It doesn't happen every time, but it happens enough times for me to allocate some thoughts searching for explanations. Today, for example, as I shared one picture, an image showing Tesla's stock price crashing and I was reminded-once again: Elon is a genius, and he must know what he's doing.
An IQ of 155
There are those people who love to remind me of Elon's IQ. I mean, I don't know if that's accurate, but I do know that is the claim. The truth is that I don't care much for what that number says. As far as I can tell, I've met people with high scores that don't seem to effective in life, so I don't know how useful this number is.
That being said, the idea of an IQ score being used as a sort of title is a little worrisome. Imagine me writing my usual rants on this blog and claiming to be correct on my assertions simply because I scored 132 once.
Readers of this blog have shown me how I get things wrong, and if I would have shielded myself from learning using the score of a test I took decades ago, I would be proving how inadequate that score actually is.
True Intelligence is humble
There's an old video of Sam Harris debating Deepak Chopra that I've probably watched way too many times in my life. There's a particular part when Deepak truly goes off the deep end, in my opinion, and mixes metaphysics with science in a way that seems purposefully confusing.
I'm sharing this video right at Sam's intervention(min 4:30), right when he puts a stop to the logical train that just got derailed. I would encourage anyone to rewind and listen back to the whole ten minutes for more context, but I hope that snippet makes my point.
When we speak, and this goes for all of us, we must be open to the idea of being wrong. We ought to realize there's a world of knowledge we don't posses and mature enough to change our minds if presented with evidence that contradicts our positions.
To the reason why I'm bringing this up. I've never seen Musk be humble, ever. No matter what subject is being discussed he knows all about it and more than anyone else.
The veil was raised
I realize that to Musks' fans, no matter what I present her won't change their mind. But, in the hopes that I can find some fence sitters, allow me to present to you a chain of evidence. Evidence in one single field, that is.
As Rod Hilton basically said. Elon doesn't seem to know much about software development either. At least not in it's current form, I should say. Him coding in his younger years doesn't mean he's kept up with the times, to put it plainly.
But, again, he's more focused on keeping the facade solid. He needs for people to believe he's the best coder out there, the best rocket designer, the best car engineer, etc.
Has he no merit?
I'm not saying that either. I'm not even saying Elon is not smarter than me, to be honest, he probably is. What I'm saying is that he's not Ironman, nor a savior, nor a God, and people need to stop worshiping a simple mortal.
He didn't start Tesla, but he took it to where it is. I mean, he didn't invent a single thing, but through his business acumen, he was able to improve technologies and achieve great things too.
Did he overpromise and underdeliver?
Yes, actually, every single time. But that's a conversation for another day.
Conclusion
We are not dealing with the second coming of Newton here, and nobody should be kissing Elon's feet. We are dealing with a businessman who is good at marketing, and excellent at rigging the system to get what he wants.
To criticize his actions doesn't mean I'm jealous of his success, it means I don't worship humans, and I submit to you that no one should.
The myth of his Newtonian intellect is part of his marketing, and you know what? It worked well, but maybe it won't forever.
MenO
For what it's worth I don't think Elon Musk is particularly smart, but I'm also comparing him to myself and other people I respect... and some people try to tell me that I'm the smartest person they know (which I think is weird rather than a flex)... so maybe the bar is a little high (or not).
I am always very suspect of people equating having money with being intelligent.
Because it's a thing that happens very often and is complete bullshit.
As you've already pointed out here: people with very high IQs are often quite bad at managing others and their own finances. One of the smartest guys I know got audited by the IRS because he "just forgot" to pay his taxes. Most high IQ individuals are barely functional in certain regards (like losing their bus money because it's in the wrong pocket). It's a very narrow range of intelligence that doesn't account for all the other things a human brain needs to do.
This chart is perfect. Thanks for sharing it. I won't use it to fight "my friend" who thinks Elon is a genius, but I'm very tempted to.
My older brother is a bit in the spectrum, he's insane smart for some things. Can design his own guitar pedals from scratch, midi controllers, and codes for a living. But, all my life I've been explaining human emotions to him. Why people get offended, why they laugh, etc.
He might not enjoy me sharing this, but I've also told him this to his face.
ha!
Sounds bout right.
My younger brother has got it bad bad as well.
This is why i agree that Musk isn't that smart (in IQ). Probably less than 130.
Really intelligent people, who really think of new and innovative things are really out there in thought, and people skills, like talking, are really low. The people that really need a personal life-secretary and a lab are rarely the ones that get one.
Aaa Meno this is honestly the most level headed take on Musk I’ve seen in a while. Dude’s not some all knowing genius, but he’s really good at playing the game. Marketing, hype and knowing the right moves that’s his real skill
that is his skill, I think
I find that Elon is a face-man.
He is not very high in IQ. Probably about 130. (which is about the point where you stop being a more intelligent human, and start being an Aspie.)
All of the things he has created are all stuff you could have read about in 1970s-80s Popular Science/Mechanics.
What was really spectacular about Tesla Automotive? That they painted cars in California.
Remember the Delorian? Why did it have brushed stainless steel panes? Because California wouldn't allow him to paint cars.
Same with PayPal. You/me, we can't start an internet bank. To have cross border payments you have to have approval of the Fed and the IMF. They would just tell us NO! But Musk, he did the impossible. I mean, i see artists all the time fail to have a payment processor, because of their niche. They can't even get money from their fans, and Musk gets a whole internet bank.
I have never heard anything really bright come out of Elon's mouth.
I thought highly of Elon. As that Tweet says, people told me he was smart and so I just assumed he must be. Then I watched that Rogan interview. The first one he was on, where he smoked pot. He came across to me as a complete idiot. Then I stared reading about him and found that so many people he has worked with in the past speak badly of his intelligence and his decisions. Then even publicly he seemed to go full stupid, that entire Twitter debacle happened, and he's just gotten worse from there. I have zero respect for him. He's surrounded himself by smart people in the past and he's managed to take credit for all of their decisions while managing to sweep his bad ones under the table. That is all.
he does have a way to rally people it seems. There's a Musk army of sorts, and they will attack if you say anything negative about the guy. I get it, but I also don't.
I kind of never get that cult of personality thing. I mean, I do, I have read the psychological underpinnings of that need, but at the same time... I don't get it.
He may well be smart and good at hyping up his business, but when he comes out praising extremists and going all fascist then I and other went right off him. I could see that Shitter would go downhill once he bought it.
He didn't start Tesla, but he did help to build demand for EVs. I've heard he goes after Wikipedia as they won't change it to say he was the founder. Mind you, Henry Ford was not a nice guy either.
I think some people succeed in business through being ruthless and playing the system. Ms Musk had various investigations ongoing with their businesses and current actions may be to get rid of those. They don't seem too lucky with relationships, but has had a lot of kids.
You don't hear too much about his charity work, but it seems his 'foundation' is self-serving.
I know he has a lot of fans, but I'm not one. His recent activity is not helping.
Listen to this...
A treat
Wow! All these losers who have not built a single successful business criticising a man that has singlehandedly revolutionised three previously staid and sclerotic industries (money, cars and rockets) and has become the wealthiest man in the world while focusing his energies, not on yachts and fancy women but on the greatest acheivement of humanity ever - becoming a multi-planetary species.
Elon Musk is the greatest human ever to have lived and will be seen this way by a future humanity.
Everyone on the left loved him before he left the Democrats to join Trump.
But now people try to downplay his extraordinary achievments because they are NPCs repeating the talking points of the utterly corrupt, wasteful Democratic Party.
I hope you got to the part where I give him credit for precisely his businessman acumen.
this is my worry, right there.
I know you to be bright yourself. But when you say this, you say this as if Elon is above you by leaps, a different species almost. Its celebrity worship of a kind.
No argument there.
I happen to reject the notion of putting mortals in the same level of a messiah. It doesn't matter who does it, left or right. I'm a registered republican, but I don't recognize my political views on either side of the aisle.
Elon is more of a Jobs than a Wozniak, even though he often sells himself as one. With this said, I do think he extremely smart but def. has his flaws - he's human after all.
Reg. the twitter snippet: it's out of context. There's another one in the thread which includes more of the pre-context.
This Ian guy seems to be one of the responsible ex-engineers who is trying to put Elon on the spot by wanting him to explain the whole tech stack and what in detail he'd change. Which is obviously meant to make Elon look bad, because that's not Elon's job, he's got his own engineers for that. He's the one making big decisions, but his engineers probably determined that the whole thing is inefficient and it's better to built most of it from the ground up. So "what a jackass" is an autistic but witty way to get out of that trap.
Also, it's quite interesting how people either love or hate Elon. This rasini guy is seemingly in the latter group, posting nothing but shitposts about him.
I can grant you all that, all day. Again, he's probably a lot smarter than I will ever be, but my point of contention is that he sells himself as a know it all. As if he's the one coding, he's the one designing rockets and he's also the best gamer--It's obvious he's not. He's hired the best programmers, the best eng. and even the best gamer. He's a businessman, not Tony Stark.