[falcrist]

I think it would be more accurate to say his companies are doing great work.

He's an idea guy, but mostly he's just an investor. A toxic, thin-skinned, sometimes fraudulent investor, but it's hard to argue with the work being done by companies like SpaceX and Tesla (not just what's being promised, but what has actually been done). IMO it's important to understand both sides of that coin.

[dmitriid]

> I think it would be more accurate to say his companies are doing great work.

SpaceX? Undoubtedly

Tesla? Very very arguably. Even though it did kickstart the modern EV era, it is now propelled by lies, deflection and bullshit

All others are scams or provably bad.

[falcrist]

Nah. Tesla is doing good work. They're far from perfect, but it's an interesting product, and they were first to market in many ways. I can't see it lasting that much longer in it's current form, but that doesn't undermine the work they've already done.

It's also important to note that Musk isn't the founder of that one. He just has a contract that gives him the title "founder".

And there's definitely a trend where his earlier companies were less likely to be scams. Zip2 and Paypal were both successful AFAIK. Boring Company is a bust unless it's radically reorganized (without underground vacuum tunnels), OpenAI is probably BS too. It's a little hard to say right now.