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Elon Musk didn't found Tesla. Electric cars existed long before him. Satellite internet has been around for a long time before him (though I will admit his has better performance). Him backing OpenAI is cool, but it could also be counted as a miss. I bet he wishes he were at the helm instead of sama.
On the contrary, I don't think anything Musk has really accomplished rises to the level of the iPhone, which is, so far, the defining innovation of the 21st century.
I very strongly disagree. There were smartphones before the iPhone, including with all sorts of applications and stylus interface over finger interface. The iPhone was the most popular smartphone and it will deserve a note on history for representing the moment that they spread, and represented an advance. But a small enough which was inevitable. As far as technological innovation goes, I am not that impressed. Still deserving praise for capturing the market though and some innovation on some features. But I wouldn't consider it sufficiently innovative to represent the definitive innovation of the 21st century. More representing the point of time that smartphones spread.
The OS was also preferable by many users over prior alternatives, and represented an inovvation, but I wouldn't call that a sufficiently impressive innovation for the praise you offered. Although definitely a great product at the right time.
ETA: Apparently a different smartphone was available in stores a month before the iPhone with a finger touchscreen interface. https://www.androidauthority.com/lg-prada-1080646/
You can't disagree without offering your own pick for the invention of the century (so far) :D
That being said, I agree with much of your characterization of the iPhone, though I still say that Jobs was the only one to put the pieces together correctly. Likewise, Musk has the opportunity to do the same thing as Jobs for any of his products, especially Tesla, and I think he's failing. Tesla doesn't have near the same prestige or mindshare as Apple did after they released the iPhone, not even close. And while I do say a fair bit of Teslas on the road, it's still rare enough for it to be remarkable for where I live (and I live in a place that is biased towards Tesla).
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The smartphone is probably the early 20th century innovation but it was going to occur with or without Steve Jobs.
Which I think is the big fundamental difference between Musks and Jobs. Rockets and electric cars did not have any meaningful innovation before Musks.
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Not founding Tesla is a technical difference without a real difference. The company was an idea before him with I believe no revenue but maybe they sold some hand build cars. And now does $100 billion in revenue. Warren Buffett didn’t found Berkshire Hathaway. It was a shell company with a cheap asset or two he completely build and revolutionized. In a meaningful use of the word he created Tesla.
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In magnitude, surely. In terms of positive outcome, that seems pretty questionable.
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