?

#66

Post by distant- »

Meanwhile, the author of the blog post runs a porn website. I find it amusing that all of these advocates of tackling "big issues, that matter", "building world-changing technology" are very far from walking their talk.

Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?

#67

Post by jessriedel »

aashaykumar92 wrote: post #38

After reading, I'd say your base question/thesis is: "Why on Earth aren’t there more billionaires doing really cool sci-fi sh!#?". You go on to give plenty of examples (FYI--some of these are already being done such as self-driving cars and flexible displays) but all of them, to truly build, would require a solid understanding of mathematics/physics/some type of engineering right? Not every billionaire has that knowl…

Another way to say this is that the process of becoming a billionaire selects for intelligence, but it actually seems to select strongly against a great technical training and nerdy dreams. (Maybe I'm wrong about that?)

Would be really interesting to know how many billionaires have STEM PhD's after controlling for their general intelligence.

Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?

#68

Post by rayiner »

CodeCube wrote: post #25
manaskarekar wrote: post #18

James Gosling: Liquid Robotics http://www.liquidr.com/news_events/press/2011/2011-08-30-gos... John D. Carmack: Armadillo Aerospace http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home I'm tempted to throw in Google's Sergey Brin (Larry Page too?) for Google Glass. And I'm sure there are a few others. Elon Musk just shows up more in the news due to his success. Also, not all billionaires are technically inclined geek…

Jeff Bezos: http://www.blueorigin.com/ In addition to glass, the google guys get credit for http://www.planetaryresources.com/ and the driverless cars ;)

What did the Google guys do for Glass or driverless cars other than bankroll them?

Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?

#69

Post by travisp »

untog wrote: post #54
Me1000 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are we really going to start analyzing a man's marriage now? This is not a tabloid. :/

I agree with your sentiment but I'm actually kind of conflicted. Inspecting into his marriage feels dirty and indeed, tabloid. But if we want to get the full picture of entrepreneurial life, we can't ignore personal life. If you want to be the next Elon Musk it is probably worth noting that his marriage failed- if nothing else, just to remind you that even when you're a billionaire it is very difficult to have it all…

But, relationships are very personal and private. It is very difficult to know enough details about the people involved and their relationship with one another to draw any real conclusions from the simple failure of a relationship.
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