It goes without saying that Musk is smarter than most would ever hope to be. But he's just too freaking stubborn sometimes for his own good. He could have owned that whole industry if he didn't have an ego the size of Jupiter. And it saddens me that an American car company had the opportunity to compete on a global stage and and just dropped the ball in the silliest way possible.
Edit: Eh, I should probably have excluded that first statement. That was not the point of this comment, and I don't know why I didn't foresee the controversy it was going to create. There's probably a more descriptive word than smart.
By any standard that you would apply to gauge intelligence based on someone's accomplishments and actions, he would qualify as highly intelligent as applied in the business domain, and I sincerely believe that denying that fact is engaging in willful, ideologically driven blindness.
Smart people do stupid stuff. People incapable of processing large amounts of information don't operate highly successful companies in multiple domains simultaneously that expand the edge of technological innovation in distinct fields.
Stupid people do smart stuff sometimes too. I think it goes without saying that Elon doesnt operate any of his highly successful companies on a daily basis.
Not with the consistency to achieve the results that he has. I'm sorry, if you think that a person that is 'dumb' can run these companies to the level that they're at I simply do not respect your opinion and do suggest you to do some introspection why you cannot cede that someone that has achieved what he has in a way that is consistent and replicable in a multivariable and complex domain such as business is a competent and intelligent person. Sure, there are other things you can detract and criticize him for, but this one seems like a weird one given the evidence.
By any standard that you would apply to gauge intelligence based on someone's accomplishments and actions, Kim Kardashian would qualify as highly intelligent. If you cannot cede that she has one of the greatest intelligences of our generation, possibly even of all time, then I simply do not respect your opinion and do suggest you do some introspection.
Funny enough, while I criticize the cultural impact she and her family have had on young girls as related to body image, I think there is evidence that they are intelligent as in having a capacity to process information. Nowhere near Musk, but you are not actually trying to have that discussion.
there's plenty of larry ellisons in the world as it is.
walk into a casino and put a trillion dollars on red. thats musk. can you imagine the rush? he probably takes drugs to take the edge off his insane business ventures.
I just cannot relate at all to someone actually thinking that equates Elon's success to gambling on roulette. Of the million things you could criticize him for, there is this fixation by his detractors on trying to tear down his character as though he is not competent. It seems important for people that disagree with him to attack that angle, even when there's a mountain of evidence to the contrary.
It is as though people need it to be true that someone holding opposing opinions CANNOT possibly also be smart and competent, it's like the ideology possessing his detractors can't conceive of opposition as intelligent. (Notice that this is a phenomenon from left leaning to right leaning, though the right to left version of this phenomenon is something along the lines of: 'this person is smart but ${"evil" | "lacking common sense"}'). I'm fascinated by this.
From my perspective, it's more that he used to be competent, but something has changed over the last 5-10 years, and now he's essentially coasting (or more nefarious things) off the massive amount of wealth he's piled up. If you or I could come up with many better ways to accomplish Musk's stated goals than he seems to be able to execute, why would I not conclude that something has changed and he's no longer as competent as he once was?
Or maybe I'm just blinded by partisan hatred. Who knows, but I'm still not interested in supporting anything Musk produces these days. I guess we'll see in another few decades whether I'm seeing it correctly.
not a detractor (quite the opposite), maybe i am putting too much weight on 'gambling', atleast party because it appeals to my own tastes.
to a clueless outside observer, starting a rocket company seems quite risky, then again maybe it wasn't really his money after all? i dont really know the details, but the impression i got was that atleast initially, it was his private venture.
tesla is more sensible but still, building out massive manufacturing chains is risky, because youve got all that capital tied up in it, and you're making a 'gamble' that youre gonna sell millions of cars to get that money back.
twitter to me seemed like a big gamble. social media comes and goes awfully quickly, but the X rebrand seems to have worked, atleast for now. grok was another weird play. competing with openai/google? but they did it and it seems to be holding its own pretty well.
I would say he is less competent than Wang Chuanfu, but then again I'm not a HN reader that jacks off every time Elon posts some race science eugenic shit
Edit: Eh, I should probably have excluded that first statement. That was not the point of this comment, and I don't know why I didn't foresee the controversy it was going to create. There's probably a more descriptive word than smart.