The best single video I've seen so far, not because it explains all the ins and outs, but because the streamer starts out basically neutral and gradually transitions into complete contempt for Musk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpXu9ft9h4M
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If I ran multiple companies and has untold billions, I would *absolutely* pay someone to pilot a character for me so I could just bash around with all the skills. But I wouldn’t front about being an awesome gamer.
I cannot imagine the sort of person who would simultaneously a) be really impressed that someone is apparently very good at a videogame, and b) watch that stream and not realise they were clearly useless.
This is actually a brilliant exposition of a pattern that has replayed itself over and over in his life. Someone else does the heavy lifting. Elon steps in and takes credit for it. Oddly, it's apparently easier to do in the world of hi tech manufacturing than in the gaming community.
haha thank you too! and yeah, that was optimized for quippiness rather than precision.
I guess what I mean is something like, leadership is not an intrinsic skill but co-created with the community, but both leaders and communities agree to pretend that it's the exclusive possession of the leader.
"pretend" doesn't sound right either; english really lacks words for performance with a neutral-to-positive valence.
anyway. a lot of the work a leader does is motivating & coordinating the group led, and everyone in the group agreeing that the "leader is great" is a loadbearing part of that.
so at a tech company, it may behoove all the good programmers to perform the social fantasy that the CEO is the best programmer of all (he isn't), in the same way that certain armies all want to believe the general has enormous personal bravery and strength.
I think it's less that it's harder to get away with it in the gaming community than it is that Elon's BS is always transparently false to anyone who knows anything about the subject matter, and the gaming community has a much lower barrier to entry than hi tech manufacturing
The people at a company like SpaceX who observed his bs were also the ones doing the heavy lifting. There wasn’t much incentive to out him while the stock and paychecks were still rolling in.
I have a friend who was anti-Musk years before it went mainstream because everyone he knew at SpaceX knew it was everyone's job to keep Musk away from anything important
The companies themselves seem objectively 'successful' from the outside. Can you point to something that supports this narrative? I'm not challenging you, I'm just curious....
It’s also the fact that this game in particular has limited affordances for skill. There is no way to galaxy brain your way to the top. You cannot avoid spending 100-1000 hours to get there by the nature of the game design. So it’s unambiguously incongruous to have no skill at the top.
Its more that the number of people with knowledge of the topic is broader in gaming. Even for Path of Exile, where the first title famously needs half a PhD to be fully understood.
It's awesome. Most people observing him take over other things don't have the inside/depth of knowledge about the industry. But gamers watching someone play know. He can't bs his way through. Lmfao
one thing I've marveled at is how apparently a lot of streamers really were making it a point to be measured and cautious and give his Diablo claims the benefit of the doubt only for this to be so egregious that they're all now going back and revising that caution
To be fair, while Elon is "live streaming" these game sessions using Starlink from his jet, his alt account is simultaneously hosting X spaces talking about how Adrian Dittmann couldn't possibly be Elon because, "Elon is live streaming from his jet right now!" 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I've never played an online game in my life, & it was screamingly obvious that he was faking it. Even I know that it takes hundreds, if not thousands of hours to grind your way to the top. He's on Twitter or hanging out at Mar A Lago all day, when is he finding the time to grind? Paying someone, obv
That was an enjoyable rabbit hole. I also like this video, from a few days later, by the same guy, where he revisits this game play and explains how it's not possible for Musk to have achieved this level himself--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmEe3eUPWq4
I paint a lot of miniatures and when I'm done with an army I sell it, and it is a pretty huge taboo in our hobby to pass other's work off as your own. Just wild that he can't do the barest level of honesty or self respect.
Path of Exile is also a game where people will spend literal months optimizing a build to its top. Or to base functionality with the weirdest interactions known to man. https://youtu.be/CLFuLBlgGX0?si=7oC3-bb-FA_jWttF There is no game I can think of where its harder to impress the core playerbase.
I have a friend who once posted a PoE build ... which was the best build he'd ever played, but a little sideways ... to the builds subreddit, and the regulars ripped him apart for not following their preferred orthodoxies.
in fact, all such projects with a large online and rating are very meta. in fact, it does not matter how viable your assembly is and you have good ideas, if they do not seem viable to the majority, then you will be branded
Besides, no one ever considers in such things the interest from using the assembly, etc., now all these games in the era of the Internet have been transformed not into "make your own build that you like", but "farm (or buy for money) the best gear according to the guide of that guy and be happy"
I love the streamers who are like, "Watch me optimize two Butterfree and a Diglett and destroy legendaries," or, "Watch me zero kill my way to a warzone victory."
That's great. I think we need to encourage more creative streamers who have unconventional goals in the game and who try to do something other than chasing numbers.
Even if this is his account and he and only he legit played this, this only solidifies the fact that one of the richest people in the world spends an insane amount of time playing games. In no world would that equate to the billions he is "worth". We are broken.
PoE2 is extremely grind-focused and the skill ceiling is relatively low. It is literally impossible for Elon to have piloted that character at this point in the game’s existence without regularly not sleeping and also skipping meals.
It literally is to such an insane degree. When he talks about coding, engineering, rocket science everyone with a shred of knowledge can tell he's just babbling with canned phrases and buzzwords
I don't understand paying someone, I assume a lot of money, to level up a character in a game you don't enjoy playing? like Musk doesn't even to understand much past the basics, so why bother, literally just to seem cool to people who spend all day gaming?
He enjoys clicking on things and making them explode. He doesn’t enjoy the grind. He basically wants the satisfaction of being able to bench press a lot of weight without actually having to train to lift. Yeah it defeats the point entirely but nobody ever accused Elon of being self-aware.
It's crazy to bring that mindset to a Diablo clone because, like, the entire point of the game is grinding. If you don't like to grind, play literally any other kind of game!!!
I wonder if he thinks pretending to be top tier at a loot grind game is easier than trying to pretend you’re god-like at something like StarCraft and that’s why he picked it.
I’ve been assuming this, it’s why I found his Diablo boast so suspicious. Ironically the genre makes the claim less plausible since he certainly doesn’t have time to grind like other people do and that’s the only way to advance
I don't think that he doesn't like the game, he probably just took control from the guy he paid to build it and didn't know how to use it yet. If he wants to boost his account, he's got the money so go for it. Just don't claim that you did it when you clearly did not
The gamer bros is a group that Musk has always sought admiration and acceptance from. He himself is not a nerd but craves nerd cred. The way that he’s tried to garner that is by being “good” at video games. Dude needs therapy for his daddy issues, but instead has tried to fill the void with gamers.
Yes. The lesson here is that not even a fleet of rocketships and the best character on the planet in the coolest videogame can save somebody from Terminal Insecurity.
He needs to fix his heart, but he lacks the capacity to do so, and boy howdy does it show.
I guess but the part where like he doesn't even like/play the game at all is breaking my brain, I can get the logic of if it was a game you really liked and gassing yourself up "well if I had more time I'd be at this level!" but for something you don't play at all? so weird to me
Well you gotta understand narcissists, their insecurities, their need to be liked at all costs. You ever grow up with friends who would cheat at video games / sports and lie to your face about it shamelessly? I did, and none of this was surprising.
What's even funnier in a kind of twisted way, is that if he just said/asked if people would be explain/help him with the game there would have likely been a huge crowd willing and able to do so
No kidding. Also, I don’t think anyone would expect him to be the best at any video games. If he would have just sat back and streamed for fun/relaxation, even if he was the worst at a game, he would have garnered the cred anyway. The whole thing is such a self own.
He’s talked about being really into a little android strategy game called Battle for Polytopia, frankly a stream where he played that and talked about it might have legit been kinda charming and fun?
The mere act of asking would, in his eyes, invalidate his persona as the genius that can intuit this shit from his brilliant, godlike mind. It's such a threat to his self-image that he can't comprehend the reality making him look even worse
He's had nothing but "success" in his life because of the massive amounts of wealth and opportunities he's been given and he 100% believes the hype of him being totally self made. It's honestly just sad because he can't believe that he can't just buy his way to happiness
I suspect he assumes the game is more fun for those at higher levels -- which is true of most games to a large extent. But unless you put in the work to get to those high levels, you don't understand the game well enough to do anything but create chaos.
I dunno, can anything really beat the rush of starting a new Skyrim playthrough where the wolves are going to eat you and your stupid little iron knife?
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The shame is all in the dishonesty.
And apparently a real-time Dunning-Kruger demo.
the overwhelming supermajority of rocket fans are not rocket engineers; any gamer can pick up a controller.
I guess what I mean is something like, leadership is not an intrinsic skill but co-created with the community, but both leaders and communities agree to pretend that it's the exclusive possession of the leader.
anyway. a lot of the work a leader does is motivating & coordinating the group led, and everyone in the group agreeing that the "leader is great" is a loadbearing part of that.
I completely understand what you're going for there.
Streamers are reacting to his reaction video.
It's everywhere now.
I understood none of that video, yet, i understand it perfectly.
He doesn't understand why it doesn't work and he won't go to therapy b/c he refuses to admit HE'S the problem.
Same w/Trump. Same w/Zuck.
https://bsky.app/profile/odemine.bsky.social/post/3lfw32nz2tk2k
He needs to fix his heart, but he lacks the capacity to do so, and boy howdy does it show.
That's LIVING