The one thing these articles miss is that it isn't like Elon Musk himself is building the rockets. I'm not even sure that would be possible. Yes he is a smart guy, but that doesn't mean that he didn't do a lot of the work involved like engineering.

I'm sure he's not mopping the floors as well at spacex as there are people for that. But those people aren't the reason spacex exists.

Parent comment isn't talking about just the people mopping the floors. Why are you resisting giving engineers some credit for spacex's success?

These engineers didn't just spawn into reality the day before they were hired at spacex. They've been around for a long time working for other companies. But the things they've been doing for those other companies prior to spacex didn't wow anyone or made the headlines, did it?

Then Musk enters the stage and all these amazing things happen. Yes, the engineers figure all that stuff that makes rockets turn back around from orbit and land on a platform in open waters, but none of that existed before Musk, even though it was, apparently, very possible.

Ultimately it's the synergy between a general and the troops. Shitty troops will lose the battle no matter how awesome the general is; a shitty general will lose battle regardless how awesome his men are. In USA there is plenty of awesome talent (troops) inhibited by tons of shitty generals (entrepreneurs) that have no vision or courage to use that potential to make great things. So when someone great show up, like Musk, it's more than appropriate to commemorate them.

Because most companies employee engineers with unexceptional results. So ultimately it's the hiring, molding and guiding of engineering efforts that leads to supreme success. I'm not an Elon fan -- though I'm not against him -- but it seems to me that somewhere in his recipe, he's figure out this basic truth.

>Because most companies employee engineers with unexceptional results.

You don't think that maybe exceptional engineers are a big part of spacex's exceptional results?

Sure of course. But exceptional engineers produce individual exceptional results that might get lost in the general noise of a company unless it's focused and directed in the right way.

Nah, that is just attributing with and achievements of those technical smart people to management narcissists.

Yay, just what we need, another Elon Musk hagiography.

I am sorry, but I cannot handle any more of this idolization!

(2017)

Musk is a billionaire doing billionaire things. Of course he's doing rocketry (just like Bezos) and of course he's playing Henry Ford doing car manufacturing. That's expected and not a surprise and the article expects us to be surprised by this.

If you expected most billionaires to get into rocketry, you would expect there to be hundreds or thousands of rocket companies given the more than 2000 billionaires around.

Not all of the NewSpace billionaires are working on launch vehicles (eg Bigelow). But probably several percent of billionaires in the US have space companies

Most billionaires don't get into rocketry, but exceptional wealth is a requirement. Other billionaires do other ego trips.

Yes, because that's what all billionaires do. Every single last one of them. Pretty pedestrian stuff.

Bezos and the others copy him.