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Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

ycombinator.com

351–360 of 542 posts

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#351
I am surprised that YC would make this page so remarkably mobile-unfriendly. I don't have the time to listen to the interview, I just want to read the transcript. They could have just pasted it in a reader-friendly format, but instead it's in an annoying Scribd applet. I don't want to sign up for their service or download the app, not to mention that it's a terrible mobile reader anyway. This was very disappointing.

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#352

I am surprised that YC would make this page so remarkably mobile-unfriendly. I don't have the time to listen to the interview, I just want to read the transcript. They could have just pasted it in a reader-friendly format, but instead it's in an annoying Scribd applet. I don't want to sign up for their service or download the app, not to mention that it's a terrible mobile reader anyway. This was very disappointing.

Yeah, kudos to Scribd for perhaps the maximum LOC codebase for "how to make plain text completely fucking unusable".

There's real irony there in it being an article about delivering value to society through making useful technology.

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#353

I have all the respect in the world for what Mr. Musk has accomplished, but it has come at an amazing cost to the people around him. He is worshiped from afar but reviled by many the closer you get to his inner circle. Go read "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future." The question I always ask myself with the people who move mountains is what cost did that progress come at? What would someone'…

Why is that question so important to you? A lot of people are drains on everyone around them and they don't move mountains. If the quest is valuable enough to society, it far outweighs the costs to a single man's relationships. As a rationalization for why you yourself would not want to live that way, that's fair enough. Neither would I.

Precisely, I won't name names but there are a few "drains" on family that I know that didn't start spaceX or tesla, yet they are not utilitarian positive contributors, I'd say.

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#354

It always saddens me when I see a slew of Debbie Downer comments from the HN crowd. "Yes, he ushered in the electric car revolution, but the production carbon footprint is still huge!" "Yes, he's building rockets, but he took a bunch of government money!" "Yes, he's paving the way to Mars, but what has he done for world hunger?" And it not just with Musk, but really with anyone who has been successful. I would have t…

I think that's just the medium, nothing unique to HN. Any sort of online forum where people post comments is going to be overwhelmingly biased towards negative comments- either people going on about how much they hate whatever the subject is (be it Elon Musk or Python or whatever), or people being contrarian about some aspect of the article, or people being negative or contrarian about other posters.

People are just much more likely to comment if they hate something than if they love something. Also if they disagree with something than if they agree. Comments in any online forum are not a uniform sampling of the views of the readers.

HN's saving grace is that many of the articles linked to are on subjects that are just obscure enough to avoid being overwhelmed by "this sucks/this rules" sorts of bikeshedding comments. Also most of the topics are complicated or obscure enough as to make them difficult targets for kneejerk nitpickery.

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#355
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He might have a valid point but the point is off-topic. Here the context is technology, not politics or economic policies.

Not really. Many discussions here are about politics and economic policies, which btw are important forces for some enterpreneurs to be aware of.

Apologies. What I mean is the interview's context is technology (what you would expect from YC and Elon Musk).

Hence, his answer to the questions would naturally be about technology rather than other important aspects of human civilization.

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#356

I have all the respect in the world for what Mr. Musk has accomplished, but it has come at an amazing cost to the people around him. He is worshiped from afar but reviled by many the closer you get to his inner circle. Go read "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future." The question I always ask myself with the people who move mountains is what cost did that progress come at? What would someone'…

Do you ask the same question of people who don't move mountains?

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#357
post #245
post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus he is a pretty mediocre public speaker...yet puts himself out there & makes an impact

He also appeared in an episode The Simpsons. His acting was awful, but he did put himself out there.

Was he appearing as himself? If so his acting would by definition have been perfect. :P

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#358
post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any company can build an electric car and lose money while doing it. The question isn't whether he can build a cool electric car, he clearly can. I really question the position he has put himself in financially. - He used Tesla stock to secure loans he used to purchase his stake in Solar City, the decision to purchase Solar City is at least in part driven by the fact that Elon Musk IS Tesla, without him at the helm i…

Here are a few of those engineers: http://aviationweek.com/blog/dragons-radiation-tolerant-desi... http://events.technologyreview.com/video/watch/innovators-un... http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a5073/4328638/ https://youtu.be/VOagay_opLQ

another one: https://lwn.net/Articles/540368/

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#359

"Humans are so slow... exactly..."- Elon Musk Pretty sure Elon is a creature from outside of our simulation who has injected himself into our reality to teach us how to play the game better.

That would explain how he works 27 hours a day. The game's paused when he's not logged in. :P

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#360

It always saddens me when I see a slew of Debbie Downer comments from the HN crowd. "Yes, he ushered in the electric car revolution, but the production carbon footprint is still huge!" "Yes, he's building rockets, but he took a bunch of government money!" "Yes, he's paving the way to Mars, but what has he done for world hunger?" And it not just with Musk, but really with anyone who has been successful. I would have t…

People who like to think of themselves as ambitious and effective sometimes get a wee bit jealous when presented with someone who really hit it big, I think.
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