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Re:We Are in Need of Renaissance People by stanislavb on Monday October 14, 2024 @12:24AM (#41834164)
This. The moment I saw Musk being given as an example of a Renaissance figure, the value of the post dropped close to zero. Musk is a pure snake-oil salesperson. A sham.
Re:We Are in Need of Renaissance People by kiba on Monday October 14, 2024 @12:44AM (#41834269)
I held a more complex view of Musk and I pretty much devour at least two book on him.

He will probably still be the most influential and the most important entrepreneur in our lifetime, and I mean that mostly in a technological sense. But he's certainly not a kind of person I would emulate and not all his business strategy are advisable or necessarily efficient.

Anyway, to credit Elon Musk almost singularly with SpaceX and other big accomplishment does a discredit to the engineers who work there. What he provide is leadership, which means making final engineering decisions and taking responsibility for these decisions.

We often became complacent, unwilling to take even modicum of risk on a project, or only paying attention narrowly to a certain measure of success. Musk exemplify the lack of complacency better than anyone else.

Re:We Are in Need of Renaissance People by AstralStorm on Monday October 14, 2024 @01:42AM (#41834536)
Musk does everything to serve his dream. Pity it's a broken self-serving dystopia and he cannot see it.

As for success, his skill is con artistry over investors. Also known as venture capitalism. He invented nothing and will continue to invent nothing.

Anyone can decide things that do not actually matter with aides that can make things work. He didn't even pick the aides in case of Tesla and SpaceX so does not get thw credit for that.

The guy is not exactly a good strategist considering how many of ventures needed to fulfill his dystopian vision failed.

Why is it dystopian? It's full of people laboring alone and separated in virtual cellars. Every thing he does is an enclosure: a dome, a car with no driver, a rocket. To compensate you get to sit in a VR helmet and interact with a robot.

Re:We Are in Need of Renaissance People by bradgranath on Monday October 14, 2024 @08:54PM (#41843828)
^this

Musk is good at conning folks with tales of magic money and robots.

He's vulture capital through and through.

Re:We Are in Need of Renaissance People by sys64739 on Monday October 14, 2024 @12:29AM (#41834190)
VDH's career skyrocketed once he became a regular among the RW media, especially when lots of handwringing about Western values under siege is required.
Re:We Are in Need of Renaissance People by 082349872349872 on Monday October 14, 2024 @02:17AM (#41834714)
I was amused by one of his early books, in which he bitterly complains about his poor experience in academia: part of one of his bellyaches was that at home he could piss outside but at the university they wanted him to use the bathrooms.