Genius or average dude who got lucky?

>>7783286
because it can only be two polar opposites and nothing in between ;^)

>>7783286
douchebag with a lot of money

>>7783286
Remember that when he graduated university he also got a small loan of a million dollars from his dad.

>>7783286
Basically what any half-decent STEM major would do. He was a physics student for undergrad.

I'm sure most of /sci/ would do the same thing, using their wealth for actually useful purposes. Then again this is a weeaboo shitposting forum...

>>7783286
He was accepted into Berkley for grad school.
I'll let you decide.

>>7783300
Basically this.

Bios of billionaires are mostly horseshit spewing the same lies that hard work = success.

Its all about who you know, who you hang out with, and most importantly who you trust.

>>7783320
networking *is* working.
No need for anyone to get butthurt, just work on your own network.

This starts from what high-school your parents send you to, to what college you go to, what country or city you live in, who you decide to meet, who you match together, who your friends are, who you ask for help etc

>>7783286
I'd say luck in his scientific pursuits. His engineers managed to build working rockets, feasible electric cars and so on.

Maybe he has good managerial skills.

>>7783286
Genius doesn't have to be academic or STEM related.

>>7783293
>;^))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

>>7783344
He turned down fucking Berkley, no matter how you look at it, the guy was pretty fucking talented.

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>>7783420
>assuming everyone who is offered a place in crème de la crème is mega-genius
He had big bucks, even before you made anything of himself. The rich breed rich, this has been known for time time immemorial, he's as special as the Habsburg dynasty.

>>7783441
*he

>>7783300
...and yet the most likely outcome for a person winning a million dollars in a lottery is that they go bankrupt within a decade.

Yes, it helps a LOT to have money and connections, but you're still unlikely to turn a million into a billion over twenty years without a lot of competence.

>>7783296
I hope you understand that making such claims without explanation makes you a douchebag yourself.

>>7783420
>2016
>can't spell Berkeley
Your opinion is instantly invalid.

>>7783582
Lel

>>7783441
I don't think he was born rich.

If any of you fuckers would've read the latest biography on him by Vance, you'd know that it's his work ethic and ability to push others to their limits is what made him great. He'll never design a rockey by himself, but he was able to create a corporate climate that enabled building a reusable rocket at a fraction of the cost that NASA would build it, assuming they'd even attempt to build a reusable rocket. Similarly he's revolutionized the way we look at electric cars too. I regard him as an amazing entrepreneur, not as a scientist (which doesn't take away he was really gifted at science too).

>>7783320
>mfw every dumb pleb thinks they could turn a million dollar loan into anything more than owing a bank 1M+ dollars

>>7783598
Being able to borrow money without collateral is basically being given money. The interest rate hardly even matters. The only thing that matters is the option to default without serious penalty, such as by going bankrupt when you have no assets, or by having a corporation you put no serious money into go bankrupt.

To illustrate why with an example, if you are able to borrow $1 million, you can take it to the casino, and put it all on black or red at the roulette table. This gives you nearly a 50% chance (48.6%) of winning another $1 million, at which point you can go pay off the loan with about a day's worth of interest, then you just have nearly $1 million and no debt. If you lose, you default and are out of debt.

You can make other bets in a casino as well, to achieve basically whatever probability of success you want, at the expense of lowering your payoff. For instance, you can bet $1/3 million, and then if you lose, you bet the remaining $2/3 million. This way, the upside is only $1/3 million, but your probability of success is 73.6%.

There are many opportunities to gamble in business.

An unsecured loan is a gift. If you let every kid fresh out of school borrow a million dollars, it's like giving them a house.

>>7783647
>If you let every kid fresh out of school borrow a million dollars, it's like giving them a house
its not like setting up a real estate empire worth billions tho, which is what idiots think would happen to them if given the chance

>>7783594

He's achieved a lot, but mostly supported by the funding he got out of paypal.

It's pretty clear that his goals are less altruistic and are much more oriented towards image and status. It's his upper crust white south african values coming through.

We're just fortunate that western society now values ( and awards status more readily to ) technocrats making real change in the world.

That being said most of the ire pointed towards him is just base bitterness. He's your typical corporate leader just with more moving parts and also a bit younger.

Time would be better spent getting upset and obsessing over people that are having more negative effects on society, regardless of their character and how they got there.

>>7783652
Here's where it gets really dumb: if you manage to find a "roulette risk" in business, where your odds of failing are over 50% but you double your money in a short time, and you can pose as if this was due to competence rather than luck, people will line up to offer you more unsecured loans, so you can make more bets.

Donald Trump, for instance, lost more money than he made, but the key was that he lost it for other people, and he was not personally liable for the loans. He just let corporations he formed for the venture go bankrupt.

Making money and being actually productive are basically orthogonal at this point.

>>7783535
the difference between growing up with parents who already have money and haven't went bankrupt with it and growing up with unsuccessful parents and coming across a butt load of money and then going bankrupt with it is obvious

>>7783710
People who receive large inheritances often waste them as well.

Most people are stupid, and emotional, and unreasonable. They don't really understand anything, they just follow some rules blindly when they can manage to control themselves, which isn't often.

The overwhelming temptation of a person with a fortune is to spend it on status, to prove you're a good person by being generous, to show what a rich person you are by buying luxury cars, clothes, and even more transient wastes of money, to attempt to blend in with much richer people who spend more lavishly than you can afford to, and to be in charge of a business in a field you like, behaving in a way you like, rather than one that you can reasonably expect to make money in, behaving in the way you need to.

I know with total certainty that if I ever get a million dollars free and clear in my bank account, I'm going to have more money every year after that, for the simple reason that I would not use it to buy status.

>>7783286
I think he's a genius. But genius's can be douchebags too.

I don't idolize him.

He's a smart guy with an apparently incredible work ethic who surrounds himself with similar people. He demands a lot from his workers and in return they get a lot done. I like him.

>>7783286
certainly well above average intelligence and motivation.

He had a good share of good and bad luck. Despite his successes, a lot of which were due to good timing and taking advantage of opportunities, he had his share of bad luck. He almost went bankrupt in 2008 when both his businesses were failing. He had the perseverence and leadership to pull both companies out of the slump and continue to today's 20Bn net worth.

He got some extra good news today: SpaceX is one of the three winners of the CRS-2 contract for ISS resupply from 2019-2024.

>>7783286
he is focusing on old ass liquid fueled rockets, soviet era tech FFS! hes a retard and should work on the future, nuclear pulse propulsion

>>7783582
You're improperly using greentext.
Stop posting you underaged faggot.

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>yfw they fill up warehouses with landed sections

You decide whats important to you. I personally believe helping to reduce the suffering of others is a highly moral good. There are many who dont even have basic human necessities (good food, water, shelter, safety). People shouldn't spend their whole lives just trying to make their own lives more comfortable.

>>7783286
A genius who got lucky

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got a point, I mean with airlines you can just fly em out to another airport, with rockets, there are no spaceports.

Theres cape Canaveral and Vandenberg,thats it.
theyll probably just store them somewhere in mcgregor. ton of room out there anyway.

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>>7784874
Amazing how the landing blowback changes the color of the rocket in such a straight line.

>>7783286

>mfw he's smarter and more successful than anyone on /sci/ will ever be, yet /sci/ still has the gall to find a way to feel superior to him

Just fukkin lel desu senpai

CBA posting a reaction .jpeg to go along with ''mfw''. You'll just have to imagine the reaction.

One of the rare sexy geniuses that I'd like to fuck.

>>7785059

faggot

>>7785064
girls attracted to sexy handsome men makes them straight.

>>7783286
He failed at being a game programmer, yes it's true. I am a game programmer working for a respectable programmer yet I'm not rich like Elon. I think that if I failed at being a game programmer I still wouldn't be Elon Musk, I would probably be a James Bond villain...

>>7785084

>thinks there's girls on /sci/

>>7785128
You are free to believe whatever you want.

>>7785023
>/sci/ still has the gall to find a way to feel superior to him
Well fuck me. That success depends on way more than merit has never been debatable.
You "I'm fully responsible for all my successes" types have hubris covering for insecurity. Deep, deep down you're terrified because accepting that you've always depended on things beyond your control for what your life has become means accepting that you will depend on them for what your life will be. That there's something out there that can drag you kicking and screaming down to rock fucking bottom against everything and more you throw at it.
Not to mention your own desire to feel superior and the way you displace longing for a fundamentally just society with false belief in one.

>>7785133

tits or GTFO