• Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    He isn’t a car engineer or a rocket engineer. He didn’t invent the practical electric car or the reusable rocket. He gave people money to develop those technologies- actually, in the case of Tesla, he bought in after the car was already designed.

    He’s not an inventor, he’s an investor.

    • GammaScorpii@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They had a Lotus Elise with a battery in it when he came in. Clearly had influence on the models that actually worked.

    • jramskov@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Of course he didn’t do it himself, but according to people that actually worked closely with him, he’s not exactly stupid and actually knows quite a bit about both.

      Why he’s behaving so stupidly and handling Twitter so badly, I have no idea - he’s really a jerk.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        he’s not exactly stupid

        That may or may not be true.

        and actually knows quite a bit about both.

        That I doubt. He has no formal training in either field and it’s not something you can just pick up.

        • jramskov@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          You can find videos with him discussing rocket engines in details - he’s spent years working together with a lot of brilliant car and rocket engineers. He (again, not alone, of course) somehow managed to build a successful car company and a successful Space company. Both things are by all accounts very difficult. Not likely to be done by a stupid person.

          I fully agree he’s a jerk and I would never want to work for him, but that doesn’t mean he’s stupid or that I can’t be impressed by what SpaceX has achieved.