Elon Musk is a scrub

[EdgySubMic]

As someone on the spectrum myself, Musk doesn’t come off as someone with Asperger’s. People on the spectrum are more perceptive than NTs give us credit for, but the fact that we don’t play their reindeer games makes them perceive us as detached.

I think that Musk is a narcissist who says he has Asperger’s because he thinks it looks cool—all the Real Geeks (tm) are on the spectrum. It’s like him claiming to be a leet gamer while paying people to level for him.

I also think he thinks that claiming to have Asperger’s gives him license to act like an asshole—another sign that he’s just putting on geekface.

Well, I sure didn't claim he's not a (narcissistic) fraud. However, many of his behaviors that I have seen definitely fit Asperger.

If one wants, one can debate whether acting politically/socially clumsy/stupid is because of not understanding the impact, or not caring. The thing about "not caring" is that from the outside it often looks the same whether the person does not care because:

• (s)he does not understand either the situation, or the effect, or considers that people must/will automatically understand that/when (s)he just refuses to play silly games;
• (s)he does not care about anybody other than "Me, Myself and I". (e.g., narcissist-par-excellence Trump)

Anyway, to be a CEO of a company such as Tesla, or the head of DOGE, being smart about understanding impact and acting accordingly is absolutely key.

[PS: I have mild "spectrum" symptoms myself. Hi, mom('s genes)! That's one reason why me and my best friend became very best friends for decades: a common boundless geeky passion, plus a mutual understanding of how each of us ticks. (Edit: After a while, we started calling ourselves twin brothers, even though there are differences in the sense that he's a clear-cut Asperger, while I'm borderline.)]

 

[RobDownSouth]

For a rich guy he seems pretty miserable. His kids hate him and want nothing to do with him. He desperately wants to be seen as cool, but he's just a pathetic wannabe and everyone laughs at him behind his back.

Show Musk some respect!
He's the 20th ranked gamer in the whole freakin' world at Diablo IV.
This is no trivial accomplishment!

 

[HumpDayHoratio]

Bill Gates actually seems to have done some real technical work in the early days of Microsoft. I'll also give Jeff Bezos credit from building Amazon up out of nothing. Neither one seems as utterly vacuous as Musk.

I’m sure he did, although I’ve only obliquely heard or even cared. Is it still your contention that Musk didn’t have some technical knowledge of his business interests? I could make the observation that both men stood on the shoulders of giants to get where they are…

Interesting you bring up Bezos also. I just as easily could have used him as an example. Their personality traits aside, I wonder if you would still harbor these feelings if Musk had not come out and supported President Trump full song?

Kudos to BSG for answering.
I’m over here like - Bill Gates???View attachment 2469046

You and the Dali Bamma swim on over to the shallow end….neither one of you would understand.

To a certain extent, I do indeed. But there's a big but.

Just like Musk, Bill was not the best engineer, nor did he do much engineering once he could get out of that line of work. Being a passionate computer scientist myself, I have long disliked much of what Bill and his company produced. Initially, this was based purely on quality and a lack of taste (as Steve Jobs called it), as well as the "Microsoft's way is the only way" approach to how people are supposed to use a computer. Not to mention his failure to see the importance of the internet long after I "got it". Later on, my dislike was also based on Microsoft's business practices (which, I have to admit, got far worse after Gates left the helm – kudos to him after all).

However, I consider Gates to be far more intelligent, far better suited at managing things and especially leading people, and at his core a far more ethically correct person. I will be surprised when Musk will start donating substantial parts of his personal fortune for the sake of improving the human condition of people everywhere in the world, independent of their own opinions.

As I replied to BSG, I’ve always thought he took (I’ve heard the term stolen used) what better engineers developed and packaged it, made it easily available to the average consumer and the rest is history. I’ve long contended that were it not for Gates, the Information Age probably would have not unfolded like it did or at least been twenty years or more behind where we’re at now. For that we can thank him. You would have more insight into that I”m sure.

I agree with the business practice of Microsoft. I never liked that platform, especially after migrating to Apple products (I have other issues w them), but the constant bugs and deworming I had to do. It just seemed they could never build a solid system that lasted. Again, this is from a layman, who knew just enough about computers to be dangerous.

Gates philanthropic dabbling have me more concerned now than Musk. Some of this is borderline conspiracy theory territory, but damn…those guys have been right more than wrong over these last ten years.

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

Interesting you bring up Bezos also. I just as easily could have used him as an example. Their personality traits aside, I wonder if you would still harbor these feelings if Musk had not come out and supported President Trump full song?

I'd never heard of Elon Musk until he pushed the hyperloop as an alternative to building high-speed rail. I decided he was an idiot then and nothing he's done or said since has dissuaded me from my initial negative impression.

 

[TastySuckToy]

If someone like Elon Musk is only wealthy because of 'luck' and access to large sums of money to begin with, I look forward to those making such an argument demonstrating how lottery winners all become vastly more wealthy because of their luck and access to large amounts of money.

 

[HumpDayHoratio]

I'd never heard of Elon Musk until he pushed the hyperloop as an alternative to building high-speed rail. I decided he was an idiot then and nothing he's done or said since has dissuaded me from my initial negative impression.

The Boring Company was supposed to solve traffic, not be the Las Vegas amusement ride it is now. As I’ve written in my book, Musk admitted to his biographer Ashlee Vance that Hyperloop was all about trying to get legislators to cancel plans for high-speed rail in California—even though he had no plans to build it.

Several years ago, Musk said that public transit was “a pain in the ass” where you were surrounded by strangers, including possible serial killers, to justify his opposition. But the futures sold to us by Musk and many others in Silicon Valley didn’t just suit their personal preferences. They were designed to meet business needs, and were the cause of just as many problems as they claimed to solve—if not more.

Are you saying Musk flubbed the Hyperloop or he was never going to build it? I haven’t followed so just sort of catching up. If he was serious you have a good point. If he was using it as leverage, as this article (this is the article the copy&paste came from) suggests, then that’s just good business. Whether you or I like it or not.

The HSR debacle is whole other topic. The cost overruns are astronomical and if that boondoggle makes one red cent I’ll be surprised.

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

Are you saying Musk flubbed the Hyperloop or he was never going to build it? I haven’t followed so just sort of catching up. If he was serious you have a good point. If he was using it as leverage, as this article (this is the article the copy&paste came from) suggests, then that’s just good business. Whether you or I like it or not.

The HSR debacle is whole other topic. The cost overruns are astronomical and if that boondoggle makes one red cent I’ll be surprised.

The hyperloop has never been technologically or economically feasible. The fact Elon Musk put the idea forward with a straight face proves that he's an idiot.

I do think he announced hyperloop when he did to derail HSR, but his crackpot scheme failed, and HSR in California is moving forward.

 

[Lazaran]

The truly bogus thing is that a significant number of “GeekBros” probably voted for President Musk and DonOld because of those bogus claims and that bogus Joe Rogan interview.

Totally bogus.

and

SAD!!!

 

[HumpDayHoratio]

The hyperloop has never been technologically or economically feasible. The fact Elon Musk put the idea forward with a straight face proves that he's an idiot.

I do think he announced hyperloop when he did to derail HSR, but his crackpot scheme failed, and HSR in California is moving forward.

I’ll take your word on hyperloop, although it does appear it was a bargaining chip.

HSR is moving forward…one inch at a time! The cost overruns are projected around $36 B…that’s B…a billion! . I’ll love to see what that breaks down to in mileage.

EDIT

So I did the maths…it’s 2.6 Million a MILE!

That’s a lot of shekels that could go to people who’ve lost their homes…Gavin…

 

[EdgySubMic]

The truly bogus thing is that a significant number of “GeekBros” probably voted for President Musk and DonOld because of those bogus claims and that bogus Joe Rogan interview.

Totally bogus.

and

SAD!!!

Indeed. Lit is an erotica site, even "strangely" if it has a politics forum, but I've seen the exact same types of discussions between Musk fanboys, Musk realists, and Musk detractors on several technology discussion forums for many years already. There are tons of geeks who are completely blindsided by funky geeky projects and his bravado and who will not hear (read) anything even remotely negative about him without wanting to start a minor war. It's a cult.

 

[EdgySubMic]

If someone like Elon Musk is only wealthy because of 'luck' and access to large sums of money to begin with, I look forward to those making such an argument demonstrating how lottery winners all become vastly more wealthy because of their luck and access to large amounts of money.

I for one am not saying that he is stupid (quite to the contrary) or that he only was lucky (although in part he was).

The thing to understand is that he's a master of bullying (his (former) employees (remember, I know many); his suppliers (remember, I was one); ... and recently even congress (we all saw that)), as well as in exploiting all the little legal rules and loopholes that he and/or his lawyers can find (check out today's SEC lawsuit against him about how he saved 160M$ on buying Twitter by tweaking/stretching/violating the rules, cheating on the previous share owners in the process). That last example also is an example of how he was lucky (or maybe protected?), because filing this thing only now guarantees that the new SEC chief will dismiss it within a week or so, letting Musk off for free with his 160M$ bounty

Moreover, he started out with a compelling message about saving the planet, about becoming independent of international oil markets, and whatnot. There was a big audience for that back when he started out with Tesla, and he knew how to sell the message that those folks want(ed) to hear. Stunts such as sending his personal car into space (irresponsibly adding to all the space junk already out there) also bought him a ton of loyalty from tech geeks that he could later cash in on in various ways. No, Musk is not stupid. But that does not make him the "knight in shining white armor"-style superhero/superbrain that many think he is.

The power that comes with having money grows more than linearly as the amount of money grows, because it also depends on any less well-off party being forced to settle/concede, even if by law they should be winning. And said money will grow exponentially as well, unless completely mismanaged (Trump casinos, anyone?), through the miracle of composite interest or, put more generally, composite return on clever investment. [Ask me how I know about that one... Although... I won't answer in any amount of details on this forum.]

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

Elon Musk has installed a big screen TV in his office at the Eisenhower Office Building so he can play videogames at work.

Maybe he'll use his time as the head of DOGE to finally "git gud".

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

Elon Musk is getting roasted on Twitter for criticizing Ubisoft's new Assassin's Creed.

The CHUDs are triggered by the new AC because it stars a black samurai teaming up with a girl ninja.

 

[Politruk]

I'd never heard of Elon Musk until he pushed the hyperloop as an alternative to building high-speed rail. I decided he was an idiot then and nothing he's done or said since has dissuaded me from my initial negative impression.

No, the hyperloop is not meant for long-distance travel -- perhaps he proposed it as an alternative to light rail, for local commuting.

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

No, the hyperloop is not meant for long-distance travel -- perhaps he proposed it as an alternative to light rail, for local commuting.

Musk initially proposed Hyperloop to kill HSR in California.

It doesn't make sense as an alternative to light rail either. It's more expensive to build and carries fewer passengers.

 

[ll74]

 

[Bray123]

He's doing a Trump.

Makes sure he has hard cash in the bank and then lets his dumb investors sink in the debt.

 

[MajorRewrite]

Elon Musk is anti-free-speech and pro-authoritarianism, and he’s not hiding it.

Musk’s X suspends opposition accounts in Turkey amid civil unrest

The suspensions come after extensive demonstrations were sparked by the arrest earlier this week of Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan's main political rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. İmamoğlu was arrested just hours before he was nominated to be the presidential candidate for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Much of the opposition activity has centered around universities, and many of those connected to the demonstrations are now finding their X accounts suspended, observers report.