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Elon Musk is not understood – Casey Handmer's blog

caseyhandmer.wordpress.com · 14,421 words · saved by 1 readers

Elon Musk is a divisive character. My intent here, as always, is to add some nuance and signal to a noisy, complex and/or obscure subject. Whatever your views on Elon, I feel that it is a worthy goal to move the conversation towards more meaningful engagement, hopefully without painting too large a target on my back. The problem is that 99% of the critique out there is not well-intentioned and it’s not accurate, which means that most people simply lack the context they need to understand what Elon is doing and why. This is a problem, because Elon is a relatively powerful and visionary leader, and his companies are increasingly important vehicles for the delivery of transformative technology. I make no secret of my admiration for the achievements of Elon’s companies. I first met Elon in about 2011, and found him thoughtful and interesting, though of course I know many people who’ve been on the receiving end of quite severe criticism (as well as praise) in the context of their work. Neve

[Edit Feb 2025: What a difference a year makes. This piece aged well. The Democratic Party still seems to have zero idea how or why they badly lost the election. Elon is now working full time on a substantial reorg of the federal bureaucracy. His detractors continue to misunderstand and underestimate Elon and his team. From my perspective, it seems like an “ outside context problem ” occurring in real time. If your model of the universe explains Elon’s actions by dismissing him as stupid , crazy , or addicted to drugs , your model of the universe lacks predictive power and yo

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