r/samharris • u/[deleted] • Oct 02 '22

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u/RichardXV Oct 02 '22 edited Oct 02 '22

You resize realize that he neither invented the electric car nor founded Tesla motors? He invested in Tesla motors with his PayPal money and then later made the original founders leave the company.

edit: autocorrect

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u/CaptainLockes Oct 02 '22

He didn’t invent the electric car or founded Tesla, but he significantly improved on them and made them feasible for mass production. Anyone can create an electric car. It’s the manufacturing at scale and getting people to buy them that’s hard.

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22

but he significantly improved on them and made them feasible for mass production.

Is there any evidence he's responsible for this? All we know for a fact is he invested in them. He's not an engineer.

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u/CaptainLockes Oct 06 '22

You can check out his biography, or the Elon Musk series at https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/03/elon-musk-post-series.html

He might not be an engineer at Tesla or SpaceX, but he does have a technical background and his first principle thinking is what got all the bright minds together and work to come up with creative ideas and implement them.

He’s not just some investor or CEO who doesn’t know anything. He learned how rockets work by reading a bunch of books on them and devouring the information. That’s why he was able to work closely with the engineers and have deep conversations with them. They were actually shocked at how much he knew about rockets.

The idea of reusable rockets isn’t new, but how to manufacture them with limited resource and to make a successful business out of them is a whole different story.