[anovikov]

I don't get why are you being downvoted. People seem to forgot that he started out as an engineer and visionary, and built pioneer companies in at least two industries that were deemed impossible to enter from outside - cars and space launch - and succeeded in both.

[pixel_popping]

HN is turning into a politic cesspool mixing things that are independent, that's why.

[bigyabai]

Oh, you're one of those people that bought into the "businesses can't be political" lie, huh?

[pixel_popping]

I understand that powerful people build projects for political and control purposes, but I just don't care who manages a platform, do you care about who runs your OVH servers? Same way I don't care about the background of an artist behind a song. Could be a total dirtbag, I still don't care.

I can despise someone while appreciating what they built or their prowess in a given field. Pretty sure you can find plenty of people throughout history whose accomplishments genuinely impressed you (and useful for humanity) while simultaneously thinking that same person belongs in prison.

Projects are composed of many people. This idea that it's all "1 person" is nonsense. Companies that big are mostly ran by employees and leaders,not just the CEO sitting on top supervising and giving directives

[bigyabai]

> do you care about who runs your OVH servers?

Yes? If they're from a sanctioned country then I could be held criminally liable or have my service interrupted without warning. I would not evaluate professional infrastructure if the owner refused to tell me where they were located.

> This idea that it's all "1 person" is nonsense.

It's the basis of how all C-suite operations work, do you need to see an org chart for a reminder? The idea that it's "all 1 person" is baked into the concept of private capital. Arrangements that give the employees or leadership executive priority is far, far in the minority of how businesses are ran today.

[anovikov]

I probably don't understand you in full but the idea of private capital is based on the opposite - that there is no dependency on a single person.

This was seen as a major risk of Apple ("what's going to happen if Steve dies, last time they got rid of him it almost went under"), and held its stock back for a considerable time before market accepted that dependence on that 1 person wasn't as big as feared.

This is seen as a major risk of SpaceX now, too. Companies are not people. A company that's worth something - not just makes a profit - shouldn't be dependent on one person, because you can't sell a person due to 13th Amendment, but being worth something means that one can buy and sell.