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by jexe 1777 days ago
Having some competition is probably the best way to make space companies work efficiently, cheaply, and reliably, so these two egomaniacs fighting it out in a space race might be the best possible thing for progress in the industry.
2 comments
yissp 1777 days ago
At least to some extent, competition was the reason for the first moon landing, right?
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WalterBright 1777 days ago
They're no more egomaniacs than, say, whoever wins a gold medal at the Olympics. You've got to be an egomaniac to think one deserves to be the fastest runner in the world, a completely pointless honor, but we celebrate them anyway.

Pointless as in I, an old man and an uncoordinated complete failure at athletics, can ride my bike faster than any of them can run.

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krapp 1777 days ago
Perhaps, but at least athletes put in the work themselves, rather than exploiting and taking the credit for the work of others.
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WalterBright 1777 days ago
> exploiting

Employing

> credit

Credit always goes to the leader. Without Bezos, none of Blue Origin would have happened. Olympic athletes rely on uncredited trainers and usually a dedicated family to financially support them.

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krapp 1776 days ago
>Without Bezos, none of Blue Origin would have happened.

Anyone with the means could have founded Blue Origin, hired the same people, and gotten the same result. Jeff Bezos' money was necessary to the company's success, he was not.

>Olympic athletes rely on uncredited trainers and usually a dedicated family to financially support them.

Olympic athletes credit their trainers and family all the time. And, again, they do the actual work.

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WalterBright 1776 days ago
> Anyone with the means could have

Except they didn't. Bezos did.

> Olympic athletes credit their trainers and family all the time.

Society does not. It's always "Bob won Olympic gold!" Nobody else is mentioned.

> And, again, they do the actual work.

Um, sacrificing and earning money so your child can pursue Olympic dreams is actual work. The full time coach for them does actual work. (There's a reason families will hire the best coaches available for $$$.) The sports doctors who optimize their health and manage their inevitable injuries do actual work. Their nutritionists do actual work.

There's no such thing as an Olympic athlete who did all the work, not even close.

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