# How does someone with no business acumen get to be the richest person in the world? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 14, 2022, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903 "2022-11-14T19:46:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2022, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/301 "2022-12-01T23:26:36Z")
The front door manual release on the Model 3 is so intuitive that I have to explicitly tell people to _not_ use it. Any safety issue is entirely theoretical. What is not theoretical is how people have _already_ died due to poor manual release designs in other cars, like the Corvette: > **[Texas man, dog, die inside Corvette when doors and windows won’t open ](https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/texas-man-72-dies-trapped-corvette-dream-car-article-1.2253934)** > > A 72-year-old Texas man perished inside his dream Corvette when its lock system malfunctioned and he was trapped inside with his dog, Leia. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2022, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/302 "2022-12-01T23:47:43Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > but seemingly can’t manage his way out of a wet paper bag? …cite? > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > If it’s that easy to find good people, why are most companies so terrible at it? There are millions of companies all around the world, and whether or not they are “terrible” at finding “good people” or not depends entirely on how one would define a “good person.” Most companies do just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/303 "2022-12-02T00:05:11Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > …cite? If you’re looking for an article on the subject, you can start here: > **[Inside Blue Origin: Employees say toxic, dysfunctional ‘bro culture’ led to...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/11/blue-origin-jeff-bezos-delays-toxic-workplace/)** > > “It’s condescending. It’s demoralizing,” said one former top executive of conditions prompting many to leave the company. > In 2019, the company fired its head of recruiting after employees complained of sexism. A consultant retained by Blue Origin conducted a review of the company’s leadership, finding that the primary challenge was Smith’s **ineffective, micromanaging leadership style** , said two former employees, including a top executive. There are many more articles along the same lines. However, I am more concerned about Blue Origin’s simple lack of progress. I [posted earlier](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/202) about how Blue Origin and SpaceX were essentially in the same position early on. Why have they diverged so much since then? BO currently has only two products: their suborbital New Shepard, and the BE-4 engines. The BE-4 is basically 5 years late at this point (not that the article is \>1 yr old, and the BE-4 production engines were only _just_ shipped): > **[Blue Origin’s powerful BE-4 engine is more than four years late—here’s why](https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/blue-origins-powerful-be-4-engine-is-more-than-four-years-late-heres-why/)** > > "This is a success oriented approach, but it could definitely backfire." New Shepard has flown 23 times in ~10 years: > **[New Shepard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Shepard)** > > New Shepard is a fully reusable sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin. The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, who became the first American to travel into space and the fifth person to walk on the Moon. The vehicle is capable of vertical takeoff and landings. Additionally, it is also capable of carrying humans and customer payloads into a sub-orbital trajectory. > New Shepard consists of a booster rocket and a crew capsule. The capsule can be configured to hou... That’s less than 3 flights per year for a suborbital rocket. In contrast, SpaceX has flown more than once a _week_ in 2022. There is also the fact that Blue Origin submitted a terrible design for the Artemis HLS contract, and then got butthurt and filed a bunch of lawsuits and other legal nonsense: > **[Court ruling describes rejection of Blue Origin HLS lawsuit](https://spacenews.com/court-ruling-describes-rejection-of-blue-origin-hls-lawsuit/)** > > A federal judge rejected Blue Origin’s lawsuit again NASA’s Human Landing System procurement, even after it offered to further increase its contribution. Well, they were thrown out. But still, an embarrassing proposal on their part and even more embarrassing to try to fight the rejection in court. Bob Smith has only been CEO for 5 years, so he is not _fully_ responsible for all of this. Still, it’s not a good record. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/304 "2022-12-02T00:15:16Z")
You can also check out Glassdoor for company ratings: > **[Working at SpaceX](https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-SpaceX-EI_IE40371.11,17.htm)** > > See what employees say it's like to work at SpaceX. Salaries, reviews, and more - all posted by employees working at SpaceX. > **[Blue Origin Reviews](https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Blue-Origin-Reviews-E782684.htm)** > > 452 Blue Origin reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees. [![](https://i.imgur.com/hHgcdhq.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/hHgcdhq.png) [![](https://i.imgur.com/E5PgbOx.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/E5PgbOx.png) Ouch. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/305 "2022-12-02T00:17:06Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > There are many more articles along the same lines. …this just sounds like Tesla. If you think that Bob Smith sounds bad, wait until you hear about this guy called Elon Musk. And didn’t you say this kind of thing is an acceptable trade-off? > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > An acceptable tradeoff, given that the alternative to electric cars is the end of technological civilization. Yep. You did. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > However, I am more concerned about Blue Origin’s simple lack of progress. I [posted earlier](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/202) about how Blue Origin and SpaceX were essentially in the same position early on. Why have they diverged so much since then? > > BO currently has only two products: their suborbital New Shepard, and the BE-4 engines. The BE-4 is basically 5 years late at this point (not that the article is \>1 yr old, and the BE-4 production engines were only _just_ shipped): > > [Blue Origin’s powerful BE-4 engine is more than four years late—here’s why | Ars Technica](https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/blue-origins-powerful-be-4-engine-is-more-than-four-years-late-heres-why/) > > That’s less than 3 flights per year for a suborbital rocket. In contrast, SpaceX has flown more than once a _week_ in 2022. This all sounds _entirely_ normal. Two different companies, doing two different things, using two different strategies, are proceeding at different rates. We all know that Musk companies iterate faster, and take much bigger risks. Not everyone thinks that this is the best approach. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/306 "2022-12-02T00:19:33Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Ouch. …yeah, but the thing is, Bob Smith is significantly less likely to hire a private investigator to dig into your personal life if you were to leave a negative review. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/307 "2022-12-02T00:23:41Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > This all sounds _entirely_ normal. Two different companies, doing two different things, using two different strategies, are proceeding at different rates. We all know that Musk companies iterate faster, and take much bigger risks. Well, yes. But it’s not like Bezos was unambitious. They’ve been putting out images like this for their goals: [![](https://i.imgur.com/8h7lpKa.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/8h7lpKa.png) That makes Musk’s Mars ambitions look tame in comparison. One can’t blame their failures on just having smaller targets. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/308 "2022-12-02T00:35:03Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > That makes Musk’s Mars ambitions look tame in comparison. …“Planning to send Dragon to Mars as soon as 2018” is more than mere ambition and certainly more than an image. “Failure” is subjective. Bob Smith does sound like a terrible boss. But he certainly isn’t worse than Elon Musk who has put his entire ass on display over the last few weeks. And “couldn’t manage his way out of a paper bag” is clearly hyperbole. It sounds like the bro-culture rules where he works, so not as-bad-as-a-Musk workplace then, which you concede is an acceptable trade-off given the alternatives. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/309 "2022-12-02T01:01:50Z")
A few abandoned projects are fine as long as you have _something else_ to show for it. And that something else has been the Falcon 9, the Falcon Heavy, Cargo Dragon, Crew Dragon, Starlink, their reusability program, and more. Blue Origin has very little to show for their efforts. New Shepard failed on its last flight, so its reliability has gone _down_ over time (Falcon 9 has had a couple of failures, but they have had \>150 successful launches in a row since then). BE-4 is still not in actual use. Rocket Lab is from your home country. I have a great deal of respect for them, and they have a lot of pluck. They appear to be a well-run company with somewhat modest ambitions. I wouldn’t criticize them all on the basis that they aren’t SpaceX. They have achieved more than Blue Origin has, and on fewer resources. Peter Beck seems to be an effective CEO. I am not precisely sure what the secret ingredient is, except to say that Musk and Beck have it, and Bezos does not. It is not exactly drive or ambition, which Bezos certainly has. I’m not sure it’s passion, either, since Bezos has shown passion for other projects, like the retrieval of some Saturn V engines or the revival of _The Expanse_. Running a successful rocket business needs something more. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/310 "2022-12-02T01:46:37Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > A few abandoned projects are fine as long as you have _something else_ to show for it. …and Blue Origin have plenty to show for it. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Blue Origin has very little to show for their efforts. New Shepard failed on its last flight, so its reliability has gone _down_ over time (Falcon 9 has had a couple of failures, but they have had \>150 successful launches in a row since then). BE-4 is still not in actual use. It’s literally rocket science, and they are operating at the very edge of where our science and technology is right now. Again, nothing you are sharing here sounds out-of-line to where one would expect a company like Blue Origin to be. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Rocket Lab is from your home country. I have a great deal of respect for them, and they have a lot of pluck. They appear to be a well-run company with somewhat modest ambitions. I wouldn’t criticize them all on the basis that they aren’t SpaceX. They have achieved more than Blue Origin has, and on fewer resources. Peter Beck seems to be an effective CEO. I’ll criticize them for failing to properly consult tangata whenua, for not honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi, for literally gating off access to the Māori owners of the land. I mean seriously, don’t get me started on those bastards. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > I am not precisely sure what the secret ingredient is, except to say that Musk and Beck have it, and Bezos does not. It is not exactly drive or ambition, which Bezos certainly has. I’m not sure it’s passion, either, since Bezos has shown passion for other projects, like the retrieval of some Saturn V engines or the revival of _The Expanse_. Running a successful rocket business needs something more. When there are less than a handful of rocket businesses in the _world_, then it should be fairly obvious that some will do better than others. You said he " seemingly can’t manage his way out of a wet paper bag." But we are talking about a relatively new industry that was formerly dominated by the public sector where the stakes are extremely high. Not matching the outcomes of a rival does not necessarily demonstrate mismanagement, which is what you allege. If its just rampant sexism, racism and misogyny then that’s fine by you, because that’s an acceptable trade-off. But that isn’t what we are talking about. We are talking _management_. I think we’ve established that he actually _could_ manage his way out of a paper bag. I’m sure you would agree you were being hyperbolic. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/311 "2022-12-02T08:03:37Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > I mean seriously, don’t get me started on those bastards. Heh, I wasn’t expecting to touch a nerve, but I suppose I should have guessed. Well, if it makes you feel better, I think there’s a non-negligible chance they’ll end up moving most/all flights to Wallops Island. > [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > I’m sure you would agree you were being hyperbolic. There are worse companies, to be sure. Boeing has managed to spend $5.1B putting zero people into orbit. Again, we have a situation where both Boeing and SpaceX had the same starting point, and in this case _exactly_ the same goal. Boeing should have had the nod due to more money and experience, but it didn’t exactly work out that way. ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/312 "2022-12-02T09:46:28Z")
Stupid question here. Will Musk’s purchase of Twitter result in a giant tax break for him for (at least) the 2022 fiscal year? Could this be written down as an expense / investment writeoff resulting in a net financial benefit for him, or at least an offsetting of some of that $44BN he spent while he figures out how to move forward with the company? ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/313 "2022-12-02T12:25:39Z")
So basically, he’s a bad CEO just like Musk? ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/314 "2022-12-02T12:35:32Z")
So let’s compare apples to apples and look at the head of design for car companies. Toyota. Simon Humphries. Volkswagon. [Klaus Zyciora - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Zyciora) Dailmer. [Gorden Wagener - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorden_Wagener) Ford. Anthony Lo. [https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-lo-12425a18/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-lo-12425a18/) Honda. There seems to be a few. It is unclear to me if there is one single “head” overall. GM. [Michael Simcoe - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Simcoe) as of 2016. Prior was [Edward T. Welburn - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_T._Welburn). Let’s stop there. You stated. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > So why do Tesla and SpaceX’s competitors seem to get all the shit people? So can you point out which of these heads of design are “shit people”? ---
**Author:** ![nate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nate/32/13085_2.png) [@nate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nate)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/315 "2022-12-02T16:38:37Z")
I don’t know about his particular case but I would be surprised if any tax break is a net financial gain rather than less of a loss. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/316 "2022-12-02T18:48:13Z")
> [@BeepKillBeep](#): > > These things are subjective, but to me the cybertruck looks awful. Comically awful. You’re being too kind. The Cybertruck is, without a doubt, hands down, the ugliest thing I have ever seen on wheels. If Holzhausen was responsible for designing the original Tesla sedan, then kudos to him – it’s a beautiful car, but the truck is a joke. In the picture upthread, linking to the interview with Holzhausen, my first thought was, what the hell is that _ **thing** _ behind him? Well, folks, that’s the Cybertruck. The truck, in fact, looks exactly like something that might have been hurriedly hammered together in someone’s garage – a garage that wasn’t very well equipped with much more than a hammer and a welder. Holzhausen repeatedly cites “form follows function” as the design inspiration, but he doesn’t actually seem to understand what “function” means. The flat panels and straight edges don’t have a function; they are (apparently) a consequence of the decision to use stainless steel for the body panels, which Holzhausen says can’t be formed into compound curves. Even the supposed toughness of stainless steel isn’t really a function but more of a whimsical design choice, since it doesn’t really do anything particularly useful except provide a sort of psychologically alluring gimmick. The comments after the video are interesting. About half of them state frankly that the thing is comically ugly. The other half are apparently Musk fanbois who will buy anything with his name on it. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/317 "2022-12-02T19:09:48Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > The truck, in fact, looks exactly like something that might have been hurriedly hammered together in someone’s garage – a garage that wasn’t very well equipped with much more than a hammer and a welder. When I first saw a picture of the Cybertruck it made me think of a very low-budget 1950s corny sci-fi movie. That is totally the sort of thing somebody would bodge together for $100 to represent their Mars rover: take a bare car chassis, attach some large flat plywood panels at odd angles with extra small window openings, and viola: a space-faring exo-planetary truck. Maybe we should call it _Plan 9 from Mars_. Or is that _Plan 9 to Mars_? ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/318 "2022-12-02T21:36:46Z")
One of my neighbors just got a Tesla about a week and a half ago. After three days, he stilled loved it, but, man, that is a boring-looking car. Guess I was expecting something a bit more jazzy? ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/319 "2022-12-03T05:09:59Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > When I first saw a picture of the Cybertruck it made me think of a very low-budget 1950s corny sci-fi movie. Heeheh, aww now, it’s more of a late 70s/early 80s aesthetic. If it were from a 50s movie, it’d have some sort of domes on the back, possibly with rings around them. The flat panels make me think it’s pretty much for Ark II or some such ilk. [https://www.angelfire.com/tv2/ark2/vehicles.html](https://www.angelfire.com/tv2/ark2/vehicles.html) ETA: Reading that page reminded me of what it really reminds me of, the Landmaster: > **[Landmaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landmaster)** > > The Landmaster is a unique 12-wheeled amphibious articulated vehicle constructed by Dean Jeffries at Jeffries Automotive in Universal City, California, for the 1977 science fiction film Damnation Alley (itself based on a novel by Roger Zelazny). Despite the appearance of two Landmasters in the film (achieved with process photography and models), only one was built, at a cost of $350,000 in 1976. > A staple of southern California car culture for many years, the Landmaster was parked in full view ne... ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/320 "2022-12-03T06:53:17Z")
> [@BeepKillBeep](#): > > So can you point out which of these heads of design are “shit people”? Let’s take a step back since the argument I was making was obviously lost somewhere along the way (though I maintain Bob Smith is still terrible). Let’s suppose, for the sake of argument, that I give you every negative supposition ever made about him: Musk is an idiot, he only got where he is because he’s rich, the industries he’s in are easy, it’s his employees that do everything, it’s all subsidies, etc., etc. You _still_ have to explain the massive success of SpaceX and Tesla compared to the competition. Why have they done so much better than everyone else, and essentially come out of nowhere? There must be a reason. What is it? It can’t really be the money, because their competition had access to billions of dollars as well. Both automotive and aerospace has access to plenty of funding. And it’s not like the competitors had no interest in moving into these spaces–Tesla and SpaceX are eating their lunch now, to their regret. It can’t be that the problems Tesla and SpaceX are easy, else there would be plenty of competition from all corners. And in fact plenty of companies _have_ sprung up, but they have mostly fallen by the wayside or moved very slowly. SpaceX has no real competition at all, and Tesla only very recently has reasonable competitors. It can’t just be the people, because everyone has access to the same pool of people. Either the people at Tesla and SpaceX are better than the competition or they’re not. If they aren’t, then the explanation goes nowhere. If they are, then you have to explain how Tesla and SpaceX got the good people and the rest did not. It can’t be the subsidies, because again everyone had access to the same funds. And in many cases, actually took those funds (sometimes in much greater quantities) but apparently squandered them. And so on. You can believe whatever you wish about Musk, but it just makes explaining the success of Tesla and SpaceX that much harder. Or, you can use Occam’s Razor and admit that he’s actually a pretty good entrepreneur and that this was the key difference, enabling him to find better people, to use the funding more efficiently, to push for products that are both profitable and desirable, and so on. That’s enough for now. I have a few things to check out on Twitter, which, contrary to everything I’ve heard reported, somehow still hasn’t collapsed yet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903.md?page=17)