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Joined 8 days ago
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Cake day: February 15th, 2025

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  • Eh, I despise Musk and believe he is a grave threat.

    But this “Musk isn’t smart” narrative is a waste of time and underestimating Musk makes him more dangerous.

    Tesla was a nothing burger company before he acquired it. SpaceX has been highly successful under his leadership. Musk may not have provided much technical knowledge, but he’s accomplished too much for it to be random luck, and steering such companies, even if not on a daily basis, is going to require applied intellectual skill.

    Edit: guys you can downvote all you want but underestimating Musk just weakens your position and aids him. You’re not going to an Ivy League school with average or below intelligence.

    You’re also not starting and guiding various companies to high level success if you’re dumb. Yes Musk has failed projects. Essentially every company and many if not most entrepreneurs have suffered failures.

    Allegedly he also got a relatively high SAT score (1400) according to Isaacson, a respected biographer (I’d want to see hard proof however).

    Musk’s IQ is probably something like 125, not 160. But it’s not going to be 90 or other like that.

    But I guess you can go ahead and play into his hand and boost him by underestimating him.




  • I loathe the idea of agreeing with Trump and friends, but I do think he is right in pushing for Europe to be more self reliant and battle ready. I distinctly remember Obama pushing Europe to increase defense spending and he got some pledges but I don’t think they bore much fruit. Trump’s harder stance may have and might be forcing Europe to step up a bit more. Even if so, he still could have handled the whole situation a bit better. Less public belittling and NATO bashing, for example, even if he and this representatives are taking a harder stance behind the scenes.


  • I once stumbled on a discussion, on Reddit I think (or maybe it was Twitter) from a small-time farmer who basically admitted that most farmers in his position realized regulations were important and could be a force for good, but large agri-businesses constantly flouted rules and never got anything more than a slap on the wrist when caught. A sort of “rules for thee, not for me” situation. And so all the small time farmers had to cut corners and ignore regulations to remain competitive and viable.

    Overly complex regulations could increase the barrier of entry for newer companies, small time entrepreneurs, etc. In some instances it can actually be in the interest of large, established companies to maintain overly complex regulatory environments as it keeps competition out of the market.

    Insightful simplification of regulations that increases their effectiveness while reducing unnecessary burdens might be feasible, and also, beneficial for society as a whole.

    Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we’re going to get that with this administration. They’re just going to smash and break, and at best, they might realize they broke some important things and perhaps repair it to a limited extent.

    edit: clarified a few points.