Elon Musk Cannot Save You
Elon Musk's Autism Riddled Brain Won't Revolutionize Society or Politics
Elon Musk will, much like the pigs in Animal Farm, return Twitter to exactly what it was before. I know, this is very hard news to hear: But please bear with me. The problems that surround Twitter are not management problems, not economic problems, not engineering problems, they are political problems: And, unfortunately, Musk has demonstrated that he has a very, very poor understanding of people, a natural by-product of his autism. And those who do not understand people cannot understand politics.
Of course, I think much of Musk’s success has been due to luck: Many of his projects bordered on being cons—the hyperloop first and foremost amongst them. He has never said anything that has convinced me that he possesses genius engineering or mathematical skills: But he has successfully managed programs that were extremely complex, so he clearly possesses management skills in some domains.
However, Twitter’s problems are not technical (sure, it may have a few of those but nothing money can a few good engineers cannot solve). Twitter is, after all, a bulletin board with a character limit; in many respects, it is a step backwards from the technology we all used on Compuserve in 1994. Even the “algorithms” they use to flag inappropriate user behavior are likely nothing more than regular expressions: Again, we are at 1994 levels of technology.
Twitter’s problems are political: Political actors like the ADL and even the Democratic party itself are threatening to regulate it if it does not suppress speech these organizations dislike. What in Elon Musk’s CV, even if you ignore duds like the hyperloop and Boring Company, makes anyone think that he is capable of navigating a complicated political environment better than others? His staggering degrees of autism? His failure to understand that Twitter is fundamentally less cool than SpaceX and Tesla and that few people will be willing to “work super hard” for, at best, slightly above market income (not wages since wages are hourly, and Musk is asking for double the hours but he is not doubling anyone’s pay as a result).
Everything about his tenure at Twitter suggests he is going to fail. He started firing people almost as soon as he took over: Making stupid puns (bringing in a sink) that were bound to frighten workers. His monotone voice, his decision to smoke weed on the Joe Rogan show, his obvious physical awkwardness, his constant failure in romantic relationships despite having nearly infinite resources, suggest that he does not, indeed cannot, understand his fellow human beings. Apart from his own admission on SNL, it should be clear to everyone that he is suffering from nearly debilitating autism. If his life had gone a little differently, it is not unlikely that he might have ended up a complete failure: His autism is much worse than it appears at first. If you have trouble convincing yourself of this, listen to other autists and then lesson to Elon: Elon’s monotone is worse than that of most of the autistic people on “Love on the Spectrum.”
Name a great autistic politician. You can’t, can you? That is because there has never been a great autistic politician. Autists fail in politics. Autists will always fail in politics: Because politics is about understanding your fellow man, both consciously and unconsciously, both cognitively and instinctually. Liz Truss was an autist: She managed to hold onto the PM position for just over a month.
Musk will be outmanoeuvred by those he is up against: And failing to understand exactly what he faces will likely give up on his project out of frustration for a situation that he does not entirely comprehend.