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by madaxe_again 748 days ago
It’s feasible - but nobody did, and nobody has.

I get the dislike - his politics are pretty reprehensible - but it’s hard to argue with the results his businesses generally achieve.

What he brings to the table apart from money is an absolutely bull-headed madcap drive to make the infeasible into reality in the face of a chorus of naysayers, and that, I respect.

1 comments

I'm not arguing against the results his businesses achieve, I'm arguing against the incessant drive for hero worship which ascribes those successes to him and him alone.

>What he brings to the table apart from money is an absolutely bull-headed madcap drive to make the infeasible into reality in the face of a chorus of naysayers, and that, I respect.

This is exactly my point. Elon didn't make the infeasible into reality, other people did, and could have done without him. And if his behavior at Twitter and Tesla are any indication, his "absolutely bull-headed madcap drive" has to be managed and worked around lest it do more harm than good.

It’s indeed his success primarily, it’s thanks to him primarily. And for that there’s a huge amount of praise that he has earned.

But it’s not due to him alone, but also due to the people that he managed to attract, hire and keep. Due to the people he passed the responsibility onto, and just as much due to the processes and philosophy he put in place. Alone having the people doesn’t guarantee success on this scale, you need the magic stuff, and the vision.

Nobody else did what he has done today with Starship or in the past with enough other things. And when it comes to costs and capabilities of Starship, nobody is even close. Not even close.

The reason SpaceX is so much more successful than Blue Origin is Elon Musk. I'm sure Jeff Bezos is a great CEO, but Musk is clearly much better.

It can't be merely "other people" who are responsible for the success of SpaceX, because Blue Origin (and other rocket companies like ULA) also have "other people", but are not anywhere near as successful.