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Comment by alkonaut | Hacker News Reader

Does Elon Musk always ask himself “ok what’s the most petty/childish/immature response I can produce for this situation?”

I’m not sure what’s actually wrong with him or if it’s at all clinical or just the billionaire disease of being surrounded by people who agree with you for too long. But I get a feeling there is something a bit off with his behavior and/or mental health, and that it’s been getting worse lately. I also don’t know if this shift is subjective and merely because I see more of him now than before. But I can’t help thinking that now he seems like a massive asshat in nearly every single human interaction whereas before he had some kind of likability.

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He has Asperger’s and has talked openly about his difficulty understanding social cues.

https://www.axios.com/2022/04/15/elon-musk-aspergers-syndrom...

I don’t think that fully excuses or justified everything he does, but it has some explanatory power.

It’s obvious by his work output that he is not a very typical person, and it seems like society as a whole is gaining tremendous benefit from his eccentricity. I don’t think we have to like him, but speaking for myself, I still respect him and on the whole am grateful for his life’s work. I wish he’d stay away from Twitter… but, oh well.

>He has Asperger’s and has talked openly about his difficulty understanding social cues.

In the history of items written on Musk in the past 20 years, was it ever mentioned prior to 2022?

Yeah, sure, like 90% of SV claims to be "on the spectrum", often as a behavioural excuse. Don't believe me? Look at any comment section of an article discussing the subject on these forums.

I hadn't heard it was Asperger's specifically until recently, but if you've ever heard Musk speak it's always been readily apparent that he had some kind of mental abnormality. He seems to have more trouble forming ideas into sentences than your average person.

Do you have any data that proves it wrong?

A quick google says 1 man out of 42 is autistic and 1 out of 200 workers in the U.S. is a software engineer. Let's assume every SE is a man and half the working population is men, that would mean 1 out of 100 men is in software.

Based on those numbers, it would be possible for every software engineer to be on the spectrum.

Asperger's isn't an excuse for poor behavior.

> Asperger's isn't an excuse for being a dick.

Labelling non-neurotypical behavior as "being a dick" or "poor behavior" is very neurotypical.

[Addendum]

I for one am happy to see the larger world and its expected rules of behavior get a taste of what it constantly dishes out.

I'm talking stuff like calling people you don't like pedophiles in a public forum. Not social missteps. Attacking people using your twitter account as a megaphone and doubling down when people call you on it is absolutely unacceptable behavior.

Aspegers does not excuse intentionally hurting people you don't like.

I see you have moved from the indefensible bailey to the motte from which you attempt to redefine the bailey. You may have your misconception about the conversation topic. I do not.

Referring to the rescue diver as a pedophile is uniquely odious and as far as I’m aware the only time Musk has done that. Maybe you are closely tracking his public utterances against pedos, MAPs, and groomers and can shed more light on how that occasion is part and parcel to a broader pattern of behavior, unacceptable in your mind. Of note, the public letter didn’t coincide with that specific incident.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motte-and-bailey_fallacy

That makes sense, thanks. Being on the autism spectrum doesn’t forgive any behavior of course but can explain it. He should get people to explain social issues, and people to filter/write his own output. It would benefit everyone, most of all him.

That is an excuse. Musk should see jail time.

So Howard Hughes?

I don't know that I ever found Musk likable though.

EDIT: I was thinking about my answer to "When did you stop liking Elon Musk?" and I suppose it was when he seemed to go on a tangent calling a rescuer a pedophile. That was a WTF moment for me.

I always thought he was more like William C. Durant. Both Hughes and Durant have sad endings though.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

Sadly, the people who do the most to change the world are often unreasonable in their personal lives. And if a person sincerely believes they are working to prevent climate change or give humanity a backup planet they'll tend to view opposition based on quality of life issues or whatever as unreasonable.

I'm totally ok with that if that "petty/childish/immature" person lands rockets on barges and revolutionizes space travel.

The point is, he doesn't, The people working for him do. He managed to create an environment where these people working for him can do it. But he does not land those rockets.

There are two sides of this coin: 1) a company without its employees cannot function, 2) somehow everyone became entitled to everything during covid.

It's sad, I get the point of view of both sides. Hopefully they can reach a compromise.

Do you think SpaceX would have landed rockets if Elon wasn't there?

I feel like the safe bet in 2010 was compete on government contracts and print money. Without Elon, SpaceX is just another Boeing. The best teams won't get to Mars if investors want them to crank the money printer or congress wants a jobs program.

But that’s exactly what I said: he created an environment where there people can create those awesome things but he doesn’t build rockets. He employs people who build rockets for him. All of them complement each other.

In my opinion Musk is to SpaceX like Jobs was to Apple. Apple today wouldn't exist or would be in a much different place if not for Jobs and his vision. I believe the same for Musk and SpaceX.

But, you shouldn't have to be. And more importantly, what happens when he brings this attitude to long term space missions or other endeavors where human lives are at risk? Just because he's doing something you like doesn't mean it's okay, or good, or right.

Frankly, I'm more concerned about never-happy SJW mob infiltration into long term space missions. Like, Twitter employees are not the ones who I would like to share risks with.

For some reason I am suddenly reminded of SS-Sturmbannführer von Braun.

https://youtu.be/QEJ9HrZq7Ro

Some people get really mean when they get senile, particularly if they suffered from anxiety disorders or abused alcohol.

It's why home care workers never wear necklaces because they could try to strangle you with one.

Given that Elon is Gen X I don't think this something we need to worry about for him just yet. Some other problem, sure, but I doubt it's senility.

He's 51 and some unlucky people start to slip around that age. For a person on that path the meanness and even psychosis might be the first sign.

I think we'd need to prove this is a change for him.

Qualitatively it's not clear. There was that "pedo guy" a few years ago.

Quantitatively no doubt. There is a "pedo guy" incident every few days now and it is accelerating and it could be every few minutes before it gets too fast to measure and reaches some kind of singularity.

I thought he was just trying to imitate Trump but I think he's really trying to surpass Trump as "America's most unhinged."

So I guess next stop is President

Early dementia or Alzheimers?

Was he like this back in the X.com/Paypal days?

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