

Ask HN: Does a brilliant engineer like Tony Stark exist in real life? - bishes

This is quite childish,I know. But, while wondering about the character, I constantly think about a real life model. The person doesn&#x27;t have to be a prodigy but with a mind set and skill set like &quot;Stark&quot;.And what sort of engineering skills are essential to such engineers, if they exist in real life?
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sfrechtling
I don't know if there is an engineer who is able to invent a new form of
energy and a complete weapon while captured by the taliban, so no I do not
think there is an exact analogue.

However, the film makers have claimed to use Elon Musk as inspiration for Tony
Stark in the new Iron Man movies
([http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10544247/Meet-
tec...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10544247/Meet-tech-
billionaire-and-real-life-Iron-Man-Elon-Musk.html))

~~~
bishes
Yes, there is no exact model of Tony. But I am not asking for one. Yes, Elon
Musk is quite the real-life iron man, except inventing a ground-breaking
energy technology, and a hi-tech death machine. Plus, he is more of a science
guy turned entrepreneur. I only ask about the engineering mind set and skills
that a person needs to tinker and invent at a sophisticated level.

------
minthd
Elon musk has don a lot of myth building around himself,for example claiming
to invent the hyperloop(which was invented in 1999 by ET3). And his employees
are mad about him taking all the credit for all kinds of results.So i'm not
sure you should count him.

We also see the same thing with Edison - claiming credit for other people's
work.

The most impressive engineer i can think of is altschuler , which in the
1950's, in russia, even after/while being in a russian labor camp - invented a
method of systematic invention(TRIZ) that is used to this day, and really
enables every engineer to become an inventor.

So why am i mentioning him ? because to a certain extent - coming up with good
inventive ideas may not be the hard part(to some extent). But refining the
details,building prototypes,testing, etc is the filter that takes a bunch of
good inventive ideas and comes with a great invention.

But usually this process takes an infinite amount of work, so it's beyond the
capability of a single guy.

------
ariejan
Woz.

Not the flamboyant playboy, like Stark. But silent, smart, determined and hard
working.

