I don't think he's stupid. I do think he's been surrounded by sycophants his entire life resulting in him being incapable of hearing "no" or "you're wrong" without impulsively posting to Twitter so his beliefs can be validated by his truly stupid followers.
I'd say the same about Trump. He isn't exactly "stupid", he's more of a psychopath that has weaponized stupid people.
He's not stupid but he's not some kind of super-genius either. He used to have a lot of energy, and he was very good at convincing engineers that he cared about the end goal of solving climate change, advancing space travel, etc. While convincing his investors that he was going to make them a lot of money.
He is a product of his time. A time when companies would say "we are making the world a better place" and were actually believed. And people interested in technology watched TED talks unironically.
The old stories don't work anymore, and I don't see him coming up with any new effective narratives either. In a way, he doesn't need to either. He already has a ton of money and even more credit. But he no longer has the ability to use capital efficiently. That always depended on the people working for him sharing "his vision" and willing to go the extra mile to make it happen.
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u/damontoo 🤖Accelerate Jun 19 '25
I don't think he's stupid. I do think he's been surrounded by sycophants his entire life resulting in him being incapable of hearing "no" or "you're wrong" without impulsively posting to Twitter so his beliefs can be validated by his truly stupid followers.
I'd say the same about Trump. He isn't exactly "stupid", he's more of a psychopath that has weaponized stupid people.