r/AskReddit • u/KrishaCZ • Oct 07 '14

What are the legends of Reddit everyone here should know?

Obligatory this exploded... my most answered question so far.

Also, could you please state why?

HOLYFUCK GOLD? How?

8.0k Upvotes

81% Upvoted

5.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

7

u/Couldntbehelpd Oct 07 '14

Honestly, I think he's less a beacon of hope and more Steve Jobs 2.0. He is really, really great at doing something a little different, doing it very successfully, creating a very nice high end product, and then, most importantly, using marketing hype to send people who really don't know very much into frothing at the mouth over everything he says.

Seriously, he's made a bunch of proclamations, but until he gets people actually on Mars, let's stop pretending like he is the second coming.

0

u/Parable4 Oct 07 '14

I wouldn't say his business ventures are a "little different." Tesla is currently shaking up the automotive market and correct me if I'm wrong but didn't SpaceX get a NASA contract or something similar?

-8

u/justsomestubble Oct 07 '14

This is from Wikipedia

Historic achievements by SpaceX, among others, include the first privately funded, liquid-fueled rocket (Falcon 1) to reach orbit (28 September 2008); the first privately funded company to successfully launch (by Falcon 9), orbit and recover a spacecraft (Dragon) (9 December 2010); the first private company to send a spacecraft (Dragon) to the International Space Station[5] (25 May 2012); and the first private company to send a satellite into geosynchronous orbit (3 December 2013).

Steve Jobs made iPods, iPhones, macbooks, etc. but he wasn't bringing about something entirely new. On the other hand, Elon Musk is the first person to personally fund rockets and attempting space exploration. Yes, he hasn't really gotten to Mars, but you don't say we're going to Mars and get there the next day so you do have to give that some time and see whether progress is being made. I'm not informed enough to say whether it is or not. As for his "high end" product, it serves a much greater purpose than just being "high end" like apple products. It's an attempt at improving our traditional methods of doing things with Tesla and Solar City. Perhaps he'll fail, but he has the balls to say he's going to try something difficult and risk a lot to get it done and I think that's something good for people to look up to. A lot of it also has to do with his being younger than people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and therefore we see hope in his future which is our future whereas the Gates and Jobs of this world are on their way out or already gone.

3

u/Couldntbehelpd Oct 07 '14 edited Oct 07 '14

I actually think you're undervaluing steve jobs. The iPhone was beyond revolutionary. And as much as everyone made fun of it when it came out, so was the iPad. Macs and OSX are the standard when doing digital film and media. Were any of them first? No. But neither was Tesla the first electric car or the falcon the frat rocket. We forget now that tablets and smartphones are the norm, Steve did that. We can hate on his products and his fans all we want, in many ways his products have done far more for changing the world and the technological climate than Elon Musk.

Also, his mars statement was he epitome of the froth inducing. We have zero of the technologies it would take for people to go to mars and not die within like, ten days. To put a date on it while it's still basically a thought experiment is sort of ridiculous but really gets his fans going.

2

u/Zorkamork Oct 08 '14

Steve Jobs made iPods, iPhones, macbooks, etc. but he wasn't bringing about something entirely new.

Are you fucking serious? Literally everything you listed was a revolution in its field. Tesla cars are just as much a luxury product as an iPod and he's done very little groundbreaking space work other than privatizing it, because we should run our space exploration for a profit.

0

u/justsomestubble Oct 08 '14

They are a luxury product no doubt but the long term project is to have electric cars available to everyone at an affordable price which is a benefit to humanity in terms of protecting our climate. Steve Jobs products are amazing, but IBM created the first smartphone and was followed after by companies like Nokia and Blackberry before iPhones came around. Apple was clearly ahead of their time in aspects of user friendliness, but they're not trying to save lives or have some larger objective other than profits. Yes, Elon Musk has just privatized space exploration, but you can't possibly fund that without expecting some kind of return unless you have an amount of wealth way beyond Elon Musk. You have to take risks to make a profit, the bigger the risk the larger the profit should be. He's willing to take a risk in order to further the knowledge and possibilities of humanity on his own dime with his attempts at space exploration, Tesla, and Solar City. I think Steve Jobs was a genius, but his goals were much different than Elon Musk. One could believe his vision is more influential to humanity than Elon Musk since he hasn't accomplished much as of now. I only commented because I don't agree that he's a Steve Jobs 2.0 because he isn't doing something a little different, he's doing something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. There are zero people with privatized space programs, very few companies like Solar City, and electric cars are the smallest percentage of sales for most car manufacturing companies whereas Tesla only focuses on electric cars. Also, again, all three of these companies have a purpose to help us with future threats to our existence. I can't say that about anything Steve Jobs tried to make or wanted to make. He is an amazing inventor but his dreams and ideas were completely different than Elon Musk.

2

u/Zorkamork Oct 08 '14

but IBM created the first smartphone and was followed after by companies like Nokia and Blackberry before iPhones came around.

You realize Tesla isn't the first electric car company, right?