There's a time, a sad time, when up and comers ping on the radar of their heroes and find them to not be the men they imagined.
It shouldn't diminish the respect they have for their heroes, but it is the sign that they should now move out from behind them and chart their own course...except now they are on their own...there is nobody to guide them.
Exactly. Reminds me of a favorite quote from Frank Herbert's Dune "There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man--with human flesh."
Same here....that part really endeared him to me. He (Musk) has always been a 'semi-hero' in my eyes - immigrant, built and sold Paypal and is now running 3 companies, 2 of which will likely revolutionize civilization.
How many people build 1 company that does that? He is on track to do it three times over (don't know much about the solar power endeavor, but I imagine it should be similar).
It's also why I love Bezos with his 10,000 year clock. Nothing he does is small.
It is people like that, that inspire me to stop trying to be 'good enough', but be great.
The humanity in the hurt makes the goals seem even more 'doable'.
That's because it's somewhat inaccurate. Dr Aldrin is all for commercial space flight. Dr Buzz Aldrin is (Apparently) upset that NASA had 7 years from the decision to end the shuttle program to come up with a working replacement and they failed.
The Dr Aldrin is a legend, and so is Neil Armstrong. It was Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan who did the criticizing of SpaceX, not Dr Aldrin.
It's hard to deal with the fact that heroes can be human beings too. Even Elon is just a human, with many flaws. As are Aldrin and Armstrong. And Tyson and Sagan.
It's good to draw inspiration from the inspirational, but ultimately you have to be your own man regardless.
Me too. I was also somewhat reviled by the interviewer apparently smelling money and asking him four versions of the same question at that point. As a general comment, this willingness to make a spectacle of misery seemed to come out of nowhere in 1999 with Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I'm sure classic game shows did this too, but in my lifetime this seemed to be a real turning point. '99 is also the year I threw away my TV, and I haven't regretted that.
what he should have said is that he can't comment because neither he nor his company is in making or deciding on politics. elon is a businessman after all - the government decided to retire space program but there still be a need to travel both cargo and life. he's seeing future opportunity and betting on it, which should be every wise businessman approach.
Being human is something we have washed away with dedicated PR staff. I feel 'numb' to public figures now, especially political and that takes something intangible away.
Elon is leading us into space by setting incredible goals and asking for the best from the best. He is a leader in more than one sense. Showing emotion and character is important in leadership and I thought it was appropriate and touching.
I really dont get huge downvote on this one. I dont see anything wrong in being a businessmen like Elon. Sure he is betting on future and thats great. It was emotional moment, I get that as well. Still he is not in policy making process, which I think is good.
So you would rather clueless goons be in the so called "policy making process" (but let's be honest, more like a "lobby making process") than intelligent individuals that are pioneering the field which will soon need the policies?
