I've yet to see any evidence that Musk is particularly smart. What I've mostly seen is his ability to throw big parties and charm investors with bullshit business speak, while riding a wave of lucky bets and state subsidies to billionaire-hood.

[–] LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

No he's not. But he's also far from dumb.

‘On Stupidity’ (1937). At its heart was the idea that stupidity was not mere ‘dumbness’, not a brute lack of processing power. Dumbness, for Musil, was ‘straightforward’, indeed almost ‘honourable’. Stupidity was something very different and much more dangerous: dangerous precisely because some of the smartest people, the least dumb, were often the most stupid.

Musk is far from genius level but above average intelligence. He does have knowledge about rockets on a non-engineering level which you can see e.g. in this video talking about his starfactory (EDIT: Yes watching him in his element is kinda painful, knowing he's a fascist)

But he and others like him focus their thinking narrow mindedly on the pursuit of profit. Every decision is based on gaining wealth. THAT is by far the bigger problem.

Besides the focus of all education towards profit seeking, technical nerds also seem to "want to" see other fields like sociology or politics or history in a simple and easy to explain way. So they seek principles or the most simplistic social theories that don't explain anything real. Musk certainly falls into that.

Except now where he seems to go completely off the rails. Possibly a symptom of narcissism ever since he became unpopular, he's doubling down to find new validation for his fragile ego. So yeah in that sense he is not the best example.

My point was not just about Musk but about the idea of "finding the smartest people to rule". Because to anybody who is above intelligence that sounds smart except - stupidity can be more dangerous in intelligent people.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

but above average intelligence

Maybe once. But that much Ketamine, plus his advanced age and excessive social media exposure, has degraded his ability to process information substantively.

He does have knowledge about rockets on a non-engineering level

He has prepared statements to read to a friendly interviewer. That's PR, not intelligence.

Besides the focus of all education towards profit seeking, technical nerds also seem to “want to” see other fields like sociology or politics or history in a simple and easy to explain way.

Musk isn't technical, he's a finance bro. And while I agree there's a strong "Education should be about making money" propaganda wave, I've noticed a lot of backtracking on this any time some group of labor activists starts passing around the financial reports of the publicly traded company to their coworkers. Then, all of a sudden, the finance bros become obsessed with sociology, politics, and history, at least in so far as they keep shouting and pointing to Venezuela any time someone at the firm mentions the company health care policy.

My point was not just about Musk but about the idea of “finding the smartest people to rule”. Because to anybody who is above intelligence that sounds smart except - stupidity can be more dangerous in intelligent people.

The fixation on "intelligence" as a discrete and quantifiable measure is what bothers me more than anything. I like to look at track records more than hypothetical quantifiers. Even if Elon were a "genius", I won't particularly appreciate the pro-eugenics track that brain power has sent him.

But I find it particularly galling when people conflate intelligence and success. So much of the modern economic system is about who you know rather than what you know. Elon Musk had access to enormous amounts of cheap credit, which he used to take a series of highly profitable gambles. He then leveraged his winnings to pull on more cheap credit.

Even setting aside whether that's "smart" or "stupid", I would say its a reflection of statistical probability. There are thousands of guys like Elon. Some make it, others don't. But what defines Elon in the end is simply luck. Recognizing him as exceptionally fortunate, rather than exceptionally smart or savvy, means pealing off the layers of PR and revealing the human underneath.