Elon Musk's fundamental problem has always been that he approaches problems with "You have a problem. I have the solution" as opposed to "I see there's a problem. Can I help you with a solution?"

The Thai cave crisis is his whole life in miniature. Here's a thing I sort of understand, no one else has tried my solution, therefore I will bullshit my way into the situation. It worked with Paypal, because nobody had tried to put a bank on the Internet before therefore there was room for innovation. It worked with SpaceX, because nobody had tried brute-forcing their way into emulating the antiquated Korolev design bureau through sheer force of will. It worked with Solar City (for a while) because hippies were too in love with cheap solar panels to figure out that they were voluntarily putting liens on their house and giving away their rebates. It worked with Tesla (so far) because nobody has ever had such sheer cult love that they could sell cars for a loss for ten years. I mean, seriously. Imagine if Preston Tucker or John DeLorean had been allowed to fly as close to the sun as Elon Musk has. We'd probably have fucking antigravity by now, rather than a 4-door GM Impact.

But instead, we've got a guy who has basically brute-forced his way through industries where everyone else is required to make money and as a result, he thinks the solution to an intractable problem is "put kids in cans." I mean, I don't even know if he's ever been scuba diving.

Most of us would assume that if an entire country has been stymied, and if a special forces diver died coming up with a solution, that we might not understand the full scope of the problem. But then, most of us haven't been publicly cited as Robert Downey Jr's inspiration for Tony Stark.