Long before Musk’s recent sojourn into politics, I considered him to be the most consequential person this century. He changed payments with Paypal, propelled the electric car business from niche to mainstream in Tesla, radically reduced the cost of space lift with SpaceX, gave us low-latency global internet with Earthlink, advanced AI at OpenAI, Boring Company provides new tunneling tech, evolved Twitter to being a better free-speech platform with X, and Neuralink advanced brain-computer interface giving hope to victims of neurological damage. He is a business polymath and tech visionary by any definition.
Contrary to AOC’s post, Musk is a brilliant engineer. Several years ago, I recall listening to Musk on Lex Fridman’s podcast where he talked in depth about topics such as rocket engine design and autopilot AI for over four hours. I was very impressed. But it is his extreme ability to spot opportunity, hire top talent and fearlessly execute that sets him apart.
Entrepreneurs significantly differ (on average) from the general population in several of the Big Five personality factors, notably being far lower in Agreeableness (going along with others) and Neuroticism (negative emotions such as anxiety) and higher in Openness (curiosity and attraction to the novel). You see this in spades with Musk, Jobs and others (Gates, Ellison, etc.). They are very difficult to work for, but the results speak for themselves. Geniuses such as Musk are also often quite eccentric.
Musk was a hero of the left when he was a lifelong Dem. Now he is the victim of metastasized TDS. It’s not surprising that an ex-barista would say something this dumb. What is surprising is that Dems are picking this up as some piece of important insight. Until they emerge from this psychopathology, the electorate will shake their collective heads in disbelief and vote otherwise.
~ Tom Bernhardt, Facebook post, March 22, 2025
