[rmst]

It doesn't matter if this isn't happening in any useful form in a reasonable amount of time. It's still great for hiring and funding.

He has used the same hiring technique since x.com:

1) announce overambitious, relatable, unoriginal goal (e.g. human settlement on Mars)

2) present vague, relatable, unoriginal strategy (e.g. reusable rockets)

3) hire people

4) actually have them work on more incremental stuff (e.g. launch provider services)

5) profit

[elurg]

Launch services are in fact the most important problem to work on for a human settlement on Mars and SpaceX is making useful progress towards it.

SpaceX is following their vision very precisely.

[libertine]

My opinion on Musk changed with the whole crypto pump & dump thing, for the worst ofc, but those public announcements with ambitious goals are key for his achievements and to get the right people to work on those problems.

There's a lot of people here that apparently don't like that him for saying things lightly, and to pose complex problems as trivial problems - but isn't that the driver to break those barriers and challenge that type of barriers such people create.

"Oh no, this is a whole different problem he shouldn't dare to say this!"

Except he should, and if he gets the right people involved with the right motivations and funding they might actually do something. How can they fail? Even if it take them 10 years to do so.

People shouldn't underestimate the power of those bold statements, for example Musk said in a recent interview that Tesla probably has the best material eng. team in the world - and the thing is that they might not be the best, or the smartest, but they sure as hell are contributing to the leap of Tesla over everyone else.

Will people drop from Boston Dynamics to go work for Tesla? Why not, if some don't agree with the status quo, or because they think that things should be done differently and BD isn't willing to pursue that because they're too invested into their own thing.

So this should be celebrated, more people working to solve this is the right path.