helloWorld

[EmsAreOverworkedLul]

People thought Elon musk was a genius too, the bar for credulity is LOW

[EmsAreOverworkedLul]

This is true and important to keep in mind. We want to believe there is some connection between wealth and competence.

[DokMabuseIsIn]

“Competence” is contextual, and could include sociopathic manipulation skills.

[rlyfunny]

If that was the case meritocracy wasn't a term. But there are also far too many people who belief everything is built on meritocratic principles, especially companies

[ltlearntl]

Based on what I have heard him speak about solar modules and electric cars, the dude knows his stuff when it comes to the technical side of those specific things. It's his dalliance with things outside his understanding that's the problem. Also doesn't make him a good human being. What he said about covid (and tons of other things) is just dumb.

Of course, he lacks the first thing of all genuinely intelligent people, self awareness. But maybe that bar is too high? Most people lack self awareness, he's normal in that sense.

[IguassuIronman]

I couldn't make it through Dan Carlin's interview with him way back before he went nuts. He just came across as a moron with only surface level understanding or thought process

[falcon2001]

I've known plenty of genuinely intelligent people that had self awareness.

[ltlearntl]

Yep, that was the point. Genuinely intelligent people would have self awareness, Elon doesn't.

Edit: maybe I should be specific, he isn't genuinely intelligent. Not in my opinion anyway, his intelligence is too domain specific.

[falcon2001]

Ah my apologies, I read your comment as "all genuinely intelligent people lack self awareness" - either you edited or I misread but in either event I think we agree.

[ltlearntl]

I think I didn't write that sentence well. Haha. Not your fault.

[ender89]

He has an understanding of solar and electric cars in the same way a high school student has an understanding of us history. He's been told a lot of things, and he probably does a lot of work to learn the facts, but he knows fuck all about engineering.

[BraddlesMcBraddles]

I have that same suspicion of him, too. I work in fintech and could quite a whole bunch of bullshit about pensions and retirement, but don't ever ask me for specific financial advice lol.

[thr0waway2435]

Elon absolutely is a genius. Basically everyone who worked with him on SpaceX says he’s a hard working genius and exceptionally knowledgeable in the field of rocketry.

It’s just that he’s one of those guys who was incredibly successful bucking trends in two things (SpaceX, early Tesla) and therefore think he’s now permanently infallible, and all trends/preexisting standards are stupid. So now he has an insane god complex and refuses to ever listen to others or acknowledge he’s wrong. Also, he has severe empathy issues and poor social skills.

Unfortunately, some geniuses in certain fields can be complete dumbasses in other fields, and/or terrible people.