[tasty_freeze]

Walter, I never said he couldn't spend his money how he wants, so that really isn't a counter argument to what I was claiming. Personally, I think most people (Musk is just one) who thinks terraforming Mars is realistic have read too much science fiction and are more enamored of the cool Robinson Crusoe aspect more than it would really serve any purpose.

As for "every one" of his successful business ventures being called crazy, the first one was a dot-com online map of businesses in a given city. Did people say that was crazy? His next venture ended up getting acquired by Paypal, was that considered a crazy business? He invested in/took over Tesla -- I don't know if it was considered crazy or not at the time. SpaceX obviously is a great success. The brain control company -- we'll see. Grok -- nobody called that a crazy idea. Some of his other ventures, like hyperloop and the boring company, do seem more crazy but those escape your claim because they are in fact not successful. His solar roof company wasn't crazy, but it also isn't a success.

In short, Musk has no doubt had great successes, but there is no need to alter history to claim that at every turn he broke new ground when everyone else said it was crazy or impossible.

[WalterBright]

> Did people say that was crazy?

Nobody did it before.

> acquired by Paypal, was that considered a crazy business?

Before he proved it was profitable. BTW, every business venture I started was considered crazy by my peers.

> Grok

Musk was an early investor in AI.

The Boring Company is successful. It has found a profitable market boring holes for infrastructure cables and pipes.

People said him buying Twitter was crazy. Oops! (What annoyed me about that was I had some Twitter stock, and it was forcibly sold to Musk. I wanted X stock instead! Alas, it is private.)

I put my money where my mouth is. I've invested in TSLA and am a happy shareholder.

[WalterBright]

There is a long list of crazy ideas that businessmen took on, that became so successful everyone later thinks that those ideas were obvious.

Such as an internet phone. Like a personal computer. Like a Xerox copier. Like jet engines. Like a pencil with an eraser on the other end. Like interchangeable parts. Like the circular saw. Like electric power utilities.

[dredmorbius]

Agreed, and adding: Hyperloop wasn't original to Musk (other than name). RAND explored the concept in the 1970s, and there are further earlier concepts:

Look up Robert M. Salter at RAND:

"The Very High Speed Transit System" (August, 1972)

"Trans-Planetary Subway Systems -- A Burgeoning Capability" (February, 1978)

<http://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P4874.html> PDF: <http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/papers/2008/P4874....>

<http://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P6092.html> PDF: <http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/papers/2009/P6092....>

Similar / more: <http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/6107059>

[WalterBright]

All talk and no action.

Going to Mars isn't a new concept, either. There are probably a thousand scifi stories about such.

But Musk is the first to take action.

[WalterBright]

BTW, I think Musk's biggest barrier to getting to Mars is his age. He's running out of time. He can start it, but I expect others will finish it.

What he's doing is freakin' awesome, and I wish for him (and humanity) to achieve it!