Tesla

[jfoxcpacfp]

Just curious - what is it with Teslas on this forum? Has anyone else noticed?

[artemis]

Teslas today are what Hummers used to be a decade or so ago:  the latest cool expensive toy.  (And to be fair, they are amazing cars; driving one must be like living in a science fiction movie.)

[Complete_newbie]

Elon Musk fans.

 

Are you not?!

[canadianoutlaw]

Now you know:

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html

[Zaphod]

Idk why doctors are so taken with them. Maybe because they are considered green and you're not an arrogant rich doc if you have one, but so centered with the environment?

They are super fun to drive, but so are lots of other cars.

Its too bad Elon Musk is a bit of a con man type of guy, they are pretty awesome cars overall, I hope the company survives him. Though hes unlikely to be ousted as he has filled the board with his friends/family, same reason they were able to push through that horrendous Solar City bail in. They cant fight financial gravity forever though, and I will probably be shorting Tesla via long term puts soon. His only saving grace is his buddy Thiel has Trumps ear. Otherwise, everything Trump is for will just hasten the companies demise. Every single one of his companies is a tax subsidy transfer type of business of some sort, or is mainly government contract related.

[Complete_newbie]

Zaphod, who cares if he is a con man. He is doing things that you and I don't even think about attempting in our dreams (for a second lets assume this whole "scheme" is not a scheme but a legit effort to advance technology - which is what I believe his real goal is no matter how is trying to coarce/force achieve it)

Yes his companies lose money but Cmmon -

1. Paypal - in an age where people couldn't even THINK about money on the internet, he made it possible to move it (yes yes lets not get into technicalities that they merged with another company - he did it too).

2. Tesla - Electric car that looks great + pretty advance AI.

3. SpaceX - Just go check youtube and see landing videos. Sick. If he ACTUALLY puts man on mars (I predict 100% this will happen). Are you kidding me!

4. Few other companies (solar etc)

The breath and just sheer ATTEMPT to break things is insane; coming from a non-aeronautical engineer no less. I hope to see an entrepreneur like him, but I believe I may not in my life time again. Yea I'm a fan boy and NO I don't have a Tesla (not tempted at all). But mostly I do think Elon Musk is the greatest entrepreneur of my generation and before him even.

 

[DoubleMDs]

Latest greatest shiny toy. Definitely more efficient and environment friendly then Hummers though. Supposedly ride a lot better too. Musk is consumed with SpaceX now though when he could be trying to make Tesla even better.

[DoubleMDs]

Spoken like a tech obsessed millennial, newbie. Might as well change your handle to Sheldon Cooper. Give credit where credit is due, the things Musk and his companies have accomplished in such a short time (two decades really) are impressive. But he and the likes of Zuckerberg (do people really think he's qualified but to be president? Sorry complete other debate) have immensely benefitted from a generation/nation obsessed with tech stuff. Does that make them better entrepreneurs then the rest of the world/us? Maybe. They've found the market and capitalized and then some. GOAT (greatest of all time for the few older timers on here) though? Let's just say TBD.

 

 

[Complete_newbie]

Don't hate. Its funny older people aren't tech obsessed? what are you doing on this blog then on a Friday night?

Name other entrepreneur that has the same breadth of industries that musk has rolled to the top in/affected? I didn't include Zuckerberg (he is no better than a blogger who came up with social network in my book,but he is still exceptional in creating the largest node network on earth along with google). Never heard about him being president, dont know where that is coming from. Also Zuckerberg is a great internet entrepeneur but he ain't making rocket ship or futurist car.

Musk is GOAT because of being great at multiple things.

Why don't you find a market and capitalize on it? This whole thing of "he got some help/lucky" is pure sour grapes.

[The White Coat Investor]

It's a socially acceptable status symbol for docs.

[DoubleMDs]

Not hating and not sour grapes. I actually find Musk fascinating and said I was impressed by the breadth of things he's tackled (globalizing internet banking, making sustainable energy attainable and being the only entity not named NASA, Russia or China  to successfully put a rocket into orbit and back, just to name a few). I'm not old, am of the tech generation and enjoy all of the new things as much as the next person. But I also don't have a FB account and likely won't ever own a Tesla. Not faulting those who do, just more "old school" I guess when it comes to those things. Despite that I'm on board with pretty much everything Musk is doing except AI (also another conversation for another day).

Alas, don't mean to hijack Joanna's thread. To that point, I agree with WCI comment above.

 

 

[VagabondMD]

I am a Tesla owner! I own 2 shares of Tesla in my Robin Hood play account and, within a joint venture, am part owner of several 1.5 Tesla closed and 0.7 Tesla open MRI machines (with a 3 Tesla unit on the way).

[Hatton]

Steve Jobs.  iPhone, MAC, IPod, iPad, and Pixar.  All stuff I use more than a tesla or spaceX.

[M2]

In 3rd grade when we were assigned to envision utopia, self driving cars, going to mars, and solar power were right up there with marshmallow pillows and underwater cities...

More importantly, what WCI said.

[abds]

Agree with WCI above. For some reason it's a more socially acceptable expensive toy among physicians than many other $80-100k+ cars.

Now to contribute to the hijacking... Elon Musk is extraordinary not because of his abilities simply as an entrepreneur. He is extraordinary as an innovator. Privatized space travel, electric cars that actually look good, effective home battery systems, affordable and attractive solar roofs, hyperloop transportation, etc. Will any of these things happen in a sustainable (i.e. profitable/affordable) way? I don't know, but the ideas he brings to the table have the potential to completely change and greatly benefit society as a whole. You can argue how much he has really built all of these companies himself vs how much he has instead positioned himself within them financially (with the largest benefit being to himself), but that's a different argument. It's difficult to argue with the fact that he pushes the envelope with potentially society-changing ideas and we need more people who think like him.