[1] You can be a murderous dictator and not stupid, I would actually wager a guess that those people tend to actually be cleverer than average. Some applies to blood-thirsty CEOs.
Musk may be cleverer than average, but he's also come to own twitter by virtue of being successful at building paypal, followed by being able to successfully deploy capital at impactful problems at SpaceX and Tesla. While impressive achievements, these achievements do not imply that Musk will be successful at Twitter. He's known for demanding people to do their best and hardest work by pointing them at seamingly impossible but impactful problems.
Will rescuing a failing social network motivate people in the same way? I don't think so. I'd probably be willing to work 60+ hours a week for average pay to solve global warming (TSLA) or colonize Mars (SpaceX) - I wouldn't be willing to make that sacrifice for Twitter.
Well, they imply it a lot more than a person with success in zero businesses up to this point
Maybe he's just never sleeps. Maybe the real work is being done by others (cough Shotwell cough) and he's just takes the credit (cough Tesla founder cough). Or maybe, just maybe, CEO just isn't that hard of a job?
> being successful at building paypal
Musk never worked for a company called PayPal. The predecessor companies that merged to become PayPal forced Musk out around the time of the merger. Later the company changed its name to PayPal and when it went public, Musk had a big payday.
I think of Elon Musk as being that guy who goes on a winning streak playing "double or nothing" coin flips. Enough people are doing it in Silicon Valley that one of them was going to hit a run of several heads, and get rich.
Given what happened to eBay afterwards seems to me PayPal working by itself would have been far better for them in the long term.
There was a shit-ton of money to be made, providing card terminals, cars, direct accounts and so so on.
PayPal could have done a lot of things later done by things like ApplePay.
All of my enemies are 8 foot tall, einsteinian, gigachad supermen.
So you have to actually see where they have a fragile ego, E.g stupid, bad with money, poor, or they have no class.
I wouldn’t want to work for Twitter w/o remote work, but I don’t think he’s stupid.
...and a decent inheritance.
Effort? I have yet to see any data indicating one can raise their intelligence^1 by effort. What I personally believe is that effort, hard work, tenacity, etc. are all just metaphorical raffle tickets in a metaphorical "success" raffle. Effort is required to play the game, but it at best can only increase your chances of winning. After all, it is by no means a guarantee. More effort = more tickets/chances. Good upbringing? Generational wealth? All more tickets. But, you hardly put in any effort, have a poor upbringing, and still win, but the odds are stacked against you.
[1] At least intelligence in how it's defined and measured by psychology. I do not necessarily agree with psychology and its tools of measurement, but that is irrelevant.
By invading Ukraine, Putin has achieved the exact opposite he wanted to achieve. The West is now more united than ever and more Russia border countries are going to join NATO. On top of that he has destroyed Russian economy. Tell me how that's not stupid?
I don't even have to go into Musk's actions. He massively overpaid for Twitter and to service the loan he has to pay $1bn a year. Even if he'd cut all his staff and millions would subscribe to Twitter blue - that wouldn't be enough to service the loan. Plus tons of advertisers left the platform because he's a loose canon spewing conspiracy theories. How is this not stupid?
But he likely saw the alternative as Ukraine in NATO, colour revolutions spreading to Russia, and ending up like Gadaffi (whose gruesome death he was said to have watched on video over and over again).
Probably he regrets not doing it sooner, when the Ukranian military was in much worse shape.
From where he stands, democracy is a threat. The fact that we disagree won't change it.
But I find Bill Browder’s explanation more plausible. Essentially Putin is like a Mafia boss and his organisation has been stealing from the Russian for years and years. To keep up his regime and organisation he needs to create conflicts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Browder
Also watch the documentary by Navalny that exposed Putin… one reason why he is now in prison.
However, when you have narcissistic personality disorder, as Putin does, doing the above just isn't an option.
Every dictators seems to have the need to sink with their governments and take the country together for a ride.
This is nonsense. Specially after 2014.
> colour revolutions spreading to Russia
Revolutions are not successful unless driving by elites of that country.
Winning at what? Oppressing and exploiting ppl for his own gain and being responsible for thousands and thousands of civilians being murdered?
Not something I’d admire if I were you.
Plus, if you look at the way Musk got played recently to spread Russian talking points about Ukraine in order to protect his precious Starlink from weapons Russia probably doesn't even have, it becomes somewhat more obvious how the comparison breaks down.
Do you think Russia will be in a better place than it was before this war?
Nonsense. Temporary disruption and disagreement over energy politics will not lead to a long term break in the fundamental political alignment of Poland and Hungary and will certainty not break the EU.
> Plus, if you look at the way Musk got played recently to spread Russian talking points about Ukraine in order to protect his precious Starlink from weapons Russia probably doesn't even have, it becomes somewhat more obvious how the comparison breaks down.
You seem to love to make lots of assumptions without evidence.
First of all, not everybody who doesn't support war until all parts of Ukraine are recovered is a Russian tool. Most wars end on compromise and both sides usually try to shoot down anybody who suggest a compromise.
And if you really think he did this to protect Starlink you have a series lack of understanding of space politics and relative capability.
So Russia has all the natural resources you could wish for, economy the size of Italy's, economic crisis, most corruption in human history, and is currently loosing a war fighting a smaller country with weapons made 60 years ago.
Please remind me where is the genius I am missing?
The comparison doesn't really make sense.
People calling him a genious should be able to point to some great success he has achieved in all this time, in any activity whatsoever, that an average person could not.
Some perspective is needed - tremendous economic growth is common when you're an incredibly poor country. China - after decades of growth - still has a lower GDP per capita than post-soviet Russia.
People calling him a genious should be able to point to some great success he has achieved in all this time, in any activity whatsoever, that an average person could not.
I don't see anyone calling him a genius. I'd imagine he's probably fairly smart, like most world leaders. Calling someone an idiot/crazy for starting a war isn't a very useful thing to do, if you're interested in the prevention of war.
Okay, how about Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary - they have all eclipsed Russia in % growth and nominal value.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?location...
> I'd imagine he's probably fairly smart
Why do you imagine that? What is the logical basis?
> Calling someone an idiot/crazy... isn't a very useful thing to do, if you're interested in the prevention of war.
So now we are no longer interested in having an honest assesment in case he gets offended?
If you watched Russian media, he has clearly gotten worse over the last 10 years or so.
Assuming our enemies are just insane is a cop out. It diverts a lot of attention away from how horribly unprepared the west was to deter a military invasion of Ukraine, which is something no one wants to talk about.
A quick check of my resume and bank balance quickly demonstrates my superior intellect.
https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/ywa5f2/musk_shut_...
For example, look at Putin and the state of Russia and their invasion of Ukraine. I think everyone would agree it has been one of the biggest military and geopolitical blunders ever. As far as Elons acquisition of Twitter, time will tell if it was 'stupid' decision or not.
The US assessment was that Russia would overwhelm Ukraine in less than a week. Winning the war was not an American plan.
There was no need to cross into that zone of stupidity.