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Elon Musk, a genius? Really?

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
So we have two articles that conflict.

Can we get some corroboration?
This excerpt shows the beginning capital....

Zip2​

Main article: Zip2
External video
video icon
Musk speaks of his early business experience during a 2014 commencement speech at USC on YouTube
In 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded Zip2.[49][50] Errol Musk provided them with $28,000 in funding.[51] The company developed an Internet city guide with maps, directions, and yellow pages, and marketed it to newspapers.[52] They worked at a small rented office in Palo Alto,[53] Musk coding the website every night.[53] Eventually, Zip2 obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.[43] The brothers persuaded the board of directors to abandon a merger with CitySearch;[54] however, Musk's attempts to become CEO were thwarted.[55] Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash in February 1999,[56][57] and Musk received $22 million for his 7-percent share.[58]
 

ImmortalFlame

Woke gremlin
This excerpt shows the beginning capital....

Zip2​

Main article: Zip2
In 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded Zip2.[49][50] Errol Musk provided them with $28,000 in funding.[51] The company developed an Internet city guide with maps, directions, and yellow pages, and marketed it to newspapers.[52] They worked at a small rented office in Palo Alto,[53] Musk coding the website every night.[53] Eventually, Zip2 obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.[43] The brothers persuaded the board of directors to abandon a merger with CitySearch;[54] however, Musk's attempts to become CEO were thwarted.[55] Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash in February 1999,[56][57] and Musk received $22 million for his 7-percent share.[58]
But this article also contradicts the one you provided earlier:

"His father, Errol Musk, is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, and property developer, who was a half-owner of a Zambian emerald mine near Lake Tanganyika.[15][16][17][18] Musk has a younger brother, Kimbal, and a younger sister, Tosca.[14][19]

Musk's family was wealthy during his youth.[18]"

Also, being provided with $28,000 in funding from your father for a business venture in your early twenties doesn't seem like the kind of thing non-wealthy families do.
 
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Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
But this article also contradicts the one you provided earlier:

"His father, Errol Musk, is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, and property developer, who was a half-owner of a Zambian emerald mine near Lake Tanganyika.[15][16][17][18] Musk has a younger brother, Kimbal, and a younger sister, Tosca.[14][19]

Musk's family was wealthy during his youth.[18]"

Also, being provided with $28,000 in funding from your father for a business venture in your early twenties doesn't seem like the kind of thing non-wealthy families do.
The $28,000 stake shows beginnings that are humble
relative to a millionaire, let alone a multi-billionaire..
 

Yazata

Active Member
Is Elon Musk a genius, really?

I'd say obviously yes.

Is there anyone else in our contemporary world that even comes close?

I'd be curious to know what makes someone a "genius." Accumulated wealth, public presence, the way they contribute to the body of collective knowledge, or something else?

I think that there are different kinds of genius. Elon's genius is very unlike Einstein's or Gauss's. Elon isn't a physical theorist like Einstein or a genius mathematician like Gauss.

Elon's is entrepeneurial genius. In that regard, he might be kind of like Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie rolled into one. Elon has an unparalleled track record of starting hugely successful and game-changing companies, from SpaceX and Tesla to Neuralink. Other companies that he helped drive to success that he's no longer associated with include Paypal and OpenAI (the chatgpt people). There's even the Ad Astra/Astra Nova schools and the Boring Company.

Any one of those would be a great accomplishment for a normal man. Elon just seemingly effortlessly produces a succession of them one after another.

In so doing, he's made himself the richest man on Earth, at a relatively young age. While I don't think accumulated wealth is necessarily an indicator of genius, that really depends on how the wealth was obtained. If it is correlated with success of one's ventures, that tells us something. And perhaps most importantly, it provides the capital necessary to achieve additional great things.

Another indicator of Elon's genius is how visionary his companies are. Each of them seems like an attempt to make some aspect of science-fiction into reality. Tesla is the first really successful new American car company in generations. It's made electric cars cool and has risen to challenge companies like General Motors. More importantly, it's probably the leader in automotive AI and is moving into general AI with the Teslabots. The other big company SpaceX now rivals long established aerospace companies like Boeing - it dominates orbital space launch, it provides the United States with its crewed access to space, and it is working on an amazing new class of spaceships with the potential to open up the entire solar system to human spaceflight. SpaceX has singlehandedly made space travel exciting again, has captured the whole world's imagination, and is leaving NASA in the dust. Even the smaller and more obscure company Neuralink hopes to restore movement to quadriplegics and vision to the blind, let alone create a route to a totally immersive kind of direct-cortical-stimulation virtual reality that will be light years ahead of anything Meta has ever imagined, more like the Matrix.

Elon's changing the world, which is probably the true indicator of genius.
 
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ImmortalFlame

Woke gremlin
The $28,000 stake shows beginnings that are humble
relative to a millionaire, let alone a multi-billionaire..
Sure, but the claim was that he was born into a wealthy family. He wasn't necessarily born a billionaire, but he had a significant leg up being born into a wealthy family.
 
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Viker

Häxan
Is Elon Musk a genius, really?

I'd say obviously yes.

Is there anyone else in our contemporary world that even comes close?



I think that there are different kinds of genius. Elon's genius is very unlike Einstein's or Gauss's. Elon isn't a physical theorist like Einstein or a genius mathematician like Gauss.

Elon's is entrepeneurial genius. In that regard, he might be kind of like Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie rolled into one. Elon has an unparalleled track record of starting hugely successful and game-changing companies, from SpaceX and Tesla to Neuralink. Other companies that he helped drive to success that he's no longer associated with include Paypal and OpenAI (the chatgpt people). There's even the Ad Astra/Astra Nova schools and the Boring Company.

Any one of those would be a great accomplishment for a normal man. Elon just seemingly effortlessly produces a succession of them one after another.

In so doing, he's made himself the richest man on Earth, at a relatively young age. While I don't think accumulated wealth is necessarily an indicator of genius, that really depends on how the wealth was obtained. If it is correlated with success of one's ventures, that tells us something. And perhaps most importantly, it provides the capital necessary to achieve additional great things.

Another indicator of Elon's genius is how visionary his companies are. Each of them seems like an attempt to make some aspect of science-fiction into reality. Tesla is the first really successful new American car company in generations. It's made electric cars cool and has risen to challenge companies like General Motors. More importantly, it's probably the leader in automotive AI and is moving into general AI with the Teslabots. The other big company SpaceX now rivals long established aerospace companies like Boeing - it dominates orbital space launch, it provides the United States with its crewed access to space, and it is working on an amazing new class of spaceships with the potential to open up the entire solar system to human spaceflight. SpaceX has singlehandedly made space travel exciting again, has captured the whole world's imagination, and is leaving NASA in the dust. Even the smaller and more obscure company Neuralink hopes to restore movement to quadriplegics and vision to the blind, let alone create a route to a totally immersive kind of direct-cortical-stimulation virtual reality that will be light years ahead of anything Meta has ever imagined, more like the Matrix.

Elon's changing the world, which is probably the true indicator of genius.
He didn't found Tesla or anything. He simply bought into them, building on his father's money.

Tesla
 

Mock Turtle

Oh my, did I say that!
Premium Member
Is Elon Musk a genius, really?

I'd say obviously yes.

Elon's changing the world, which is probably the true indicator of genius.
I doubt that is a true measure of genius though, given that Hitler did so and Putin is doing so now. :eek:
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Is Elon Musk a genius, really?

I'd say obviously yes.

Is there anyone else in our contemporary world that even comes close?



I think that there are different kinds of genius. Elon's genius is very unlike Einstein's or Gauss's. Elon isn't a physical theorist like Einstein or a genius mathematician like Gauss.

Elon's is entrepeneurial genius. In that regard, he might be kind of like Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie rolled into one. Elon has an unparalleled track record of starting hugely successful and game-changing companies, from SpaceX and Tesla to Neuralink. Other companies that he helped drive to success that he's no longer associated with include Paypal and OpenAI (the chatgpt people). There's even the Ad Astra/Astra Nova schools and the Boring Company.

Any one of those would be a great accomplishment for a normal man. Elon just seemingly effortlessly produces a succession of them one after another.

In so doing, he's made himself the richest man on Earth, at a relatively young age. While I don't think accumulated wealth is necessarily an indicator of genius, that really depends on how the wealth was obtained. If it is correlated with success of one's ventures, that tells us something. And perhaps most importantly, it provides the capital necessary to achieve additional great things.

Another indicator of Elon's genius is how visionary his companies are. Each of them seems like an attempt to make some aspect of science-fiction into reality. Tesla is the first really successful new American car company in generations. It's made electric cars cool and has risen to challenge companies like General Motors. More importantly, it's probably the leader in automotive AI and is moving into general AI with the Teslabots. The other big company SpaceX now rivals long established aerospace companies like Boeing - it dominates orbital space launch, it provides the United States with its crewed access to space, and it is working on an amazing new class of spaceships with the potential to open up the entire solar system to human spaceflight. SpaceX has singlehandedly made space travel exciting again, has captured the whole world's imagination, and is leaving NASA in the dust. Even the smaller and more obscure company Neuralink hopes to restore movement to quadriplegics and vision to the blind, let alone create a route to a totally immersive kind of direct-cortical-stimulation virtual reality that will be light years ahead of anything Meta has ever imagined, more like the Matrix.

Elon's changing the world, which is probably the true indicator of genius.
His iq is exceptionally high. Said to be around 155.

Definitely MENSA standard for genius.

It's not a wonder he can think his way through things.
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
His iq is exceptionally high. Said to be around 155.

Definitely MENSA standard for genius.

It's not a wonder he can think his way through things.
Except running a social media company, apparently.

I suspect he's on the spectrum and very good at visionary engineering but lousy at understanding people.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Sure, but the claim was that he was born into a wealthy family. He wasn't necessarily born a billionaire, but he had a significant leg up being born into a wealthy family.
Doesn't sound wealthy to me.
More middle class.
Nonetheless, how many middle class people become multi-multi-billionaires?
While he's a vile **** ******* jerk, he did build that empire...not inherit it.

I'm reminded me of 2 brothers I knew, Jim & Tom Monaghan.
They really did start with nothing, having been raised in an orphanage.
What did they do with this privilege?
Jim sold his share of a pizzeria to Tom, who then made hundreds of millions.
Obama might read a teleprompter saying that someone else did that for him,
but he's an pandering buffoon.

BTW, Jim died a couple years ago.
Troubled he was, but a nice guy.
 

ImmortalFlame

Woke gremlin
Doesn't sound wealthy to me.
More middle class.
$28,000 to start a business from your father doesn't sound wealthy to you?

Wow.

Nonetheless, how many middle class people become multi-multi-billionaires?
While he's a vile **** ******* jerk, he did build that empire...not inherit it.
While this is true, the point is that he WAS born into a wealthy family.

I'm reminded me of 2 brothers I knew, Jim & Tom Monaghan.
They really did start with nothing, having been raised in an orphanage.
What did they do with this privilege?
Jim sold his share of a pizzeria to Tom, who then made hundreds of millions.
Obama might read a teleprompter saying that someone else did that for him,
but he's an pandering buffoon.

BTW, Jim died a couple years ago.
Troubled he was, but a nice guy.
I mean, cool. But that doesn't really relate to Elon Musk. He was born into a wealthy family.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
Except running a social media company, apparently.

I suspect he's on the spectrum and very good at visionary engineering but lousy at understanding people.
He also doesn't understand physics. The Hyperloop was impossible but he didn't realize that. And his "visionary engineering" resulted in the flopped boring company. He just got lucky with Tesla and Space-X. (And Tesla only the passenger cars, the semi also is a flop.)
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
He also doesn't understand physics. The Hyperloop was impossible but he didn't realize that. And his "visionary engineering" resulted in the flopped boring company. He just got lucky with Tesla and Space-X. (And Tesla only the passenger cars, the semi also is a flop.)
He did a great deal more than get lucky with Tesla and Space-X. With Tesla he made electric cars cool and with Space-X he's made a real commercial success out of space rockets, from scratch. You don't do either of those things with just luck. He seems to me to have rare qualities of engineering vision, persistence and risk-taking. But the flip side is he's lousy on people stuff, hence the Twitter train crash, and he seems to be a closet fascist - a feature shared by a number of business people with big egos, unfortunately :cool:.
 
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Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
Is there anyone else in our contemporary world that even comes close?

Terence Tao comes to mind:

Tao was born to ethnic Chinese immigrant parents and raised in Adelaide. Tao won the Fields Medal in 2006 and won the Royal Medal and Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics in 2014. He is also a 2006 MacArthur Fellow. Tao has been the author or co-author of over three hundred research papers.[5] He is widely regarded as one of the greatest living mathematicians and has been referred to as the "Mozart of mathematics".[6][7][8][9][10]


I think "genius" is just like "intelligent": it's a descriptor that heavily varies based on the field in question, so comparisons across fields are largely moot. Magnus Carlsen is a chess genius, but Terence Tao is better at math (while obviously being worse at chess). Elon Musk is good at being a visionary, but Samuel L. Jackson is much more of a "genius" when it comes to acting.

Humans are good at different things. I think certain people just get more praise for their intelligence (or perceived intelligence) in whatever area they're good at due to multiple factors such as fame, their level of influence (whether due to their achievements or otherwise), popular appeal (an actor/actress is more likely to be appealing and relatable to most people than a mathematician or physicist), etc.
 

Yazata

Active Member
Terence Tao comes to mind

I'd never heard of him. (I don't follow mathematics.) But yeah, from the Wikipedia description, this guy clearly seems to show genius in mathematics.

I think "genius" is just like "intelligent": it's a descriptor that heavily varies based on the field in question, so comparisons across fields are largely moot. Magnus Carlsen is a chess genius, but Terence Tao is better at math (while obviously being worse at chess). Elon Musk is good at being a visionary, but Samuel L. Jackson is much more of a "genius" when it comes to acting.

I couldn't agree more.

That's why I don't place a lot of value on IQ. IQ is just a crude average of several different abilities, measured in ways restricted by the testing methodology and weighted as the test designer saw fit.

An IQ test wouldn't even catch a genius level artist or musician. It might measure skill at spotting linguistic analogies, but will that correlate with literary or rhetorical talent? Will an IQ test spot the ability to philosophize, theorize or strategize?
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
$28,000 to start a business from your father doesn't sound wealthy to you?

Wow.
No.
Many middle class parents spend far in excess of
that just to send kids to college for a degree in
medieval feminist conceptual art. $28k to start
a business pales in comparison.
Are you so dirt poor that you couldn't raise that
much for your own kid?
 

ImmortalFlame

Woke gremlin
No.
Many middle class parents spend far in excess of
that just to send kids to college for a degree in
medieval feminist conceptual art. $28k to start
a business pales in comparison.
Are you so dirt poor that you couldn't raise that
much for your own kid?
Are you serious?

Whether or not you believe that, you must acknowledge that the evidence suggests his family was wealthy.
 
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