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| ▲ | kcplate 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Seems you kind of need people who are capable and willing to do both. Not too many Bruce Wayne’s and Tony Starks outside the comic books and movies who are able to both think and spend. Musk’s value to science and technological progress is not his scientific intellect. Musk’s value is his ability to invest gobs of money in smart people and be patient for years for the returns on his investment to occur…and to be willing to fail. I’m sure he is an asshole and I don’t care what political tribe he follows. I watch rockets fly into space pretty much weekly from my backyard. Feels like every third car is a Tesla on the road. His investment patience has had value to society. |
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| ▲ | ineedaj0b 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Bezos has tossed a lot of money towards space and did not get as far. Elon has absolutely earned his reputation. |
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| ▲ | seabass-labrax 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | In fairness, Blue Origin has had only a tenth to a half of the funding that SpaceX has had (depending on which sources you trust; figures vary widely). Yet they are hardly doing badly by any measure: they have an almost fully reusable sub-orbital spacecraft which has consistently and safely carried passengers, and they have a orbital rocket ready for testing next month. SpaceX are clearly the market leader, but this is partially because they are into the category of companies who can now convey profitable payloads for NASA/DoD, with the public funding which goes along with that. Technologically, SpaceX are miles (per second!) ahead of Blue Origin, but in business terms there is perhaps not a great difference between them. First-mover's advantage doesn't often translate into return-on-investment! | |
| ▲ | GJim 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > Elon has absolutely earned his reputation. I think you will find that is exactly what the Royal Society have concluded! |
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| ▲ | bjornsing 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Spending money on scientific endeavors that turn out to be successful typically requires thinking. |
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| ▲ | n4r9 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Does it? My conservative hypothesis is: it requires a good nose for good thinkers. | | |
| ▲ | bjornsing 25 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Having a good nose for good thinkers typically requires thinking. | | |
| ▲ | n4r9 18 minutes ago | parent [-] | | I'm not so sure. I think there are people who can recognise talent by gut feel, without having much themselves. |
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| ▲ | waihtis 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | a bunch of frontend developers are about to tell you you're wrong and Musk is actually an idiot |
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