• Clent@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    His only talent is convincing the wealthy to invest in his schemes. I don’t understand how he does it, hearing him speak is painful.

    He got lucky with Tesla becoming a meme stock.

    SpaceX is being run by a competent engineer while its competitor, Blue Origin is being run by a megalomaniac. This is possibly Musks only competent move in business.

    The rest of his ventures have been failures. To any one not blinded by greed, it’s clear he long ago peaked. He’s playing a shell game now but people will happily invest hoping luck will strike again.

    • glimse@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      There’s an old tweet that explains it well, I’m sure you’ve seen it.

      (Paraphrased) “Elon Musk talked about cars. I don’t know anything about cars so when people said he was a genius, I figured he must be a genius”

      Investors don’t know shit about the stuff they’re investing in and Musk sounds really smart when you don’t know anything about the thing he’s speaking on.

    • Wrench@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      For Tesla and SpaceX, they attracted the top engineers because they were cool bleeding edge problems to solve that actually aligned with idealist goals in the industries.

      Musk used that genuine motivation and overworked people into burnout, and took credit for others hard work.

    • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      His only talent is convincing the wealthy to invest in his schemes. I don’t understand how he does it, hearing him speak is painful.

      That’s not fair, he’s also really good at making promises to the public to secure incentives and public funding and then fucking everyone over

      • Clent@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        The real trick there is how he didn’t get sued.

        The SEC has held him more accountable than the share holders

    • spacesatan@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      To his credit SpaceX was at least a correct recognition that the dominant space launch companies were just a cartel milking federal funding for as much as possible. That sector is so stagnant that ULA still hasn’t blinked at the massive success of first stage reusability.

      • someguy3@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        When you’re a government agency, you have to play things super safe. When you’re an independent company, you can do whatever you want. And if you fail, no one cares. If the government agency fails, it’s hell to pay.

      • postmateDumbass@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Well with SpaceX, there are now 2 big launch companies for the USA.

        and given how the gov likes to spread contracts around there isnt a real existential incentive to do much.

      • chris@l.roofo.cc
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        6 months ago

        Only if you have enough starting capital to skirt through life without a worry.

        • Mongostein@lemmy.ca
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          6 months ago

          Right right. OK let me amend: I wish I was a deluded narcissist born with a silver spoon in my mouth.

          • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            You are saying you wish you had a mental illness. No it’s not actually fun to be a narcissist, they are emotionally broken and can’t have normal relationships. This is true for both Musk and Trump, Trump has been married 3 times, and none appear to have any actual love. Another proof is when he learned he won the presidency in 2016. There was no joy, because nothing has value to him, and all is an act for appearance to satisfy his narcissism. It’s an empty life where you can trust no one, because you think they are as untrustworthy as yourself. You think no body loves you, because you are incapable of love yourself, and all you do is to try to keep up appearances. Even when they succeed and have everything, they really have nothing.

        • slaacaa@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          If you are like that, it’s much easier to get capital by lies and scheming. I know a few soulless peers from university who are making much more money than I am, because they have no moral compass