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Comment by Mizza | Hacker News Reader

I'm such an Elon Musk fanboy. If he can do even 20% of what he's claiming to be able to do, the human race will be so much further along that we are now - and I might get to go to space. Rock on, Elon.

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Seconded. They based Tony Stark in the new Iron Man movies on this guy. I think I'm doing important work, then I read his wikipedia entry and weep at my insignificance.

"Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."

"It is the time I have wasted for my rose--" said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.

"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose . . ."

Still, I don't think it's wrong to be inspired by and compare yourself to people with epic achievements. Newton had his three laws figured out by my age, Alexander had conquered most of the known world and Zuckerberg was a multi-billionaire.

I'm content with my lot (as far as humans go I'm doing OK), but it doesn't mean I'm not inspired to do more.

"Still, I don't think it's wrong to be inspired by and compare yourself to people with epic achievements"

You're half right. Being inspired and challenged by the works of others is a great thing. But you should avoid comparing yourself to others since you'll frame it in such a way that you are either completely superior or completely inferior to the other person.

Many great geniouses DID compare themselves with others a lot (they pick a single "nemesis" and spend a great deal of energy trying to prove themselves better). E.g. Newton and liebniz.

Plus, you don't have to frame yourself as "completely" anything, when comparing to others. You can focus on being a better mathematician, or a better business person, or simply a better human being, without automatically implying the other is "completely inferior"

Who wants to live in a world where the rules of life stipulate that only one person can meet the definition of success?

I doubt that, Tony Stark and Ironman comics have been around for decades, and he's always been a flamboyant billionaire.

Musk just dreams big.

The original Iron Man no, of course not. But I think it was Jon Favreau (the guy who directed the new movies) that said he used Elon Musk as an influence for building the character in the movies:

http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/tesla-ceo-...

Of course Elon Musk built his own character around Tony Stark of the comics, so the development is circular.

Are you seriously proposing that this will have more impact on the human race than the latest opinionated (read: arrogant) blog from 37 signals or drama from Zed Shaw? There are webapps man, a mission to Mars could set back NoSQL development a long way.

Normally I don't snark on HN except a bit against Apple but I couldn't resist here because the contrast between tech business outside the web bubble and those inside it is so massive.

The downvoting says you hit the right spot.

I have to go now, changing the world trough e-commerce.

Hey man, I have a great idea for a webapp. Let's get people to give us their bank and credit card information, then we get merchants to put our button on their e-commerce site and people can click it to log in and buy stuff, or we can just act like a regular payment processor if the customer doesn't have an account with us. We'll need to scale this big, let's read around to see what other companies are doing... Hey, if we end up being real successful, we might be able to bootstrap our own space company.. wouldn't that be cool! ( http://www.quora.com/How-much-money-has-SpaceX-raised-and-wh... )

Exactly. The world is full of critics and theorists but he's building something that's tangibly taking us closer to that vision. So we need to give massive respect and gratitude. Like the saying goes: lead, follow or get out of the way.

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