Recently one of the quasi-Democratic Substack people I follow, Noah Smith, whose Substack is called "Noahpinion," wrote an article about whether Elon Musk was smart, or not. And I read Noah's articles, because he is usually a pretty thoughtful thinker. I think he was way, way off the mark on this one.
The article explained that Musk was not a dumb-dumb, because he had an IQ of over 130, and he had scored at least 1400 on his SATs, and he had done a lot of great brand management at Tesla and Starlink.
It added that far from being stupid, Musk was an "industrialist" who was "unmatched" by any other American in history, except possibly Henry Ford. (An interesting example in his own right, since he was an incredibly paternalistic and eugenicist leader, not to mention a world-class antisemite.)
I don't know how much of Musk's success is due to his own organizational ability. I don't know if you can count his brilliance on how much money he's made. If that were the case, I guess we would just rank intelligence by net worth and call it good, yet even the most plutocratic of us would probably say there was more to it than that.
What I would like to take issue with, regardless of what brilliance he may have exhibited as the CEO of Tesla or Starlink, is whether he is acting intelligently now.
But wait! I hear you say. You are not a self-made billionaire! You are just a two-bit bureaucrat with a blog. What can you possibly have to say about whether this guy is smart?
That is true! But I felt like writing about this because I also have an IQ in the 130s (I have taken a couple of IQ tests in my life) and I got a 1410 on my SATs (670 on math, and 740 on verbal). So I feel like, in some ways, specifically regarding smarts, I am comparable to Musk.
I have not devoted my life to making a lot of money, as I never really wanted to do that. I also had a lot of events happen that I reacted to, and made a bunch of choices that led me down the path of self-sufficiency and general comfort, but not extreme (or even modest) wealth. Like a fair number of Americans, I make a relatively comfortable living in a relatively expensive city, and am currently focused on saving enough so that I can have a comfortable retirement and not be a burden on my descendants. So, if you rank smarts by net worth, or ambition to increase it, I'm probably at or below average.
However, I do like learning things. I am curious. If I hear about a thing, and wish to know more, I will perhaps read a book about it, or spend a few hours in an Internet rabbit hole learning about it. Usually, I will come away from that experience feeling intrigued, but definitely not all that knowledgeable. That is because I feel strongly that my experience has shown me that it takes a lot of time and practice to be a real expert on anything.
I also like learning things from people. I have learned more recently from people who are younger and less experienced than me, than I have from my elders. That is because younger people know a lot about many new subjects. I would not know anything about these things if I didn't want to learn them from these people - if I already had decided I knew enough, or more than them, or that I should be the one to talk and they to listen.
I don't think being smart has so much to do with raw IQ scores. It has a lot to do with being open to learning things you do not already know. And here is where I think Elon Musk is not a smart person. He is a very arrogant person. He does not wish to know, for example, what Federal workers do, or whether it is important. He just wishes to fire them and label what they do waste, fraud or abuse.
On line, he seems to prefer insulting people ("trolling," which he seems to delight in) over any sort of need for community or social good. He pits people against each other, and elevates "mean Tweets" that attack others, usually people without power.
I do not see how this is an example of organizational brilliance, or any kind of intelligence at all. It just seems like mean bullying. I have met a lot of mean bullies in my life, and "intelligent" is not one of the words I think describes what they do, or even who they are.
Because, really, who we are is what we do, and nothing else. That's all the evidence there is.
Yet another blogger had the definitive take on this: A. R. Moxon. He wrote,
“Historians have a word for Germans who joined the Nazi party, not because they hated Jews, but out of a hope for restored patriotism, or a sense of economic anxiety, or a hope to preserve their religious values, or dislike of their opponents, or raw political opportunism, or convenience, or ignorance, or greed.
That word is "Nazi." Nobody cares about their motives anymore.
They joined what they joined. They lent their support and their moral approval. And, in so doing, they bound themselves to everything that came after. Who cares any more what particular knot they used in the binding?”
So, looking at what Musk is doing now, in 2025, I would say, no, not only is he not very smart, he is also, clearly, a Nazi.
