It's weird, Musk was the golden child on HN about 2 years ago when he was electrifying cars, now a pariah because of his wealth.

> It's weird, Musk was the golden child on HN about 2 years ago when he was electrifying cars, now a pariah because of his wealth.

I wouldn't say he's a "pariah because of his wealth." If anything, he's probably a pariah for consistently, wildly over-promising (overshooting "optimist" to land in "liar" territory) and being a jerk (e.g. defaming that the cave diver, among other things).

Then add to that obnoxious fanboys who've made him a weird tech Jesus, and who defend him and bring up his brain farts at every opportunity. I, at least, wouldn't mind never hearing about him again. Lets hear about the cool people who actually did the cool stuff (and just happen to work for companies he's invested in) instead.

Elon has stated that his main goal is to save humanity with technology - so he's made himself tech Jesus.

There's two things that go into that IMHO:

1. People like to hate on things and people just because they're popular when there's literally no other reason; and

2. A large number of people will let their personal opinion drive their behaviour. Elon is a dick, no question. Because of that some people will just downvote or speak ill of SpaceX or Tesla. Worse, this dislike can be used to rationalize pretty antisocial behaviour (eg doxxing, swatting).

What SpaceX has done is nothing short of astounding whether you like him or not. I'm not sure of the exact number but I believe SpaceX has raised <$20B and brought launch costs from >$50k/kg (Space Shuttle) to $1-2k/kg to LEO. It seems highly likely that Starship will drive that below $1k/kg, possibly by a lot.

By comparison, a single SLS/Artemis launch is likely to cost more than that.

And if you think it's just a question of throwing money at the problem, just look at the abject failure that is Blue Origin (fun fact: Blue Origin was founded 3-4 years before SpaceX).

I don't see him being treated as a pariah on here. He is being judged by the many things he does which as times goes on will vary more and more. Some will attract praise and some will attract scorn.

I would bet big that most people on here have a fairly balanced opinion of him that roughly would look like:

- Almost single handedly accelerated the electrification of cars by a couple of decades

- Together with many amazing engineers, scientists and more, led to huge reductions in launch costs and increased frequency of launches

- He acts carelessly online with respect to the law around securities

- He acts carelessly online when he wants to insult someone

- He doesn't really care much about light pollution that affects astronomers

- Overhypes many of his ideas and doesn't recognise any criticism of his failures

- Has an implausible idea that we can colonise Mars this century

I am both impressed by the man and have a few misgivings. Like any human being he is multifaceted.

Hyperloop BS was a big turning point for me. That flipped my opinion of him from a smart guy with a lot of resources to do what he wanted to a rich idiot that got lucky hiring great people.

Listen to some in depth interviews with him on technical subjects. He’s a jerk, but certainly not an idiot.

He certainly comes across as a jerk at times but I am wary of thinking we have a good handle on what he is really like at all.

I think the one thing we can be sure of is that he is no idiot. He's very very smart at many things.

But like anyone he does idiotic things at times but I suppose they are amplified by his strange life.

It makes more sense if you consider it's just a cover for developing habitat construction tech.

I think a certain Thai rescue plan and attacking an individual may have something to do with that. Musk is a great entrepreneur, but not a nice person.

The kids were lucky they didn't need his help in the end (less flooding than worst case scenario) and the old white expat wasn't even a rescuer.

its very hard to build something. its really easy to tear something/someone down