[objectiveariel]

Strong, much-needed words here:

"Right now, entrepreneurs are trying to fix things that aren’t broken. And we can all name a lot of things that are broken: healthcare, education, homelessness and poverty, food waste, climate change…"

Damn right. Those are real problems.

But then the author praises Elon Musk for sending people to Mars. For prioritising space exploration over alleviating famine, poverty, illiteracy, whatnot.

The author's utter inability and unwillingness to distinguish between frivolous and meaningful is precisely the problem he's denouncing.

[jvandonsel]

Well, one could argue that spreading humans outside this single planet is a requirement for long-term survival of the species, and thus as important or more important than those other causes you mention.

I don't personally subscribe to this belief, but many people do.

[drakonandor]

The primary obstacle of the "real problems" mentioned is people.

For example, consider that:

Sometimes people don't want to be helped (see: many homeless)

Sometimes leaders don't want their people to be helped, because they gain from keeping them down (see: African warlords / government leaders embezzling aid)

When faced with SOCIAL problems like these, it's no wonder that someone of a 'hacker' mindset like Elon instead prefers to devote his time to solving problems which instead have technological roadblocks (well, maybe not entirely applicable in the case of Tesla or SolarCity).