Fri, 28 Feb 2025 17:36:43 GMT

Unpopular opinion (the only kind I have now): Elon Musk is not that smart, and has contributed little to the technological advancements attributed to him.

Don't get me wrong, he's SHREWD. He's a rather brilliant marketer, even tactician, but not a great engineer or scientist. The most important and visionary thing he has done in his life is to found SpaceX.

What he's extremely gifted in is centering the spotlight on himself, and then using the prestige and attention he has gathered to make increasingly callous leadership moves, which has generated enormous wealth. He got people to believe that he was this one-of-a-kind futurist with a deep understanding of the execution of his wild plans, while at the same time ordering employees to sleep at work, or firing thousands of them for not being "hardcore" enough.

Even his visions for the future are less benevolent the closer you squint at them. Crush real software developers and engineers into pulp to create rockets to escape to Mars before your other business operations destroy the planet you already live on, yes, brilliant move!

Thousands of scientists and engineers have been caught in the thrall of this man with his interesting accent and bold way of speaking and they committed themselves to these inspiring goals. In the end, though, Musk is just the next great American CEO, following in the footsteps of Jack Welch, who famously ran a program at GE called "Wolf School" where he taught his executives to yell at people to get what they want. Great, indeed, by the all-American rubric of "return on investment."

Many, if not all, of the things Musk is credited for would have happened without him. The ideas and companies already existed. More slowly, perhaps less profitably, certainly with a great deal less pomp and/or circumstance. With less open transphobia and misogyny.

Definitely with fewer Nazi salutes.

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