Regarding “Elon is stupid” I don’t agree. He has shown exceptionally good technical skills, he has no people skills, he’s worse than useless at presenting himself to the public in general
I don’t think he engineered much at either Tesla or SpaceX, but he had an excellent understanding of what they were doing - he could answer all the (non-ITAR, non trade secret) questions Tim Dodd asked in his tour of Starbase. When model 3 was new Randall Monroe did and assessment of the vehicle, Musk took the criticism and the next version fixed all the identified problems.
I would say Trump is the opposite. Actually low IQ, poorly educated, but good at talking to the population at large
No, he’s shown zero technical skills across his lifetime. He literally has no skill as a programmer or as an engineer
Have you ever seen a kid with a model car that can rattle off the horsepower and acceleration speed? That’s what Elon is. He doesn’t understand these things - he buys companies and learns the spec sheet because he’s a fanboy with too much money.
Elon couldn’t code his way out of a paper bag. He couldn’t put together a model rocket with instructions on the box. What he can do is memorize a bunch of statistics he doesn’t understand on a fundamental level
While I have not reviewed a lot of Musk speak, let alone armed with enough to credibly review his commentary, but based on my own field and “respected technical leaders” that interview with customers and the press, with broad acknowledgement that they really know their stuff…
Most of them I’ve known can sound very confident and credible while saying completely incorrect stuff. No one tries to correct them because them being actually correct doesn’t add value and trying to fix that is more trouble than it’s worth much of the time. The people paying attention don’t know well enough to recognize they are wrong… usually…
Upon occasion my company throws one of these “geniuses” at a customer that actually knows what they are doing. Then I got to see our executive basically try to gaslight the audience when they challenged his competency. The sales people has to last minute pull in the actual technical people to try to repair our image after the customer interacted with the executive…
Now one would think, clearly, after such an embarrassment, surely the company learned to field the actual technical experts to deal with technical questions… But no, for every smart customer that is turned off by that executive, there’s 10 more clients that don’t know any better and respond so much better to his baseless confidence than actual competent discussion. Also, those 10 suckers will also get suckered into more high margin stuff versus the smart customer, that will be really good at getting the most cost effective products, with low margin and skipping the pointless addions.
That’s dead on. Great description, that’s exactly the dynamic he had with the public
The only difference is people who saw through the facade were happy to let him hype up good technologies… well, at least until we found out he’s always been a fascist at least
Yes, as long as you were on the side that benefits from success, it was better to leave things “simple” and not challenge the incorrect stuff out loud you aren’t going to “well actually…” the “expert” if it risks your job and/or the wrong stuff isn’t too important or too hard to overcome when the rubber meets the road.
Still, sitting in a room or otherwise being a party to a conversation where an executive is constantly being confidently incorrect and still praised as a smart expert likely making 7 figures is maddening.
Ever listen to a kid with a model car rattle off horsepower, 0-60 time, engine displacement, and other facts?
The child does not understand what that means, not really. They might know the dictionary definitions for those words, but the kid doesn’t have the context to understand what it means in a useful way. They just memorize the stats because they’re neat.
That’s what Elon is.
Elon is a trained programmer who doesn’t understand code. It’s painfully apparent he has no understanding of what he’s talking about once he starts talking on a subject you know intimately… Dude is actually an idiot. An absolute joke. His thinking is laughably superficial
He’s also pretty terrible with people, but he sold the “awkward nerd” persona very well. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about - but he knows how to make it seem like he just can’t properly express himself to a layman
Intelligence is multidimensional. Musk is obviously great at business, the kind where you stretch the limits of what is allowed to grow your empire, and (I agree) he knows what he’s building and capable of recognizing where he should lead the product next.
His political acumen is gotta be dogshit, with an unlimited money all he managed to do is to destroy the “realworld ironman” image he spent a decade crafting. He has no rizz, especially compared to Trump who is loved by half of the world (and hated by the other).
Also, critically for him IMO, he has no self-reflection. With all that power gassing your ego up, it is crucial to be able to step back and see that you’re just a dumb ape as the rest of us. Recognize things you’re bad at and find good people to field for you, instead of sycophants whispering “it’s the kids who are wrong”
No he just got lucky a few times. Then he flagrantly broke the law because he realized the SEC would never hold him accountable and that let him turn Tesla into the first memestock. That’s why he is megawealthy. Luck and fraud.
Regarding “Elon is stupid” I don’t agree. He has shown exceptionally good technical skills, he has no people skills, he’s worse than useless at presenting himself to the public in general
I don’t think he engineered much at either Tesla or SpaceX, but he had an excellent understanding of what they were doing - he could answer all the (non-ITAR, non trade secret) questions Tim Dodd asked in his tour of Starbase. When model 3 was new Randall Monroe did and assessment of the vehicle, Musk took the criticism and the next version fixed all the identified problems.
I would say Trump is the opposite. Actually low IQ, poorly educated, but good at talking to the population at large
No, he’s shown zero technical skills across his lifetime. He literally has no skill as a programmer or as an engineer
Have you ever seen a kid with a model car that can rattle off the horsepower and acceleration speed? That’s what Elon is. He doesn’t understand these things - he buys companies and learns the spec sheet because he’s a fanboy with too much money.
Elon couldn’t code his way out of a paper bag. He couldn’t put together a model rocket with instructions on the box. What he can do is memorize a bunch of statistics he doesn’t understand on a fundamental level
While I have not reviewed a lot of Musk speak, let alone armed with enough to credibly review his commentary, but based on my own field and “respected technical leaders” that interview with customers and the press, with broad acknowledgement that they really know their stuff…
Most of them I’ve known can sound very confident and credible while saying completely incorrect stuff. No one tries to correct them because them being actually correct doesn’t add value and trying to fix that is more trouble than it’s worth much of the time. The people paying attention don’t know well enough to recognize they are wrong… usually…
Upon occasion my company throws one of these “geniuses” at a customer that actually knows what they are doing. Then I got to see our executive basically try to gaslight the audience when they challenged his competency. The sales people has to last minute pull in the actual technical people to try to repair our image after the customer interacted with the executive…
Now one would think, clearly, after such an embarrassment, surely the company learned to field the actual technical experts to deal with technical questions… But no, for every smart customer that is turned off by that executive, there’s 10 more clients that don’t know any better and respond so much better to his baseless confidence than actual competent discussion. Also, those 10 suckers will also get suckered into more high margin stuff versus the smart customer, that will be really good at getting the most cost effective products, with low margin and skipping the pointless addions.
That’s dead on. Great description, that’s exactly the dynamic he had with the public
The only difference is people who saw through the facade were happy to let him hype up good technologies… well, at least until we found out he’s always been a fascist at least
Yes, as long as you were on the side that benefits from success, it was better to leave things “simple” and not challenge the incorrect stuff out loud you aren’t going to “well actually…” the “expert” if it risks your job and/or the wrong stuff isn’t too important or too hard to overcome when the rubber meets the road.
Still, sitting in a room or otherwise being a party to a conversation where an executive is constantly being confidently incorrect and still praised as a smart expert likely making 7 figures is maddening.
Ever listen to a kid with a model car rattle off horsepower, 0-60 time, engine displacement, and other facts?
The child does not understand what that means, not really. They might know the dictionary definitions for those words, but the kid doesn’t have the context to understand what it means in a useful way. They just memorize the stats because they’re neat.
That’s what Elon is.
Elon is a trained programmer who doesn’t understand code. It’s painfully apparent he has no understanding of what he’s talking about once he starts talking on a subject you know intimately… Dude is actually an idiot. An absolute joke. His thinking is laughably superficial
He’s also pretty terrible with people, but he sold the “awkward nerd” persona very well. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about - but he knows how to make it seem like he just can’t properly express himself to a layman
Intelligence is multidimensional. Musk is obviously great at business, the kind where you stretch the limits of what is allowed to grow your empire, and (I agree) he knows what he’s building and capable of recognizing where he should lead the product next.
His political acumen is gotta be dogshit, with an unlimited money all he managed to do is to destroy the “realworld ironman” image he spent a decade crafting. He has no rizz, especially compared to Trump who is loved by half of the world (and hated by the other).
Also, critically for him IMO, he has no self-reflection. With all that power gassing your ego up, it is crucial to be able to step back and see that you’re just a dumb ape as the rest of us. Recognize things you’re bad at and find good people to field for you, instead of sycophants whispering “it’s the kids who are wrong”
No he just got lucky a few times. Then he flagrantly broke the law because he realized the SEC would never hold him accountable and that let him turn Tesla into the first memestock. That’s why he is megawealthy. Luck and fraud.
I agree, I’m saying you need to have a certain acumen to recognize the opportunity for a grift and then keep the plates spinning for a decade.
He’s also had a lot of help due to being born with an emerald spoon in his mouth.
He’s got the technical skills of a toddler learning to walk. I doubt he could code hello world.