- He's re-invigerated the nation and the world on private space travel and come up with a way to make it incredibly cheaper and more accessible
- He's introducing a line of purely electric cars and nation wide network of electric car charging stations to clean up the environment
- He's investing in tunneling with the intention of creating new public transportation methods that are more efficient
...
Like any one of those are noteworthy, and he's doing all three.
None of this references him supplying countries with failing powergrids with Tesla batteries to restore power, selling a flamethrower for the fuck of it, giving his cars a ludicrous mode which makes them accelerate fucking fast as fuck, dating super models and singers, getting a hell of a hair transplant, co-founding Paypal as a means to disrupt traditional means of handling and transacting money, shooting his car into space because he can....
He comes across as a guy with a fuckton of money, interesting ideas, good intentions with everything he does, wants to change the world...and has fun doing it.
Like the guy or not...he's certainly noteworthy as hell.
He's noteworthy as a good marketing guy sure.
It's bonkers insane getting into a vacuum tube and being shot at 1200 km/h through it (otherwise known as the Hyperloop pipedream). Hyperloop, while technologically possible in theory, is completely impractical in real life due to excessive CAPEX and OPEX, but most of all it's a completely unsafe mode of transportation. We already have tunnels with vehicles that carry people, it's called a metro or underground. If hyperloop ever becomes a reality, it will be very similar to every other train/metro systems we currently have - nothing revolutionary.
How are electric cars cleaning up the environment in total? And it's not like he invented them in the first place. Do you know how much that battery production pollutes? And very few countries have 100% green electricity production to power said EVs. Just recently a study came out in Germany (that does have a lot of renewable energy) which stated that a Tesla X has to be driven for 500 000 km before it's greener than a regular diesel car based on German energy mix of fossil fuel and green power. That's longer than the lifetime of the car.
His Tesla truck has very limited use in the real world. Mail trucks ok, but transporting heavy loads over long distances, which is trucks primary area of use? No.
As an engineer, hearing Musk's BS about things like how green his businesses are and the hyperloop pipedream etc does annoy me because the layman gobbles it up like a Sunday roast.
As for him screwing models, artists, whatever, making flamethrowers (why) or wasting resources shooting a car into space (double why?) - how is that supposed to defend him or support this cult-like fandom he currently enjoys? I guess good for him, but I don't idolize that sort of behavior. I'm not 14 years old.
People really need to start thinking critically.
replying to you doesnt mean you struck a nerve is just fun to talk. but it will always be fun to me to see people who hate successful people. i mean just because i have dirt on elon musk so he has to pay all my bills for the rest of my life doesnt mean im a fanboy
I like successful people who actually deliver more than just pipe dreams and bogus claims. I don't hate successful people, not even Musk, I just don't understand the people who idolize Musk or why they think he's so great. I think he's completely overrated as a business man, as a role model, as an ethical human being. I see a guy who's made getting subsidies for his companies into an art form, while over-promising and under-delivering at almost every step. Taking advantage of every situation he can for PR.
Co-founding PayPal is probably his biggest achievement, but I don't know how much of PayPal's success is directly attributable to him though.
Anyway, I've said my piece. I will leave this thread now.
