Elon's biggest problem @ Twitter - he's not funny at tweeting

he said the main thing he has in common with his daughter ivanka is "sex". he actually said thats the main thing they have in common.



he also said if ivanka was not his daughter that he would be "dating her".

 

the Bee is funny, @SamFisher

 

The convenient aspect of technical acumen is that it's not obscure. It's rather well defined when someone has technical acumen. You know exactly what they specialize in.

So what is Elon musk technically inclined in? What specially has he contributed technically with engineering and science knowledge especially to any project from any company he is an executive of?

Patents? Side projects in engineering and design before being famous to show a hobby like infatuation with engineering?

At least @Nook is not pigeon holing himself into trying to defend a claim of technical genius like you. His claim of genius is more akin to "social intelligence" than technical intelligence by saying he's a "genius" at organization and management which I still disagree with. The burden of proof of technical genius is much higher because it's much more explicitly defined.

 

You can read comments from people who’ve actually worked with him, which I would give more weight to than outside observers.

 

Reading through those statements felt like I was bombarded with a pr campaign.

"He gets his hands dirty with epoxy resin"

"He does orbital calculations in his head".


Anyone with a science and engineering background would understand the claims of technical genius would have a paper work trail beyond some former engineering management position employees trying to be on the good side of one of the most powerful men on the planet.

Patents? Hobby work before becoming famous? The only technical knowledge that is confirmed with Elon is some basic coding skills.

A lot of these quotes speak like how Trump associates wax lyrical about Trump's business acumen and master dealer skills. Very hyperbolic and not something I would consider as sincere reasonable praise from actual sincere engineers.

Musk has one specific trait similar to Trump in that satisfying Musk's narcissism helps you be part of his circle. It helps you get what you want from him if your goal is to get something from him.

 

Like here is an example of hyperbolic pr fluff from a former Tesla lead engineer/VP:

"You think you have an understanding of what first principles of something is, and then you talk to Elon about it, and realize you haven't even scratched the surface".

This is PR talk bud.

Find quotes like this from engineers and scientists describing someone like John B Goodenough.... The solid state physicist who help invent RAM( ya he literally invented random access memory) and the Lithium Ion battery. You won't because just isn't how actual engineers and societies praise actual engineers and societies in a sincere manner. You don't need pr fluff like this to acknowledge the genius of that dude because it's self evident.

There is a cult of personality with Muak like there is with Trump fueled by a desire to be adjacent to the power these men hold. They want access, positions, jobs, investment opportunities with him. You need to understand how much bootlicking occurs when someone has that much wealth.


This is an aspect that made someone like Steve Jobs more level headed and more intelligent. He never positioned himself or sold himself as a technical genius. He was a dude who understood what consumers want to hold in their hands and stuck to what he was good at and utilized and often exploited those with the actual technical genius like Wozniak.

 

My comment was regarding the opinion of people who know him and have worked with him. If you don’t think their opinion matters because of some pressure they are under to say good things about him, that’s fine. I’m not interested in proving he’s personally a technical genius (whatever that means). It doesn’t really matter to me, as I don’t think it’s relevant to his management of X and attempts to get Trump elected.

 

The moment you try to claim he's a technical genius is the moment you have to understand that is a very special claim that can be proven easily because technical genius is very self evident. It isn't obscure like being a genius in management with more obscure measurements to judge such a claim. When someone is a technical genius you know exactly what they are a technical genius at. There is a lengthy amount of paper trail of their work well before they became chief executives of major corporations.

Technical genius is self evident. The moment you need former engineering managers to make rather platifudic claims about how he gets his hands dirty the moment you should realize it's vapid or fluff.

 

Musk is a business man turned “chief engineer”. His path to that high technical position is not the typical technical career path. From what I can tell, he simply appointed himself to that position. So the paper trail you’re expecting from someone who would have gone through that technical path isn’t there.

That said, based on people who’ve followed him closely and have worked with him, he appears to have shown a surprising depth and breadth of technical knowledge for someone who doesn’t have the usual educational background or comprehensive engineering experience that you’re looking for. Like I said, you can take their opinions with a grain of salt if you choose. It doesn’t really matter all that much to me.

 

I'm not debating whether it matters much to you. I'm debating your claims.

Technical genius isn't about the level of education either. When I refer to "paper trial" I'm referring to something like this:

During my mech engineering undergrad, there was this kid who had issues with class attendance, missing hw assignments. He did mediocre on exams. Better than excepted for someone who missed class a lot and did not do great academically.

What did he do with his free time though? He was part of the SAE club (society of automotive engineers) and as soon as he joined that club as a freshman undergrad he took command of that club because it was obvious the dude had the highest acumen in automotive design and engineering especially design on CAD software. He didn't pursue any advanced degree. Barely got over a 2.5 for his GPA but immediately was offered entry level positions at automotive manufacturing companies because they saw his body of work with his technical acumen while being the leader of our SAE club for four years.

That is what I refer to as a "paper trial". There is a body of work of genuine intellectual curiosity in the said technical work with a paper trail of his projects he worked on specifically. He didn't get any advanced degree in engineering. But his technical acumen was self evident.

So I'm not even trying to claim Muak isn't a genius because of his degree work. Musk has a similar story of not taking college seriously... But without the part showing intellectual curiosity in technical work. His free time in college was bragging about creating a night club, not cranking out engineering designs on Solidworks for a camshaft design for his engineering club.

A technical genius will find a way to waste and inordinate amount of time on their technical hobbies. Elon's hobby was his night club in college.

 

Musk could never run a country. He lacks the skills to lead in a democracy, but in an authoritarian government where he has full control, he could.

 

Musk single-handedly brought battery-operated cars to the masses. No, he's not the original inventor, but he executed it. He quickly brought xAI to fruition. The evidence is right in front of you – I don’t need people who know him to tell me he's exceptional at business and rapidly brings new innovations to market, things others thought would take much longer.

How he achieves this is another question.

Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, unified China and built the Great Wall, at the cost of up to a million civilian lives during its construction (there are also accounts that he buried his concubines alive with him, but I digress).

Great accomplishments should not be worshiped or blindly admired. They should be acknowledged and with consideration of the means by which they were achieved. The way you treat others matters.

 

Single handily?


This is like saying a president single handily ushered in a golden era in an economy. You can say he "oversaw" the golden era. Elon Musk "oversaw" the proliferation of the EV market. But single handily? That is capitalism brain rot attributing all accomplishments to the capital owner without acknowledging the team of engineers and technicians that did the actual work.

This isn't even a Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates situation where he was the founder of the company that he is famous for. Elon Musk bought an existing company.

 

I don't think this is the part (rapidly driving innovative technologies to market) that @fchowd0311 is objecting to. It's the idea that Musk is personally and substantively involved in engineering tasks, and he's exceptionally good at it, that he apparently disputes. There are enough people attesting to it that I think there is likely some truth to the narrative. There are also a lot of tech fanboys out there that probably make exaggerated claims about his genius.

 

If the only claims of technical acumen come from Vice presidents, engineering management other executives etc, then you can safely assume that it's pr fluff from his closest associates satisfying Elon's narcissism to make sure their in his good graces. Like we have extensive history of Musk's vindictive character where it's very easy to assume that these very platifudic hyperbolic statements of his acumen are pr fluff to be in the good graces of the wealthiest man on the planet. Actual engineers don't try to sell the technical acumen of others by saying "he can do orbital calculations in his head".

Again, technical acumen is self evident. Those with it have extensive history of their own work put into passion projects, hobbies etc that can be expressed without the chief engineer of Tesla's autopilot system explaining how " You think you have an understanding of what first principles of something is, and then you talk to Elon about it, and realize you haven't even scratched the surface".

 

Elon really doesn't want to be investigated by the SEC
Elon Musk goes big in 2024 campaign with $75 million for Trump and other Republicans

 

Got it. I doubt he's writing code, doing SW/FW architecture work, or handling the engineering tasks of developing new battery cells, mechanical drawings, material development, and integration, etcs. His major is physics and business, and he has a background in materials science. If he did those tasks (not saying he doesn’t know how), he would have to have time left to run a business. But then, he tweets quite a bit these days, so who knows. Maybe he does get into the weeds of the engineering tasks. Not sure why anyone care.

 

Literally there are others and even others before him. Of course he has a team behind him (and with quite a bit of gov subsidies). He drove EV market to the masses.

Let’s not get too tied up in words.

Musk seems to be a horrible person, but that doesn’t diminish his accomplishments. His achievements don’t excuse his behaviors.

 

He didn't. He was part of it. Again we are born into the culture of attributing everything to the capital holders rather than the workers. I understand it's a hard habit to shake off of. We as a society have conditioned people to think this way in attributing credit. It's a very common practice in our society so I'm not blaming you for it.