Video & Multimedia
Related: About this forumElon Musk. A nerdy geek. Watta guy
This world could use more like him.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)in that he takes credit for everyone else's idea and craps on workable alternatives to boost his stock price XD
drmeow
(5,022 posts)from wanting a Tesla
MisterP
(23,730 posts)cars, not the engines, are the inefficiency in the system
keeping the old ever-booming car-only cities and assuming some techno-fix will save our chestnuts at the 11th hour is exactly how we got into this mess, alas
he's a CEO and a techie, so he thinks about problems like them
Warpy
(111,329 posts)along with seizing the right of way through eminent domain.
Private streetcars a century ago had been developed in a completely different world with different laws. Musk is dealing with what we have now, one upper middle class driver at a time.
Eventually, people living in sprawled out suburbs will be able to hop into a small EV probably a tenth the weight of a Tesla sedan and go to a local light rail station to park and catch a train to work. That's not possible now.
Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)Musk is one of the few individuals using his own money to solve big problems that need solving. I greatly admire him for that PLUS he's a fucking genius. Please don't bother responding with more undocumented bullshit.
wildbilln864
(13,382 posts)Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX ? If you really believe what you said, I pity you. What a mook!
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)But we have him to thank for The film industry being in Southern California, and not say New Jersey.
Gregorian
(23,867 posts)I say that because I would have never watched it. In fact I had to force myself. I'm not a fan of Elon Musk, and I won't explain.
I'm looking right now at a small mountain of papers with just my most recent inventions of the last four years. Hearing him talk is like hearing my own thoughts. It's kind of reassuring. I didn't see success to the degree I felt comfortable with, so it's just a mountain of papers to file away. It's quite interesting to hear other people's experiences. Not many are successful.
What's even weirder is that a friend is just about to license material for a supercapacitor, and here he is talking about his experiences with just that.
Pharaoh
(8,209 posts)I could listen to him for hours!
Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)BUT..... not having resources like the proceeds from PayPal, life got in the way of my dreaming. I'm envious!
redixdoragon
(156 posts)A man whos words include the following.
Funded by the government just means funded by the people. Government, by the way, has no money. It only takes money from the people. Sometimes people forget that thats really what occurs.
And when an employee wanted leave to see his wife for the birth of their child.
"That is no excuse. I am extremely disappointed. You need to figure out where your priorities are. We're changing the world and changing history, and you either commit or you don't,"
Though he denies the latter. He said the former in a video interview.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Second one.
Kind of a slim reed to hang criticism of the guy on.
Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)MisterP
(23,730 posts)of course the Leaf's subsidized, but being Murka and being the Bay Area he has to mystify that: as a CEO and as a techie he has to pose himself that all of these brilliant! BRILLIANT! notions are springing Minerva-like from him alone, that he's THE leader in solving our biggest crises, an Atlas choosing not to shrug: Lockheed, Boeing, United Technologies, Douglas, North American, Rocketdyne, and General Dynamics and all the other aerospace sectors (now being damned as state-dependent dinosaurs) did the same sleight-of-hand
now his real innovation isn't inventing the rocket or the electric car, but mass production, trendspotting, and design features--welding, casting, lightweight materials and new electronics, refining their core product line (Merlin engines, capacitors)
he says "don't go with some statist backwards HSR, try some sparkly new CGI thing!": of course the MuskPod only gives one-tenth the capacity with a pod every 30 seconds (much less if there's any switching), will actually cost significantly more even if it's just Burbank-Berkeley (since the turn radii are wider), and he's already run off to Slovakia to make the "testbed"
he made an off-the-cuff proposal (ripped off from the LaRouchies' ET3 anyhoo) that fit with his persona (and doesn't need his money) because he made a brief statement and then backed and filled as a tech exec always does by going to the consultants and designers to make a brochure: the Bay Area lives on off-the-cuff back-of-the-envelope ideas that "just might work"--and he had to protect himself and his image from being called out on something he hadnt really thought too much about; regardless of the life the idea's taken on its own, it's really just damage control: that's why he felt comfortable casually proposing to solve both hunger and the Bomb by nuking Mars, since if it gives him any difficulty he'll just dash off a white paper and it'll get wall-to-wall coverage and make Wired readers all tingly
they'll always yell "they laughed at the Wright Brothers" except nobody did and that's the same song and dance PRT and transit monorail and BRT and Skycar hucksters have used to bilk a few billion from investors and Washington: people will do anything to keep steel-on-steel from getting laid down
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)More, please!