A silly insult! I hear your cry. Yes, as the Oxford Dictionary defines a “halfwit” as a “foolish or stupid person” And I do agree, it is stupid to call Elon Musk “stupid”.
But that’s not what I mean. And I don’t actually mean this as an insult – more of an observation. I guess that I have invented a new interpretation of “halfwit”.
According to my view, one can be brilliantly clever with one kind of thinking, yet lacking in understanding of other important ways of thinking, as though half of one’s brain is sort of not functioning. I was prompted to ponder on this by Gautam Mukunda‘s article in The Business Standard; “Musk and the dangerous myth of “omnigenius”. Mukunda deplores “the Halo Effect” – a cognitive bias in which we revere someone for remarkable success in just one area, and assume that they will be equally great in other areas.
Mukunda gave a chilling example:
“Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE ) fired hundreds of employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency responsible for the production and security of nuclear weapons and management of nuclear waste sites.”
(These cuts were soon reversed under the advice of Arms Control Association Executive Director Daryl Kimball).
Mukunda is exploring the attitude of people in general, towards valuing a high achiever. So he’s not actually discussing Musk himself and Musk’s way of thinking.
But it looks as if Elon Musk had no insight into the potential negative consequences of the firing of nuclear safety staff.
This touches on Musk’s apparent lack of interest in some areas of life – employment relationships, social studies, economics – the non-technical areas. We all know that Elon Musk is a genius in science and technology. He’s got all that impressive knowledge. And let’s not forget – his early, and no doubt, continuing, motivation – to save and benefit humanity. Hence his desire, and technical know-how – aimed at creating a safer home for humanity – on another planet.
And what about Musk’s undoubted knowledge of science? Does it include those “soft” sciences – biology, ecology, cytology, genetics, psychology, neuroscience…?
Neuroscience comes up with some clues to human ways of thinking. For one example, the development of the frontal lobe of the brain comes at different ages between males and females. Complex research has also shown for example, the role of testosterone in embryonic development in both sexes. It may account for males having, on the whole, better abilities in spatial understanding, and for female thinking on the whole encompassing more regions of the brain at the one time. Now this is a terrible digression from the immediate topic, but just my attempt to indicate that individual brain function differs between people.
Getting back to Elon Musk, it is just my guess that he, for one reason or another, is really good at STEM thinking (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). And unfortunately, even within that STEM Science, those so-called “soft” sciences don’t seem to count. It would seem that Musk is uninterested both in those other sciences, and in humanities studies.
So – that’s what I’m calling being “half-witted” – terrific at the concrete technical stuff, but sadly lacking in that other half – those other, less well-defined, areas of thinking.
So I reckon that Gautam Mukunda is onto something, when he warns us:
“… why do we listen to these people? And why should they get positions of power in areas where they have little knowledge or experience?”
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It’s almost impossible to describe the behaviour of someone like Musk in one word.
His personality and actions are those of many nasty, unthinking, unfeeling, out of touch people, most of whom have not had to worry about buying food, paying for the health care of a chronically child, financing retirement etc.
As for being him being neurodivergent, that is an excuse, not a reason. All people under that umbrella that I know do not treat other people like shit just because they can.
As far as I’m concerned the word “arsehole” is a pretty accurate if not complete description.
LoneSkum is not a tech genius. He inherited wealth and has expanded it through good investments and multi-billion$$$ government contracts. His sole actual contribution was a minor part in developing PayPal.
Neurodivergent or not – and there is considerable debate about that within the ND community – he is a a nasty, weak, selfish, arrogant, immature, greedy, hypocritical, drug-fuelled trust-fund baby with a breeding fetish; sociopathic at best, quite possibly psycopathic and, like all bullies, a coward.
And let’s not forget – his early, and no doubt, continuing, motivation – to save and benefit humanity.
Again, no, no, no. Establishing a sustainable settlement on Mars is so he and his oligarch dudebro mates have an escape pod when the shit on this planet really hits the climate-change fan.
You have to stop reading the fanfic and look into his real history and that of all the companies with which he’s been involved. It’s not pretty.
Yes. He is. And he is versatile, also.., an Arsehole.