Elon Musk

[Robert.Boston]

That neatly summarizes the difference between Musk and Jobs. Elon gives the commencement address at CalTech, Jobs at Stanford.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Jobs was a visionary in that he wanted his sense of design, perfection and ease of use to be applied to nascent consumer tech that was already out there; Apple had not actually invented the digital music player or the touchscreen smartphone - Apple/Jobs happened to make them vastly superior to anything else out there and incredibly easy to use. Jobs was very much a facilitator too, first with Woz and then with Jony Ive and others as well as Lasseter and Catmull at Pixar.

Musk is most definitely a technically-adept doer who also pays attention to design. Arguably, he has taken on challenges on a much bigger scale - near-Earth and then inner-solar-system space travel and widespread adoption of cool yet, practical EVs - than Jobs ever did. Musk may not touch as many people as Jobs did but, will leave just as prominent a mark on the world.

 

[medved]

In my eyes Elon Musk is way above Steve Jobs.

Thank you also to WhiteKnight for answering my question about the garage thing.

There is however one more thing that bugs me. I really would like to know what kind of "miracle" treatment Elon used to grow his hair back? I am asking this because I know several people who could use it. Here I know for sure that the treatment worked:

 

[Doug_G]

Probably a hair transplant...

 

[dsm363]

Or maybe he's just so cool that what would normally stress people out and cause them to lose hair does the opposite on him?:smile:

 

[Bearman]

I think its a lithum-ion treatment :wink:'
Looks good!

 

[daniel]

Steve Jobs gave us some really cool products, well designed, well built, good value for the money.

Elon Musk is leading a transportation revolution with the potential to help us kick our deadly addiction to oil.

Between the two, there's no comparison. I have an iMac, an iPod Touch, and a Tesla Roadster. The first two are excellent products. The last is brilliant. The first two are fun. The last leads the way to the future. Nobody ever looks at my computer or my iTouch and says, "Wow! That is so cool! Tell me all about it." Jobs built commodities. Musk is building dreams. Jobs was a great businessman. Musk is a great man.

 

[vfx]

We know a healthy ego is required to reach his potion but vanity is not mandatory.

 

[FalconNinetyD]

This week's Time magazine has an article on Elon:

Rocket Man Elon Musk

The full article has only a brief mention of Tesla, it's almost entirely related to SpaceX.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

That Time article was a good read. It's interesting to learn that everything he knows about rockets is self-taught! But, he has surrounded himself with the right kind of people (ex-other-aerospace-companies, ex-NASA) at SpaceX to get things done.

Not getting patents for SpaceX on purpose is a bit of a surprise. On the Tesla front, they have been getting patents for sure.

 

[AnOutsider]

What's this about patents? I'm not a subscriber

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

What's this about patents? I'm not a subscriber

Excerpt from the article:

Musk could also get tripped up by his hubris. He's become more press-savvy lately, effusively thanking NASA for its support of SpaceX and taking care not to overstate his successes as he's done in the past. But his humility goes only so far. He has claimed almost no patents on his rocket systems because he believes he's so far ahead of the field that no one would be able to copy him anyway. "Elon's philosophy is, Just move fast enough that no one catches you," says Mueller. That's a nice idea--unless someone actually does catch you.

 

[doug]

This should probably go in the SpaceX thread. I've heard him say that with SpaceX, it would be impossible to enforce rocket patents against the Chinese anyhow, so it's not worth pursuing them.

 

[AnOutsider]

Thanks. Odd. I can see moving so quick you don't have time to patent, but what if one of your team leaves and does his own thing or gets poached by a competitor? Seems reckless. Almost like leaving the house door unlocked and thinking if you run to the store fast enough no one will have time to steal anything.

 

[doug]

NDA and non compete clauses.

 

[TEG]

Perhaps much of what they have done is just redo previous technology anyways?

My take is that the benefit of the SpaceX approach is that they have done a "minimalist" implementation, doing away with as much superfluous old technology as they could, while sticking to the proven basics.

 

[Citizen-T]

No, there is a lot of innovation going on at SpaceX. @doug is right, Elon has said many times that the reason that they don't do patents is because in a patent you have to describe in exacting detail how your invention works. SpaceX's only real competitors are China and Russia (mostly China) and there is no way to prevent them from just pulling up the patent on Google and stealing the technology.

This doesn't have anything to do with Elon's philosophy on business. Tesla does lots of patents. Patents aren't the only way to protect IP. Sometimes a trade-secret is the better way to go. Prime example, Coke never patented their formula.

I think the "arrogant businessman" just makes for a better story.

 

[ckessel]

Plus, Elon's goal is more space travel and multi-planetary existence. Patents probably won't further those goals.

 

[William13]

Unless a rocket crashes in china or Russia no one will copy them. If a patent is filed they can easily be copied. Elon is right to avoid patents for rockets but getting them for cars.

 

[Doug_G]

That Time article was a good read. It's interesting to learn that everything he knows about rockets is self-taught! But, he has surrounded himself with the right kind of people (ex-other-aerospace-companies, ex-NASA) at SpaceX to get things done.

Not getting patents for SpaceX on purpose is a bit of a surprise. On the Tesla front, they have been getting patents for sure.

Hardly surprising. Patents wouldn't protect them; in fact patents require you to publish your technology for all to see. Better to keep it secret, rather than telling your Chinese government competition how to build your stuff.