Earlier quoted context omitted.
Affect like how? As of today they're useless, except for Tesla who's motivating car automakers to go towards autonomous cars - but they had the tech before.
Tesla's energy storage enables people to use solar energy at night, without the process being a big hassle. If it gets cheap enough, it will make solar power competitive with fossil power in most scenarios. Currently, the battery installations are a cost-competitive alternative to fossil ways of covering peak load. Calling it useless is probably a stretch. Ditto with Tesla's cars; they aren't a drop-in replacement fo…
Elon Musk on How to Build the Future
201–210 of 542 posts
Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
The way you say it is a legitimate view. The way he says it is just pontifying. As for the idea that our tools and thoughts are a part of us, it goes way back. As for the PhD thing, I just wanted to mention how arrogant he is. He could at least have some respect for these poor losers.
I'll bet he has plenty of respect for the "poor losers" but little for those who took advantage of them (PhD programs).
Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future
#203Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future
#204Having watched a good number of Elon Musk interviews, I wish more interviewers would ask more direct questions. Asking Elon general questions usually results in fairly similar responses to what you have heard before or read in his biography.
Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future
#205Some HN commenters never cease to amaze with their negativity...
Yes, people on the internet will be negative. No, that doesn't mean you should respond to them.
Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
Affect like how? As of today they're useless, except for Tesla who's motivating car automakers to go towards autonomous cars - but they had the tech before.
Tesla's energy storage enables people to use solar energy at night, without the process being a big hassle. If it gets cheap enough, it will make solar power competitive with fossil power in most scenarios. Currently, the battery installations are a cost-competitive alternative to fossil ways of covering peak load. Calling it useless is probably a stretch. Ditto with Tesla's cars; they aren't a drop-in replacement fo…
Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future
#207I am very happy that there's a transcript. But I just spent two minutes trying to figure out how to cut and paste it into a textfile (Scribd won't let me download it without signing up). My request to YC is to publish transcripts like this as text.
Hi there. That certainly is inconvenient! Here's a link to the transcript in RTF, and we will definitely note it for future posts: https://goo.gl/kaMMwv
Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future
#208How to build the future: Take $5B in public subsidy for boondoggle technologies, and then tell everyone you're fiscally conservative. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-2015...
You see, you've already lost me because nearly everything worthwhile has been funded by public sector money, notably space and the Internet. To my mind, claiming to be 'fiscally conservative' may be a good tactical claim as a CEO of rapidly expanding publically held companies, but in practical terms it's a terrible idea. If Elon is turning public money into technology, I'm enthusiastic about that. I'm sure there are…
#1: We clearly have the resources to publicly invest in innovative technologies like electric cars, AI and space travel. So why must these investments go directly into the hands of a few individuals to make all the final decisions (and who have bad habits of not paying their workers btw)? Why can't we make these investments through democratically accountable teams, perhaps via some academic mechanism?
#2: When you make a risky investment as an individual in a startup, you expect to get a commensurate return on that investment if the startup becomes successful in the marketplace. Why don't the collective investments of the public in Musk's ventures come back to citizens in a kind of public dividend?
Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future
#209Some HN commenters never cease to amaze with their negativity...
Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read something a couple of decades ago that's helped me avoid, occasionally, the mindset that causes me to be a curmudgeon: someone else's success is not my problem. Thats not to say that any particular criticism is unjustified. Just that tearing down someone for its own sake is not good for anyone - rock throwers included.
If only society in general would adopt that perspective. Unfortunately there seems to be a growing sentiment that someone else's success was somehow at their expense and therefore they are owed something by the successful.
Considering that housing is a pretty huge expense for the majority of people, it's a legitimate gripe.