[01100011]

You've got to give him credit though. His caustic managerial style seems to have borne fruit despite his lack of engineering or technical skills. He has been supremely effective at defining a vision(however delusional) and attracting funding.

Will we get to Mars soon? Hell no. But we may end up with a world-leading launch provider based in the US and that's a clear win for the country.

[avmich]

> despite his lack of engineering or technical skills

At least he has B.Sc. in physics and got admitted into Stanford.

I think what Elon says is better explained not as a promise what would happen, but rather as a goal which they're going to aspire to. It kinda supports the idea "we're in business of converting impossible into late". If Elon will start offering more "realistic" schedules, the pace of SpaceX will slow down, perhaps considerably. So, yes, it's "Elon time", which historically isn't particularly precise, but still useful.

[wahnfrieden]

The physics degree is a deception and perhaps fabricated: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35594076 (and it was a BA not BSc though that matters less)

And the Stanford admittance was for materials science, not physics as he lies about

[avmich]

I agree, but the idea that he doesn't have skills is still incorrect.

[avmich]

Correction: I agree he got into Stanford for material sciences. Still can not be characterized as having no skills.

[tzs]

> and it was a BA not BSc though that matters less

I've got no opinion on the existence and legitimacy of any degrees Musk may or may not have, but whichever he does have you really can't infer much at all from whether a STEM degree in the US is a BA or a BS without looking at the specific requirements for the degrees at the particular school.

Some schools might give a BA for a program and other schools might give a BS for a nearly identical program. All of these happen in the US:

• BS is the only choice. (Caltech, for example. In fact, Caltech only offers BS for everything. Even English majors--and yes, there is an occasional English major at Caltech--end up with a BS).

• BA is the only choice. UC Berkeley is an example in this category for math and physics.

• Both are offered, with identical coursework and requirements. You can have whichever you want. Some will even for a small fee give you two diplomas, so you can use whichever seems appropriate for the situation.

• Both are offered, from the same department, with different in-major coursework and aims. One may be aimed toward students aiming to go into research, and one toward those aiming to go into teaching, for instance.

• Both are offered, from different departments. For example, UC Berkeley's College of Letters and Sciences offers a BA in chemistry, and the College of Chemistry offers a BS in chemistry. Computer science can be taken at Berkeley in the College of Letters and Science for a BA, or in the College of Engineering for a BS.

• Both are offered, with the same in-major coursework, but differ in out-of-major requirements. So, the BA and BS would require the exact same science and math courses, but the BA has specific breadth requirements to produce a well rounded education, whereas the BS lets you take pretty much what you want as long as you satisfy the math and science requirements and any general requirements of your school.

[wahnfrieden]

Yes that's why I said it matters less. Musk represents it as a BSc because it sounds more impressive even if it doesn't matter in his case which one it is. It's still something he misrepresents for clout though.

[verzali]

I have a physics degree. It is not at all the same thing as an engineering degree.

[laughing_man]

Presumably (hopefully) you don't stop learning when you leave school, though. A physics degree has always been viewed as a good basis for advanced engineering.

[nomel]

> Will we get to Mars soon? Hell no.

How much did he bring in that timeline?

[dodu_]

You absolutely do not, under any circumstances, have to give him credit.

Chronic over-promise, underdelivery.

Where was the nearly 3T of fraud he said he'd uncover in the US government, again? Was that a clear win for the country?

But hey at least he's effective at getting people to give him money, I guess, which is an indistinguishable "skill" from that of someone who is able to convince people to buy an online course on how to make money online.

He just does it at a bigger scale so people are quick to suck him off. How we are still falling into the "money = smart/competent" trap in <<current year>> is beyond me.

[inglor_cz]

People fuck up. I fucked up three things yesterday. Fortunately I am not as known as Musk, so no one tears into me at Hacker News and my fuckups remain hidden.

Nevertheless...

"underdelivery."

Both Falcon and Starlink are quite major improvements over previous status quo. It is not just a question of having a nice WiFi during your flight. If you are interested in some very practical consequences, look at the Russo-Ukrainian war and the role Starlink plays there.

[dodu_]

Unelected cronies arbitrarily slash and burn programs that are supposed to require congressional approval (aka representatives of the people) to enact and remove, likely resulting in millions of preventable deaths:

"Tee hee he just made a silly oopsie poopsie just like me when I take down prod for a few minutes"

[Forgeties79]

Don’t buy into the 2010’s Tony stark persona. His momentum is clearly slowing because he can’t put his politics and rather fucked social values behind business sense.

I have immense appreciation for what SpaceX has done for humanity. I’m not being dramatic. Reusable rockets alone is an incredible achievement. But he’s lost the plot. He needs to drop his right wing bullshit and stardom chasing if he wants to be taken seriously again. The dude won’t even acknowledge his own kid because of his politics. I will never trust someone who makes that decision, personally. His judgment is beyond clouded.

The Elon bros will be mad but whatever. One day he’ll maybe remember why folks liked him. Hitching his wagon to Trump was a dumb move.

[JackFr]

I think it’s tough to stay grounded when you’re as rich as he is. (To be clear, my intent is to explain and not excuse the path he’s taken.)

[fragmede]

Not getting invited to the EV summit would have pissed me off if I were in his place. The Trump thing; it sounds like the government was going to go after him for various violations, and hitching his wagon to Trump was his way of getting out of that jam.

[Forgeties79]

I don't really care about what motivated him to behave this way if I'm being honest. He has poor impulse control and terrible social/political values. The damage and chaos he brought to the federal government is nearly impossible to overstate. Two of my family members lost their jobs for nothing because of their wild cutting, and they didn't even work for the federal government. A good friend lost a million dollar AI research grant because they had the word "accessibility" in their initial proposal (accommodating screen readers on computers, how woke and awful!) That's how far reaching his farcical "efficiency" endeavor was.

He is a bad person and we should not support him. There is no context that will make what he's done the last few years acceptable.