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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!

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