Stripe did such a good job with this book (and the others I bought that they published). Each one feels like an artifact I can show off on top of having interesting information inside.
The magazin was bought I think. There's always some interesting background of the stories.
Solarcity was clearly a great example of Elon's ,,no investor left behind'' philosophy: if he promotes a company and gets investors to invest in it, he is doing whatever he can to make sure that they at least don't lose their money (by merging it to a bigger company he controls), even if it wouldn't be the best financial decision.
So far this strategy has been working quite well for both him and the investors.
It would be better for investors if he didn't destroy all his products with both his obscene politics and also his little fantasy pet projects that no one wants. Eventually the house of cards will collapse. At this point all that investors can hope for is something akin to a government bond. Unfortunately one for a government that is currently excelling at depreciating anything related to it.
I mean.. did he turn anti-Elon or did society turn anti-Elon when Elon started doing insane shit? Reminder: Elon bribed his way into leading a self-formed and now essentially defunct government organization to "save costs" but failed to do so in any meaningful way. He did that like a year ago. Meanwhile, the dude made BILLIONS off of government tax breaks, and still leaches off the government with his other companies.
Frank being against Elon speaks less about Frank and more about Elon in my eyes.
I have become so disillusioned by some of the Hacker News crowd on here. It used to be full of nuanced smart people with interesting takes. Nowadays it seems very one sided - makes me very sad. People seem to be completely forgetting that SpaceX is one of the most "inspiring" companies that currently exist. They produce things (Starship) that give adults long-lost goosebumps and excitement just looking at it. SpaceX tech and launch stats speak for themselves. I know its hard to extend an exponential, but just try. All the comments on here feel like they were made against Tesla in 2017, and look how that worked out.
> I have become so disillusioned by some of the Hacker News crowd on here.
I feel the exact same way, but it's due to comments like yours that seem to excuse anything in the name of innovation. The goosebumps people feel are them just projecting what they think the future may look like based on what the snake-oil salesmen are peddling. How long have we been "just 2 years away from fully-automated self-driving" again?
what i'm saying is retail investors don't care about the valuation and will trade on what they see. So expect a lot of ups and down in the price because of retail investors.
There's more to this story than goosebumps over starships. If you have a retirement account or any investments open up your eyes widely because you're about to be fleeced.
Isn't something like "the company that makes really cool reusable rockets may also be engaging in securities fraud" exactly the sort of nuance you're looking for?
"SpaceX is inspiring! Be nice to them!"
"SpaceX is neither all good nor all bad! They do good things and bad things."
Ford was the same at one point. 100 years later, revolutionary technology being attached to incredibly toxic and unethical leaders has consequences (Ideally).
I've dragged starship since the very first day as an example of bad product leadership and bad project management. It's going to turn out to be the cybertruck of space.
The inflection point for both Tesla and SpaceX is when Elon decided he's the genius and he must make his mark on the next big product. He stopped listening to his own experts.
The world finally woke up to the fact that “colonizing mars” was fake bullshit.
The same way “full self driving” was (and is) fake bullshit used to do what the rich always do:
Take from you (via taxes and inflation spending) and give to themselves via government contracts that are done via lobbyists and regulatory capture.
Musk literally raided the govt via DOGE to ensure these contracts got done. His entire grift is to get on the government tit via subsidies or direct contracts
Someone somewhere probably once thought agriculture was "fake bullshit" and insisted on the hunt instead. I definitely take GP's point (so long as one can afford the longest of plays).
PVC used in water pipes had some surprises, the lifespan there turned out to be less than optimistically expected when PVC pipes came to the market. 100 years might be hard to test for...
highly recommended as 90s gamer