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Both. A single person can be great in some areas and a malicious loon in others. In fact, great success in one field can provide the self-confidence and capital to be a catastrophe in others.

But also keep in mind that Musk isn't personally designing and building everything SpaceX does. The staff at SpaceX deserve more credit than they get, especially Gwynne Shotwell.



It's become an absolute meme on the left-leaning internet to say SpaceX isn't Elon and Shotwell is doing all the work. You can't go to a thread on this site or reddit etc without it being brought up.

Really I am pretty sure it is just coping to deal with the uncomfortable fact that Elon (bad guy) is doing something great and clearly is skilled. Ask anyone at SpaceX or Shotwell herself and they will all say Elon is very important to its success.


Maybe that's a meme, but obviously I'm not saying that.

The problem is that people watch these videos and it's all ELON ELON ELON. Most of them don't even know Shotwell's name.


Everyone who cares about SpaceX, and not Elon-hating, know Shotwell's name. My nine year old does, and he knows that Gwynne got into engineering because she liked another engineer's shoes!


That is true, but it’s also true of Blue Origin who are far behind spacex in so far as flying real hardware. The difference is Musk maniacal zeal and yes leadership. I’m frustrated with Musks politics too, but his drive can’t be denied.


But why are you frustrated with Musk’s politics? The fact that one of the smartest people chooses to demonstrate their view is very remarkable. It does warrant critical thinking and examination. After all he could have kept quiet and ponder to both parties equally.


Elon is into politics because it’s politics who stood in his way of progress first.

He’s imho afraid and rightfully so, Twitter was a clear example of why.


Nonsense. Governments been very kind to Elon. For years Tesla subsisted on selling regulatory credits.


How does your argument counter what I wrote? Nonsense is sometimes but only projecting onto a mirror.


I never knew the name Tim Cook before Steve Jobs died.

The general public does not know the layers of corporate staffing and their names. That doesn't mean they don't realize there are a lot of people at the company contributing. Nobody thinks Elon is in the back room doing drafting, and doing every job.

Yes. Musk is complicated person. Maybe that is what I was trying to ask. Does anybody have any credible insight into where is head is at. Is he turning into a wing nut, or is this all just a ploy to have more control over the government to further his goals of getting to Mars. Like if Trump wins, he can just phone him up and say, lets put a man on Mars.


The general public generally does, in fact, massively overestimate the importance of the CEO to the company, especially celebrity CEOs.

> Is he turning into a wing nut

Back in 2018 the "cave diver pedo" incident made it abundantly clear that Musk, while possessing many admirable qualities, is also a malicious clown.




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