3 ms·

I'm just perplexed by people who make this claim. How could you possibly be in a position to judge his intelligence?

drcongo 3y ago
I'm perplexed by you claiming that he's very smart, so same question to you. Personally, based on all available evidence, I don't think he's smart at all. At a guess I reckon a good 75% of HN users are smarter than him or me.
- idopmstuff 3y ago
  He is one of the most successful people to have ever lived. We regularly have rockets that launch into the air and then land (200+ of these successfully in a row) because of a company he started. I know the counterargument is that he's not smart, he just hires smart people, but if you know smart people, they generally don't get recruited by idiots (even rich ones). He managed to surround himself with rocket scientists and engineers who revolutionized space travel. His company successfully navigated not only the engineering side but also the part that involves dealing with the bureaucracy of the US government. He came up with the idea to launch Starlink (and idea that others failed at before him) in order to create revenue to support rocket launches. I just apply Occam's razor here - given all of these things that he and his companies have accomplished, is it likelier that he's smart or stupid? And if he's stupid but still managed to accomplish these things, why didn't other rich people who are smarter than him accomplish them? How come Bezos is so much worse at creating a space company than Musk? We live in a capitalist society, so if all it takes is a few hundred million dollars and no brains to start SpaceX, which is worth many, many multiples of that, why has no one else done it?
  - drcongo 3y ago
    I mean, you're just applying some loose heuristics for what you think defines a smart person, and so am I. If you know smart people, they generally don't spend their days amplifying nazis on Twitter and replying to everything they say with a "rolls on floor laughing" emoji. I think I'd lean towards @bloppe's hunch long before yours, but yours is just as valid.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - idopmstuff 3y ago
      There's a difference in capability, though. A smart person is capable of being stupid on Twitter. A dumb person is not capable of recruiting top-tier rocket scientists + engineers and starting a company that has achieved everything that SpaceX has.
bloppe 3y ago
Elon lives a very public life. It's not that hard to judge his intelligence with the embarrassment of interviews, tweets, and articles generated by him and about him every day. I also happen to have met him and have several friends who work with him directly. The people who know him well certainly don't think of him as a genius
rsynnott 3y ago
It's very obvious if he's talking about something you know about; he does much the same confidently incorrect act as an LLM.

I'm perplexed by you claiming that he's very smart, so same question to you. Personally, based on all available evidence, I don't think he's smart at all. At a guess I reckon a good 75% of HN users are smarter than him or me.

idopmstuff 3y ago
He is one of the most successful people to have ever lived. We regularly have rockets that launch into the air and then land (200+ of these successfully in a row) because of a company he started. I know the counterargument is that he's not smart, he just hires smart people, but if you know smart people, they generally don't get recruited by idiots (even rich ones). He managed to surround himself with rocket scientists and engineers who revolutionized space travel. His company successfully navigated not only the engineering side but also the part that involves dealing with the bureaucracy of the US government. He came up with the idea to launch Starlink (and idea that others failed at before him) in order to create revenue to support rocket launches. I just apply Occam's razor here - given all of these things that he and his companies have accomplished, is it likelier that he's smart or stupid? And if he's stupid but still managed to accomplish these things, why didn't other rich people who are smarter than him accomplish them? How come Bezos is so much worse at creating a space company than Musk? We live in a capitalist society, so if all it takes is a few hundred million dollars and no brains to start SpaceX, which is worth many, many multiples of that, why has no one else done it?
- drcongo 3y ago
  I mean, you're just applying some loose heuristics for what you think defines a smart person, and so am I. If you know smart people, they generally don't spend their days amplifying nazis on Twitter and replying to everything they say with a "rolls on floor laughing" emoji. I think I'd lean towards @bloppe's hunch long before yours, but yours is just as valid.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - idopmstuff 3y ago
    There's a difference in capability, though. A smart person is capable of being stupid on Twitter. A dumb person is not capable of recruiting top-tier rocket scientists + engineers and starting a company that has achieved everything that SpaceX has.

bloppe 3y ago

Elon lives a very public life. It's not that hard to judge his intelligence with the embarrassment of interviews, tweets, and articles generated by him and about him every day. I also happen to have met him and have several friends who work with him directly. The people who know him well certainly don't think of him as a genius

rsynnott 3y ago

It's very obvious if he's talking about something you know about; he does much the same confidently incorrect act as an LLM.