In an earlier era, we’d all have been glued to the television to cheer SpaceX successfully catching Starship’s returning booster rocket on the first try. I remember my father talking about seeing Apollo 11 make it to the moon. That was a lifelong memory for him. And I remember, as a six-year old boy, watching the fatal Challenger explosion on TV. That’s been a lifelong memory for me. Reaching for space, in triumph or tragedy, ought to be special.

But today it’s often just another post that quickly scrolls by on your feed. Maybe you pause for a minute, but the moment easily gets compressed to the same level of gravitas as someone getting punched in the face or an extra cute cat. The spectacle has been completely commoditized. The grand gesture is gone. It now takes effort to actually marvel when something truly spectacular occurs. Like shooting the Starship, 50 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty, towards space, and seeing it stick the landing to perfection.

You should make that effort. Embrace that marvel. Don’t be cynical. Don’t let transient party politics cloud the moment. Musk was once considered to be on the blue team, now he’s on the red team. Little of that will matter in the long term. But propelling progress forward definitely will.

And speaking of Mr Musk, what an insane week for him, and for everyone excited about progress. Cybertaxis, robot bartenders, art-deco people carriers, and now returning starships. This is exactly the kind of willing the future into existence that leaps of progress depend on. Who cares whether all these incredible ambitions arrive right on time or not.

Because ambition this crazy is only likely to emerge from someone equally and sufficiently nuts. And I mean that in the most admirable way possible. Musk is nuts. He’s one of the crazy ones. A true original. Easy to hate, impossible to ignore.

And that’s what gets me. Everyone find it easy to nod in agreement with Jobs’ ode to To The Crazy Ones. Everyone wants to believe that they’d support “the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers”. That they too would cheer for those who are “not fond of rules. And… have no respect for the status quo”.

But they won’t and they don’t. Most people are either aggressively or passively conformist. They squirm when The Crazy Ones actually attempt to change the world. They don’t see genius as often as they see transgressors. A failure to comply and comport. And they don’t like it.

I like it. Not crazy for the sake of crazy, but crazy for the sake of progress. Demonstrable, undeniable, awe-inspiring progress. And that’s what Mr Musk has brought us and continues to bring us.

To infinity and beyond, you crazy spaceman! 🫡