Elon Musk is pushing the human race forward

Elon Musk is my ultimate role model as an entrepreneur.<p>This article, for me, is somewhat bittersweet. I look up to Elon Musk and what he's doing, because it's really making a difference in the world. That's what I aspire to do someday. But my day to day job is as the first engineer of an advertising startup, where we make boatloads of money helping compagnies better monetize and promote crappy mobile games. Sometimes I wonder if I'm creating any value in the world.<p>Hopefully this'll be a stepping stone towards financing a startup that'll be a little more meaningful.

I think SpaceX's success had more to do with the military and space business needing a new public face. SpaceX's executive bios read like a who's who of the space industry. I think people seem to think that Musk reinvented rocketry in three years, which is unrealistic. It's a nice made for TV story, but most corporations probably couldn't swing hundreds of millions in fed contracts without some serious connections.

While not anyone has the luxury of bootstrapping a space company in their 20's.. I still think most startups have lots of other opportunities to tackle bigger problems. The problem is we hang out in tech, and aren't exposed to those problems. But if we hang out with biologists, doctors, teachers, etc.. they'll all tell you problems that need solving. Technology can't solve everything, but paired with the insight of someone from those other fields, it can make a dent.

Nissan and Chevy are already shipping electric cars. There are other private companies pursuing private space flight. Elon gets the love from the Valley because he's from here, but he's an entrepreneur just trying to make money on what's hot. There's nothing wrong with that, but let's hold off on the deification.

I've been reading about intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation. I don't know if that's a bunch of pop-psychology but I would bet he has much of the former. I wish I could summon those kinds of energies.

Elon Musk will be one of the most influential people in the world for the next 20-30 years, not just directly from his companies but also from others in the industries he's pushing.<p>Let's not forget Elon is also Chairman of the Board for SolarCity as well, which is leading the distributed solar PV market.<p>He's pushing the human race forward in many areas, all at the same time. Pretty remarkable

The problem with Elon Musk is this... no one will ever live on mars for extended periods of time because mars is not suitable for human life for the following reasons: 1. weak magnetic field 2. 1/3 of earth's gravity 3. about 100 other reasons that just make the first 2 harder to deal with.<p>Mars is not somewhere to live, it's somewhere to explore.

What I'm most looking forward to is Tesla's third and fourth generation platform. I'm really curious to see how low they can bring the prices and how high the driving range will be at those mainstream prices.<p>As for SpaceX, I think they're doing amazing work and it was about time the private sector got into this field with ambitious goals.

If I dare ask, why does the human race want to leave the earth? There's no reason or benefit. There are more interesting, more pressing issues having mostly to do with our biology.

Tesla has yet to accomplish anything notable except for getting a half billion dollars from the government. Hopefully they are successful in producing and supporting their Model S.

The article says "in addition to reducing carbon emissions" in regard to the Tesla. I can't see how electric cars actually reduce pollution/emissions of any kind.<p>Typical coal -&#62; electricity is 33% efficient, but can be up to 50% [1], electricty to battery is 75% [2], and electric motors are about 92% [3]. The typical efficiency will be .33 * .75 * .92 = 23%, with a maximum of 35%. Gasoline engine efficiency is 25 - 30% [4], so we aren't really improving pollution much with electric cars, until wind/solar makes up a substantial part of our grid.<p>Now it will certainly _move_ the pollution from the cars in the cities to the power plants elsewhere (which is a good thing), but it really isn't preventing pollution.<p>[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil-fuel_power_station#Basic_concepts" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil-fuel_power_station#Basic...</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006554.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006554.html</a><p>[3] <a href="http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/electrical-motor-efficiency-d_655.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/electrical-motor-efficienc...</a><p>[4] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_efficiency" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_efficiency</a>

"This car will be able to go 160 miles on one charge of its battery pack." Meh: <a href="http://www.rimac-automobili.com/concept_one/battery-system-9" rel="nofollow">http://www.rimac-automobili.com/concept_one/battery-system-9</a>

Elon Musk does seem to be pretty good at going for it. It is nice to see people executing on big ideas.

The sheepish feeling about app development made me think of Buckminster Fuller's <i>Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth</i>:<p>"For every 100,000 employed in research and development, or just plain thinking, one probably will make a breakthrough that will more than pay for the other 99,999 fellowships".

"Musk recently said that he will put humans on Mars within ten to twenty years."<p>Uh-huh. I said it before, got downvoted, and will say it again, because I think it's important.<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3389824" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3389824</a>

Elon Musk is pretty badass. It's awesome that he takes such a big role in the technical design and development at Tesla and SpaceX rather than just "running the company" like most CEOs.