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> The defense is of course that some people can do that - Musk did it, so why not?

Nope. Musk has been obsessed with rockets and electric cars, specifically, for a very long time

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> they wanted our data, and promised the moon on features

I know a company that fits this so well that I almost want to check the names. It's older than 3 months though.

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I also know a company that fits this very well. I wonder how many such companies are out there.
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> I’ve sat through some pitches like that, where it is very obvious that the founder/CEO has limited knowledge and expertise in what they’re pitching, where the product is limited, but their enthusiasm is off the charts.

And for all the talk of investing into people, what was your opinion?

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Not OP, but overconfidence is not a quality I would invest in.
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You must not be from California
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> The defense is of course that some people can do that - Musk did it, so why not?

If you think that Musk did his endeavors in order to become rich, you are likely mistaken.

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What drives him then? Power?
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Seeking approval. It's apparent from everything he posts on X + the memeing + the whole "I am a elite Path of Exile"-saga.
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I think "self promotion" is a better description than "seeking approval".

IMO people who are seeking approval tend to not go out of their way to be assholes quite so often ("pedo guy" incident, for example).

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Interesting, I didn't know; context:

> His character, at the impressive level of 95, reflected not only a significant time investment but also a high degree of expertise.

> Musk’s performance has sparked skepticism about whether he genuinely leveled and equipped his character himself.

> The prevailing sentiment in the gaming community is that Musk doesn’t typically invest much time in video games, but instead leverages gaming achievements to draw media attention.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Elon-Musk-embarrasses-himself-...

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> + the whole "I am a elite Path of Exile"-saga

That was the most "the emperor wears no clothes"-moment I've ever witnessed in my life. I play more PoE than I care to admit, and it was obvious within mere seconds that he has absolutely no clue what's going on.

It was absolutely surreal to watch.

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It started with d4 before poe and was painfully obvious then. Poe was just icing on the cake as it is not for the casual.

It is also so bizarre to brag about rankings for games where the grind to end game is a massive time sink. It wasnt like he was some LoL god where there is no grind only skill.

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> Seeking approval

Yea, that’s called narcissism. Their only drive in life is to be admired, and it’s much easier to lie and deceive to reach that goal, than doing something that’s truly praiseworthy

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Spreading his seed.
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Going to Mars.
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I'm convinced this is a schtick. Not that he doesn't genuinely want that, but it's not the root motivation. I suspect it's something more like wanting to be perceived as a real-world Tony Stark. The cave rescue capsule episode is illustrative. The guy likes attention.
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Armchair analysis would also mention that Jeff Bezos is going for the Moon with his space, and how do you beat that guy with that ambition? Get to Mars, first. From a scientific perspective, the Moon makes more sense, but if we frame it as billionaires trying to out do one another, what comes after who's got the bigger yacht? So a competition between billionaires on who's better also makes sense as his true motivation.

End of the day though, why does it matter his true motivation? If I was working at one of his companies, as long as the paycheck cashes and the stock options are legally mine, if his motivation is money-based or attention-based or he's a true believer, I'm getting money and I can feed my kids.

It's not like I'm going to get the chance to talk with him personally and get to know him and sus out what it is, either, so it's all just pointless theorizing. What we, the general public "know" is a result of various people with their own agenda pushing their owna viewpoints? Does the man know anything at all, is he a total charlatan, or is he smart and gets it? Hit refresh on a different subreddit and get a different answer.

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> wanting to be perceived as a real-world Tony Stark

The thing is, he _had_ this. He had all of Reddit worshipping him. He had the press. He had the tech-internet.

Then he knowingly blew it all up overnight to ally with Trump.

I think the reasons why are pretty clear: a son-who-loves-me became a daughter-who-despises-me and his companies got repeatedly hamstrung by California Democrats.

But if his root motivation was truly just approval, he would have taken it on the chin and accepted slower growth of his other ambitions. So it's a little more complicated than that.

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> Then he knowingly blew it all up overnight to ally with Trump.

He blew it up years before that with his "pedo guy" false accusation drama.

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Some people are just driven. A friend of mine who failed at a first startup (in a domain in which he had lots of expertise) then succeeded with his second startup: very nice exit but that's not why he was doing it.

He's an action junkie.

In both cases he saw inefficiencies and just wanted to spend the energy he's always been overflowing with to improve things. I don't know about Musk but my friend hates mediocrity and saw everything as something he can improve.

In another case I was in car, for a long trip, with someone else (who was working to become an... Ambassador: hardly the tech type!) and that person would constantly comment on what could be done enhanced.

Something something about personality types, the builders, etc.

Those who only ever want to spend the money of --and benefit from the wealth created by-- others are going to dismiss it all as "people who are after money" but it's more complicated than that and you can't generalize people.

I know several doctors for example: two of them are clearly money-driven (one of them literally told me "I'd never ever teach medicine, I'm in this only for the money") but most of the others I know are just happy to help people be more healthy.

I've got another friend, not rich at all, he's working an additional job as a firefighter: sure it brings some money, but that's not the reason. He's also an action junkie. He was there driving ambulances during Covid: to be helpful, for the action, etc.

It's not all about money. Thinking it's only about money is a mindset that often comes from those who want the money of others (through taxes).

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Listen to any on the Elon Musk interviews, he knows more technical intricacies of his 1000+ employee companies than your average startup founder with 10 employees.
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Or can sound like it. Like when he talked on an investor call about one of the myriad reasons for vision only: “we are good with rain and fog because our cameras do photon counting and can account for it”.

Except… they don’t.

You need a different type of camera - one not optimized for “vision” (in the sense of “object discernment”) - one Teslas do not have.

And even if they did, to count photons you need an enclosed space in front of your lens, not the … open road.

Which is annoying: Teslas haven’t had that, and could never have that but he goes on an investor call and openly lies about it, and doesn’t get called out. It’s not even an “aspirational statement” it’s a lie that goes against the laws of physics.

He knows a lot, and he also knows enough to be able to be confidently wrong and pass the bullshit meter of people who don’t know any better. They are not the same thing.

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> Founders with 5+ failed startups in different sectors, because said founder picked the fields mainly by doing some market analysis. Not domain expertise.

You mean the moment when someone says "It's Facebook but for dogs! That should be easy, right? I had the idea, that's the hard bit, you just need to write it!"

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