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I think people see politics these days as a form of show-biz entertainment soap opera drama, what a surprise they are going to get when the frogmen smash their door in next.

A lot of this criticism assumes that value only comes from personally inventing things or never having bad ideas. That’s not how execution works. Ideas are cheap. Execution is what matters. Plenty of people had ideas about reusable rockets, EVs, satellite internet, or brain–computer interfaces long before Musk. What almost no one managed to do was turn those ideas into working, scaled systems in industries where startups usually fail. SpaceX didn’t win because Musk designs fuel tanks. It won because it executed faster and cheaper than legacy aerospace giants with decades of experience. Tesla didn’t invent EVs, but it forced the entire auto industry to electrify years earlier than planned. Starlink is the largest satellite constellation ever deployed, providing connectivity where no real alternative existed. Yes, he has bad ideas. Every aggressive executor does. The difference is that his companies survive them and still outperform competitors. You don’t have to like Musk — but dismissing his role because he isn’t the inventor misses what execution actually means.

There have been numerous stories over the years, apocryphal maybe, but they were coming out even when the media loved Muskrat... anyway, the stories were frequently about how employees of companies like SpaceX believed him to be an absolute idiot and upper management believed that their main role with him was to block him from getting in the way. One of the most famous stories was about some fuel tank that was fracturing in flight. The engineers had some ideas, but Muskrat came up with some idea to put a layer of fast-set glue/resin on the outside that would stay liquid - and when the cracks started to appear in the tank, the adhesive would leak out and set, automatically healing the crack. All of the best engineers in the company said that the idea could not possibly work and explained why it couldn't. Yet, Muskrat insisted on an all hands on deck and everybody worked non-stop with the vessel and the resin until... Muskrat finally acknowledged that the idea couldn't possibly work. It sort of fits with a man who has basically failed upward for most of his life - such as how he got fired as CEO of PayPal after nearly running the company into bankruptcy with his bad ideas, but still owning a bunch of stock so that when Thiel transformed it to a profitable company and sold it to eBay, Muskrat came out with billions. Would SpaceX exist without him? No. Would Starlink exist without SpaceX? Also no. Did he invent Starlink? Also no. Would Neuralink exist without him? No, and who cares? It's a good accessibility play for people who can't otherwise operate a computer, but for the rest of us, do you know anybody who is loudly complaining that they don't have some shitty device in their head that will ultimately be used to shovel ads directly into their brain? Do you spend every day glaring at your computer wishing that your brain could directly control it? For Tesla, he didn't invent it at all. Outside of having a strong first mover advantage in terms of modern electric cars, they aren't very good. Quality control has always been lacking. Muskrat decides that for full self driving, they don't need industry-standard tools like proximity sensors, but instead they'll rely only on cameras. He did, apparently, invent the truck that looks like a small child drew it and which is almost universally reviled. So yay. Otherwise, what has Muskrat invented? Hyperloop - the dumbest mass transit invention in the history of humanity? 12 years later, there isn't a single operating hyperloop that you can go ride. And it turns out that vactrain concepts had existed for years before he "invented" that too. So... has he had a single novel idea in his entire history? Or is his "genius" really just in ways to exploit existing wealth to extract more money, mostly from the government?

Was it all a bit of a sham? EOSHD investigates... https://www.eoshd.com/news/users-are-complaining-openai-wreaked-sora-2-eoshd-takes-a-look-at-what-happened/

To everyone I offended this year... work on yourself so I don't have to do it again next year. If after all you have seen, you still drink the Elon koolaid you deserve all the personal attacks coming to you. I have absolutely zero respect for your opinions or your feelings on the matter. It is entirely your responsibility that you feel insulted by what I said above even though it was objective fact and not at all personal. Elon is not a rocket scientist. He's a fucking twat face, alleged Nazi drug addict. I suppose you think his little fascist bromance with Trump was furthering the future of Planet Earth as well?

I don't remember Bill Clinton's government combing through a non-US citizen's personal politics at customs. It makes tourism a bit shit, doesn't it? If I had to go to NAB or to the US for work I would just not bother. Really I didnt know that It was him was it? Have you ever considered it might instead be the thousands of employees of these companies backed by billions in venture capitalist funds and government NASA contracts. Also as far as "the world" and "the future" goes, they haven't moved the needle that far. SpaceX is just a private NASA contractor and they haven't even gone to the moon. Tesla is a failing car company, completely outgunned by China. Starlink consists of some satellites that ruin photos of the sky. And Neural link is an allegedly deeply immoral pig experiment. No. Critical thinking, and criticism is not the issue. Gullible bastards are.

I haven’t been there for a while and was toying with a trip next year. To paraphrase King Arthur now though.

I guess you only need a couple of months to inventarise all your socials of the last five years. Is that including public forums like these ? also, every person you emailed, even if you got a new computer a year ago and do not have your complete history. On top of that all addresses and phone numbers of all family members, best friends, exes and current affairs you might be having. Probably that includes the number of deceased parents or family, if they did that within the last five years. so we basically need a P.I. to investigate ourselves to get into that shithole the US have become ? i think I’ll give a pass then … My guess is tourism will be booming the next couple of decades !

I think a lot of people would be surprised to learn how many movie theaters are still projecting in 2K. Movie theater projectors are expensive as hell and overall profits for theaters are down compared with 10 years ago. Exhibitors aren't going to rush out to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on anything that doesn't have a direct positive impact on their profits. Being able to count the pores in the lead actor's skin doesn't put asses in seats or sell more candy.