Sorensen v Musk, whither dost one follow?

In the last past, I asked why aren't there more people like Elon Musk?  But I didn't consider something and that is this:  What has Musk actually accomplished?  The answer is that he has shown a talent for making money and raising money towards reaching his goals.  His accomplishments have not changed anything fundamentally, in my opinion.

Compared with Musk, Kirk Sorensen of Flibe Energy is not nearly so successful.  Sorensen is probably not very rich, and he may never be.  Yet, in studying his plans and writing about them with 85 posts thus far over the course of this blog, I think Sorensen's ideas may come closer to sustainable energy than anything that I know about with respect to Musk's plans.  Yet, progress appears to be rather slow.

The unfortunate conclusion is that the overall merit of an idea isn't a guarantee of it being successful in the financial sense.  But the problems we face can only be solved if a financial basis exists for that solution.  Otherwise, it is not a solution for the many, although a particular solution may work for a few.

Therein may lie the key to understanding why one is financially successful and the other isn't.  Trying to run things for the good of the many is a lot harder than trying to run things for the good of the few.  It is a fundamentally more difficult problem to solve.  Trying to get the many to go in one direction for very long is like trying to herd cats.  It is hard enough just to get one person to follow consistently in one direction.