Attorney, journalist, and Elon Musk biographer Seth Abramson eviscerated both Elon Musk and his “fanboys” who have attempted to use the billionaire’s IQ as an indication of his intellectual prowess in a series of messages shared on X Thursday evening and into Friday.
Consider the 2016 election and the dangers of writing someone off.
Initially, the GOP establishment wrote Trump off as a flash in the pan. He’d enjoy an upswing, probably do something really dumb, and either way voters would come to their senses ahead of primary voting.
By the time the GOP establishment realized how big a threat trump was, it was too late.
Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign was pushing for Trump as GOP nominee, assuming he’d be an easy opponent.
We know how that turned out.
Trump is not Musk, it’s not a direct parallel, but it illustrates the dangers of underestimating someone.
Everyone deluding themselves into thinking Musk is an idiot (or 100 IQ) are creating conditions favorable to Musk.
(I wouldn’t be surprised if Musk is of above average intelligence but not a true genius).
The article literally says “110” which is indeed above average. Furthermore, I don’t think anyone is underestimating Elon at this point: he built a cult of personality over twenty years that last to this day (smaller than it was a decade ago, but still there) and he bought the presidency.
He can do all those things and not be generally smart. His skill, like trump’s, is lying in a distracting way. Neither of them is likely to ever invent a new thing or necessarily even be good at anything else. But they don’t need to, society values distracting liars above most everything else.
You cannot reason a man out of a position he did not reason himself into.
If you’re looking at a guy’s resume and it includes graduating from UPENN and getting admitted into Stanford, then launching/guiding/acquiring multiple successful companies and you’re then concluding “nah this guy ain’t smart” or “i’m not sure if he’s smart” it’s a position you reached not through logic/reason.
The author is taking a shot in the dark on Musk’s IQ and what the author wants it to be. 110 is normie. Isaacson, a very respected biographer, claims Musk’s SAT was 1400, which would have put him somewhere around ~93 percentile. I want to see proof of that score, but I’d guess Musk’ IQ is around 125-130 and around 95-97 percentile.
Trying to boil Musk’s success down simply to lying is vastly underestimating him and playing in his favor.