Comment by james412 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by james412 | Hacker News Reader

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You think he's a fraud simply because he bullshitted his way through some computer sales pitch? In a way, I have a ton of respect for people willing to even try this kind of thing in public

If he could talk lucidly about things like HTML I'd think that lent more credence to the possibility he didn't have a clue about hydrogen

edit: for the downvoters, if you haven't seen one of these "bear thesis" articles before, understand you must do at least as much homework as the bear claims to have done before accepting anything you read. Of course Nikola is a dodgy company, but it's also a social phenomenon. That's the value in it for the likes of GM, and also for the average investor -- including the professionals. At one stage YouTube was the largest video piracy company on the planet before a larger company swallowed them up and cut deals to legitimize what they'd done. Meanwhile, everyone knew the brand. You can consider what's happening here to be something roughly comparable

You have a ton of respect for people who will lie through their teeth to make a sale?

Why should we not assume his HTML5 knowledge is roughly equivalent to his hydrogen car knowledge?

In another window I have a thesaurus open looking for a word that conveys only the subset of meanings of respect that don't intersect with approval, something that captures the fascination, the horror of the carnival barker personality and the way we are seduced and bamboozled by their spectacle of bullshit. I think we have to admit that we actually enjoy aspects of this seduction. We love listening to a raconteur, stories of a con man, but the rock star we love from a hundred feet back in the throng of the crowd, smells like their own urine up close. I think if we're going to find a way to build a society wide immune response against bullshit we need to be honest that we enjoy a performance, and a sure fire way to improve a performance is to unshackle it from the constraints of reality and integrity.

Would you withdraw your savings from a bank because the cashier didn't understand HTML 5? Why should we not assume operating a cash drawer is roughly equivalent to HTML 5 knowledge?

1. He’s a vastly more senior person than a cashier.

2. It’s not the lack of understanding that’s concerning. It’s the confident wrongness.

I wouldn't expect the cashier to be selling me a product they didn't understand either. If my bank tried to sell me a new security because it was backed by custom chips running HTML, I would probably switch banks as well.

Lying with confidence is, after all, where the "con" in con man comes from.

Fair enough. But what kind of person lies about the existence of solar panels on their roof?

> Trevor claimed that Nikola’s headquarters has 3.5 megawatts of solar panels on its roof producing energy. Aerial photos of the roof and later media reports show that the supposed panels don’t exist.

I don't have respect for people that bullshit their way through situations that fraudulently entice investors to put their money into a company.

it's the cherry on top of everything else he's bullshitted through.

nothing about his background or experience gives any legitimacy to him being in a position of "electric truck CEO and mogul"

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