Comment by knorker | Hacker News Reader

Comment by knorker | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Yeah, really.

"Other alleged Secret Geniuses[…] Elizabeth holmes, SBF, Adam Neumann". Major eyeroll, here. Two of those three are criminal fraudsters who never even had a product.

And while not a outright fraud, even Adam Neumann can't claim success. He spent what, $20B of other people's money in order to create a $300M company? Not exactly hard to become a millionaire if you start off a billionaire.

You don't have to like Elon, but Paypal actually is a real service. Tesla became a major car manufacturer under Elon's watch. SpaceX has succeeded fantastically.

One of these four people is not like the other.

You don't have to like him. But reality is there even when you ignore it.

> Two of those three are criminal fraudsters who never even had a product.

Which one of the two criminals sold cars that were, by the end of the year, going to make you money as a robotaxi?

Heh, good point.

But Tesla is an actual business. People are actually driving around in actual cars.

Not so for Theranos (no product at all). Not so for FTX (ponzi scheme / pure theft).

But fair enough. In a way the difference to WeWork is just that Tesla hasn't (yet) collapsed under the weight of overinflated promises.

Edit: SpaceX is actually the largest launcher of satellites. Paypal is an actual service used by… billions?

He's not delivered everything. Not even close. We were supposed to be on Mars by now. But the rockets ARE launching actual payload.

Starlink has actual customers.

I'm not deifying Elon, not at all. But the comparison to SBF and Holmes is ridiculous.

Is Solar Roof printing money already?

'Tony Stark invented and put together all his inventions therefore Elon is a failure and a fraud going by Marvel standards' should be the title...meh.

There is a saying about the difference between a wise and a smart man. Something to the effect the smart man works for the wise man. Elon is both to varying degrees with varying degrees of success but mostly success.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com