He talked about electric cars. I don't know anything about cars, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Then he talked about rockets. I don't know anything about rockets, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Now he talks about software. I happen to know a lot about software & Elon Musk is saying the stupidest shit I've ever heard anyone say, so when people say he's a genius I figure I should stay the hell away from his cars and rockets.
@rodhilton Tesla was the first mover for EV, like apple was for smartphones. The difference is that teslas are pretty crappy and other manufacturers are catching up.
SpaceX is pretty dope, but I read the team hat to work around Elon's stupid ideas all the time to create a good solution.
@fabiank83 @rodhilton Apple wasn’t the first mover for smartphones. There were smartphones with touchscreens before the iPhone.
http://meta.ath0.com/2013/11/17/the-sony-ericsson-p900/
(Also, the iPhone was pretty crap at first. No MMS, terrible battery life… but Apple steadily improved it. And FWIW I’m typing this on an iPhone.)
@mathew @rodhilton Touch screen exist since the 80s or so but multitouch on phones with no keyboard was new.
@rodhilton @fabiank83 Yeah, if you come up with a narrow enough contrived definition of “smartphone” you can argue that Apple pioneered it.
Apple didn’t invent multitouch either, of course; they bought it from Fingerworks. The iPhone was a minor improvement on previous smartphones in some areas, worse in others, using existing technology. That’s what Apple has always done well: take other people’s inventions and polish the design repeatedly.
@mathew @fabiank83 @rodhilton EVs were a niche market before Tesla broke it open. Touch smartphones were a niche market before Apple broke it open.
Neither of them made technical innovations other than integration, both of them were a success in vision, design and marketing that changed public perceptions and expectations.
The Samsung Galaxy wouldn't exist without Apple and the Nissan Leaf wouldn't exist without Tesla, but at this point you're better off buying the non-first-mover.