Musk is definitely one of them.
Musk is a rich trust fund baby whose fortune started off the back of Apartheid. It’s not a shocker that he’s a mask-off racist. He’s done nothing to prove himself a genius, just a skilled grifter and financier.
Comment on America's Smartest Man Finds Something Interesting
LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
Why some of the smartest people can be so very stupid | Psyche Ideas
Basically many people who have the raw processing power or “IQ” to understand and analyse things can still lack certain “mental infrastructure” or education to understand things. This is especially atrocious for narrow minded people who actively rejected new information that doesn’t fit into their mental comfort zone. Musk is definitely one of them.
This is the reason why we can’t have nice things.
firadin@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
jj4211@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’d say it’s more people who are repeatedly told they are smart can be very stupid.
Many of then might even be “smart”, but the important part is having unwarranted confidence.
Complicating things is that society rewards confidence way more than it rewards competence. If I’m honest about a lack of competence in a certain area but someone else lies during the interview, good chance they are going to get the job over me.
The reality is that everyone can be very very stupid, and so long as each and every one of us is willing to accept and recognize our weakness we aren’t as likely to be assholes.
intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
It’s also important to recognize that smart people can and do fool themselves into believing whatever’s most comfortable to themselves, unless they actively develop the emotional fortitude to face reality.
LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
Yeah true. But like @jj4211@lemmy.world write it’s also that confident behavior is rewarded. And narrow minded focus on profit is more efficient than being focused on other things. And they need to compete with others on this “game” who pursue the calculus of power. So humility is a really hard sell to them. And media is not looking at politics or politicians in that way at all.
I sometimes feel this lack of emotional fortitude when thinking about reading a book, because books often break up your worldview and require you to adjust. There is a kind of intellectual pain of disillusionment.
intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
And they need to compete with others on this “game” who pursue the calculus of power.
Such compulsions are a function of lacking the kind of emotional fortitude I’m referring to.
Spineless people of poor character “need” to pursue upward movement along the gradient of power.
The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king. Said Aristippus, “If you learned to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.”
Said Diogenes, “If you learned to live on lentils, you would not have to be subservient to the king.”
LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
The trouble is that they do need to compete with people who do pursue power (or wealth) relentlessly. So there are hard calculations. Those who don’t play don’t get power and won’t change anything. Those who do want to chance things and want other things than just power are at a (big) disadvantage. Even with the best of intention, the game plays you.
I believe the solution would be something like more rules or systems in place to focus on this kind of pursuit and call it out and dissuade it. Like develop social tools to change the rules of the game. No clue how though. Maybe AGI.
TokenBoomer@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Once again, it comes down to material conditions.
senkora@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Great article, thank you for sharing.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’ve yet to see any evidence that Musk is particularly smart. What I’ve mostly seen is his ability to throw big parties and charm investors with bullshit business speak, while riding a wave of lucky bets and state subsidies to billionaire-hood.
LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
No he’s not. But he’s also far from dumb.
Musk is far from genius level but above average intelligence. He does have knowledge about rockets on a non-engineering level which you can see e.g. in this video talking about his starfactory.
But he and others like him focus their thinking narrow mindedly on the pursuit of profit. Every decision is based on gaining wealth. THAT is by far the bigger problem.
Besides the focus of all education towards profit seeking, technical nerds also seem to “want to” see other fields like sociology or politics or history in a simple and easy to explain way. So they seek principles or the most simplistic social theories that don’t explain anything real. Musk certainly falls into that.
Except now where he seems to go completely off the rails. Possibly a symptom of narcissism ever since he became unpopular, he’s doubling down to find new validation for his fragile ego. So yeah in that sense he is not the best example.
My point was not just about Musk but about the idea of “finding the smartest people to rule”. Because to anybody who is above intelligence that sounds smart except - stupidity can be more dangerous in intelligent people.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Maybe once. But that much Ketamine, plus his advanced age and excessive social media exposure, has degraded his ability to process information substantively.
He has prepared statements to read to a friendly interviewer. That’s PR, not intelligence.
Musk isn’t technical, he’s a finance bro. And while I agree there’s a strong “Education should be about making money” propaganda wave, I’ve noticed a lot of backtracking on this any time some group of labor activists starts passing around the financial reports of the publicly traded company to their coworkers. Then, all of a sudden, the finance bros become obsessed with sociology, politics, and history, at least in so far as they keep shouting and pointing to Venezuela any time someone at the firm mentions the company health care policy.