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Based on track record, Elon’s engineering intuitions are probably: A+ on physics/MechE/metallurgy/ops A on ChemE, manufacturing, physical design B on transactional s/w, AI C to D on social s/w F on neurotech Tempting to dunk, but I’d expect him to learn fast here and get to B+
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Btw, I’d like to apologize for Twitter being super slow in many countries. App is doing >1000 poorly batched RPCs just to render a home timeline!
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He’s a bullshit artist on so many fronts it’s tempting to dismiss him as a bullshit artist on *all* fronts, like Trump. This is a mistake… I think he does have a preternatural talent for rapidly zeroing in on the right intuitions and strategic tradeoffs on engineering matters.
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A lot of average engineers like to dunk on him for not actually being an engineer and dismissing him as an econ major playing engineer. This is way off. From what I’ve seen his reputation as a strong engineering mind is well deserved. It’s just not… uniformly good on all topics.
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He may be wildly wrong initially (as he seems to be here) but he’ll get unreasonably right soon. A big part of why he’s able to improve his intuitions fast in entirely new topics is that he’s way bolder than most engineers. Most engineers have a blindness to bold design options.
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But… moot point. It’s not clear he can buy enough time financially to allow any strengths-in-translation to kick in. With the own goals on non-engineering fronts continuing at a steady clip.
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These are good points, though he’s giving off a lot of thin-skinned billionaire surrounded by third-rate yes-men vibes right now. That’s generally not conducive to improvement.
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I think this is more right than most takes--but experts who get surrounded by yesmen can totally misread their insight and go off the deep end even where they used to be experts
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1. A+ on (manipulating) human psychology. 2. A+ in observing market mispricing based on backward looking assumptions. 3. Given enough time (see 1), the ability to learn his way to B+/A- on virtually any field.
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