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Reading a biography mostly informed me about the lack of general empathy, remorse, sympathy. Only regret came forward a little (and only once).

> be crazy enough to bet it all

Anyone who doesn't suffer any real consequences. Having parents with a lot of money makes it not matter all that much.

As for the other bad decisions; it doesn't really show much positive except maybe persistence, but persistence in a vacuum is not a good thing. In a way, it mostly read like "a skewed mind made a bunch of bets and got lucky". Perhaps mostly an example of survivorship bias in a business sense.

Now, if we go back to the hoarding; it's not about when someone didn't hoard, it's about the here and now. I'm pretty sure we can find a period of time where Gates or Kamprad didn't do any hoarding, or not the hoarding we'd expect. But concentration of anything doesn't really happen by accident, and wherever we see it now, we can assume it was intentional.

There are of course also examples of people on their death bed realising their hoard doesn't really matter anymore and they might give most or all of it away. But that doesn't mean the hoarding never happened. It doesn't turn someone into a genius or a saint. When such things happen, we might consider it commendable, but that doesn't mean history disappears.

In a way it works not like a balance or a sum but more like a ratchet; it's about the degree to which someone hoarded stuff and how they acted with their hoard (doesn't have to be money, can be property or secrets or power or knowledge etc).



> Now, if we go back to the hoarding; it's not about when someone didn't hoard, it's about the here and now. I'm pretty sure we can find a period of time where Gates or Kamprad didn't do any hoarding, or not the hoarding we'd expect. But concentration of anything doesn't really happen by accident, and wherever we see it now, we can assume it was intentional.

I’m no fan of Musk, but he clearly isn’t guilty of the hoarding aspect, as WalterBright pointed out.


Musk used his "hoard" to revolutionize the car industry, then the rocket industry, then the communications industry, etc.

Did you know he gave away free Starlink to victims of hurricane Helena and the LA fires? When FEMA did nothing?

He's also going to rescue the astronauts abandoned in space.

My gawd, Elon is pure eeevil!!


How did FEMA do nothing?


FEMA failed to provide communications.


> Anyone who doesn't suffer any real consequences. Having parents with a lot of money makes it not matter all that much.

You're not going to starve in America if you lose all your money.

Besides, Elon's dad at one point invested in Elon's company. Elon was already a success in business by then. From $20,000, he became the richest man in the world. All by luck! Pretty amazing!

Me, I could scrape up $20,000. Could I turn it into the richest man in the world? Nope. I would never have taken the risks Musk did. Nor do I have his work ethic. Nor am I as smart as he is. So I'm not envious of him.


> You're not going to starve in America if you lose all your money.

claim, meet data: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10990269/#:~:text=%...


> You're not going to starve in America if you lose all your money.

Walk down my street with me and I’ll show you.

> Nor am I as smart as he is.

Are you kidding?


I've had the opportunity to know and work with many people who are way smarter than I am. I know one when I see one.

Lots of people seem to think that Musk has blundered his way from success to success. Nobody blunders $20,000 into richest man in the world.


Being in the right place at the right time with the right connections and not having your equity diluted helps.

There are plenty of “smart” people who aren’t rich.


I could have been a billionaire many separate times. I failed to notice the opportunity.

> There are plenty of “smart” people who aren’t rich.

Of course. And the biggest barriers to success are:

1. not getting educated in what you want to do

2. being risk averse

3. not willing to commit to the work needed

4. doing drugs and alcohol

5. believe your friends and acquaintances telling you you can't make it

This forum is part of ycombinator, an outfit looking for startups to fund. You're already in the right place at the right time.


I live in New Orleans. I went to the same school he did. Thank you for conveying my point.


I see nowhere in Musks history that he went to school in New Orleans


I meant as WalterBright, and the school wasn’t in New Orleans.


You can either not be hoarding, or you can be richest man in the world. You can't have it both ways.




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