At various moments in “Elon Musk,” Walter Isaacson’s new biography of the world’s richest person, the author tries to make sense of the billionaire entrepreneur he has shadowed for two years — sitting in on meetings, getting a peek at emails and texts, engaging in “scores of interviews and late-night conversations.”
The author includes a gift link to the full NYTimes article.
I have a brother with Asperger’s and he also has trouble with empathy because of it. There really isn’t much to understand beyond that. I don’t talk with him anymore. After years of trying to make it work with him, he became too much of a toxic influence.
Elon Musk is always going to be a shitty father and a self absorbed businessman. It’s a cycle of trauma that may never end.
Interesting anecdote but Elon doesn‘t even have autism. He only claimed it once for buzz years ago. And if you really dived into the topic just once you‘d realise he evidently doesn‘t check nearly enough boxes to even be considered neurodiverse. Of course he never showed an official diagnose either. I‘m pretty tired of this narrative. This fuels ableism by strongly misrepresenting a minority. Reading your comment, I actually wonder what the other side of the story about your brother looks like.
Lol, look at you Mr. Armchair psychologist. I don’t diagnose people based on what I read in the news. My brother admits fully that he has Asperger’s and has trouble with cognitive empathy. Go ahead and try living a year with him to get “his side”. Then you’ll understand why all of his relationships go to shit.
Where did you get the idea that Elon has autism then? Judging from your comment, diagnosing people by what the news say is quite literally what you do.
Oh please stop playing victim.
Likewise.
I’m not the one diagnosing him. He came out about his diagnosis and you’re dismissing it as if you can know what he can and can’t have based solely on what you read in the news. Only a medical professional in a medical setting can diagnose him. If there is anyone being ableist here, it’s you.
Also, quit gaslighting me about abuse that I had to live through. It comes off as petty.
Pretty much the entire Autism community dismisses him because it’s ridiculous and he’s using it as an excuse to be, well, freaking evil. He knew people woul eat up that crap and they did. He can say he diagnosed himself all he wants, I see it for what it is: Just another of his countless lies.
You were the one who brought up your brother, compared him to Elon Musk and say how his Autism was so bad for you. And depressingly enough the first response you got was the classic: “Oh autists hide behind their diagnoses and that’s so messed up” rhetoric that makes it even harder for neurodervse people to simply, well, exist.
What’s your point?
Could you give more details into why he wouldn’t be autistic? From the outside he does have some pretty obvious autistic traits (speech, empathy issues, obsession with some things such as the letter X), so without more arguments your answer isn’t very convincing to me
If I may forward you to this video which did a decent enough job at exposing Elon’s claims regarding Aspergers as very questionable to say the least. It’s not 100% spot on, but we’re dealing with Elon Musk here. He contradicts himself so often you’re bound to slip at some point when trying to analyse him. There are, however, some helpful additions in the comments from people with own experiences, that give some more context on what High functioning Autism really means.
Let me also remind you that a hand full of traits, however pronounced they may be, isn’t nearly enough to even suggest a diagnosis. There’s dozens of common traits of high functioning Autism. So inevitably most people will meet some criterias. What’s more important is what boxes they don’t check and that’s a very long list for Elon. And I’m the last person to try to seriously diagnose Elon, but Aspergers isn’t it, chief.
I’ll try to have a look at it, but please note that Common Sense Skeptic is famous, at least in the SpaceX community, as making a lot of bad faith arguments as soon as it’s related in some ways to Elon.
(I’m not saying that to say you’re wrong, I just feel like it might be interesting to have that in mind ;) )
That is fair and I don‘t even agree with all of his conclusions there, but the arguments and evidence he brings forward are helpful enough to draw own conclusions and the comments help a lot as swell. I personally think the little SpaceX criticism he sprinkled into the video are spot on as well, but that might not be the case with other videos of his. It‘s definitely Elon‘s company with the least bs when it comes to delivering. So I can see how one could falsely predict failures there and be surprised later.
a diagnosis is a reason, not an excuse. people can try to work to improve their situation, but that’s not an obligation for others to tolerate it.
I completely agree