Ask HN: Is Elon Musk Overrated?

Don't talk about Musk. Talk about the universal failure of skepticism that makes anyone like him possible.

Well, at least success of SpaceX that was achieved in the industry that was considered a basket case overall, and unapproachable by private entrants in particular, is beyond doubt. He brought US space launch industry from a heavily struggling laggard progressively more dependent on Russians and quickly losing competence and capacity, to a complete world domination, all while consuming very little capital or engineering resources.

When we talk about an artist being overrated, we're talking about whether their works are deserving of the reverence, praise, and patronage that they attract. Its largely subjective — built on interpretation, comparison, retrospection, etc.

Elon Musk is a truly proficient capitalist. Great at creating capital. So, in that sense, no he is not overrated. There is nothing really subjective about capital — you either have it or you don't. And despite all the warning signals, people still heavily invest in his ventures.

But is he overrated as a leader, as a visionary, as a genius — the subjective measures. I'd argue, yes. Doesn't take a genius to create capital. As he's done nothing artistic or altruistic for us to debate the merits of his life, I can't imagine what other criteria he can be evaluated upon.

You might not like the guy, but anyone thinking Elon Musk is "dumb" is out of his mind and just straight up narrow-minded, we are talking about one of the richest person on the PLANET,you don't accidentally become the richest man on the planet by being dumb. That takes brains, vision, and an INSANE amount of risk-taking that 99.9% of people on this earth could never even fathom (even if they pretend so).