Elon Musk Is Definitely Not a Genius
A recent article about Elon Musk said that he’s “clearly a genius and he is also a fool.” I agree that he’s a fool — of the highest order — but he’s not a genius. Far, far from it. He’s reported to have a high IQ, but I contend that IQ doesn’t necessarily translate to genius.
Geniuses display original thought, creativity and imagination that identifies new interrelationships between ideas and objects that previously were seen to be unrelated.
Geniuses are often eccentric, and Musk certainly is. Geniuses are often childlike; Musk has a child inside, but when it comes out, it’s childish, not childlike. Does Musk identify previously unseen relationships between things? Are his thoughts original? He wants to go to Mars. Not an original idea. He wants to build self-driving cars. Not an original idea. He wants to build reusable rockets. Not an original idea. He wants to connect human brains to computers. Not an original idea. He wants to build tunnels easily. Not an original idea. He wants to build high-speed transportation. Not an original idea.
Musk’s strength is in tackling an existing idea and using his enormous wealth to hire experts who can achieve his goals. I’m not privy to the goings-on behind closed doors, but I doubt he’s contributed anything in the way of engineering insights or solutions.
Einstein was a genius. He looked for a relationship between mass and energy and, after considerable thought, said to himself, “Time is suspect,” an insight that led him to his most famous equation. His two major achievements have been used to give the world wonders no one dreamed of — including Einstein. Newton was a genius. DaVinci was a genius. Michelangelo was a genius. Musk has proved himself to be nothing more than a wealthy, impetuous, childish egotist who equates fortune with intelligence. He came from a moneyed family and enlarged his fortune off the backs of others. He has shown astoundingly bad judgment in business and, arguably, in his personal life. (Who but a childish parent would name his children X AE A-XII Musk, Exa Dark Sideræl Musk and Techno Mechanicus?)
Coming from an extremely wealthy South African family gave him a healthy head start. Suffice it to say, he proved that it’s easier to make money if you have money. He was lucky enough to meet the right people at the right time. His wealth, not any original ideas, brought him to his current position.
Despite his high IQ, Elon Musk has thought nothing original or done anything original. Nothing. He isn’t a genius, not by a long shot.
