What’s strange about Elon in particular is that he at least used to play the part of an “intellectually curious” person. I met him at a small ~4 hour dinner in 2016 to talk about the future of AI, and he really did cultivate a vibe of being genuinely interested, willing to be wrong, enjoying being challenged, etc. He seemed actually seemed happier to receive a dissenting opinion (as I was constantly, three-glasses-of-wine-dly doing) than he was having people echo him (as many at the table were doing).
I’m sure he was an asshole even then, of course; it’s totally possible to fake this stuff. But who you choose to pretend to be is still revealing, and at some point in the last 7 years, he decided that even pretending to be curious wasn’t worth it. His heel turn has been so fascinating to watch!
What’s strange about Elon in particular is that he at least used to play the part of an “intellectually curious” person. I met him at a small ~4 hour dinner in 2016 to talk about the future of AI, and he really did cultivate a vibe of being genuinely interested, willing to be wrong, enjoying being challenged, etc. He seemed actually seemed happier to receive a dissenting opinion (as I was constantly, three-glasses-of-wine-dly doing) than he was having people echo him (as many at the table were doing).
I’m sure he was an asshole even then, of course; it’s totally possible to fake this stuff. But who you choose to pretend to be is still revealing, and at some point in the last 7 years, he decided that even pretending to be curious wasn’t worth it. His heel turn has been so fascinating to watch!
Agreed. I found this episode of Swisher's podcast to be fascinating. Check it out for an exploration of what you just brought up. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/elon-musk-somebody-that-i-used-to-know/id1643307527?i=1000586088919