Ondras Pribyla

FT takes up the topic: "Have humans passed peak brain power?" ft.com/content/a8016c…

Empathy isn't weakness. It may be hard but I actually recommend extending some empathy also to @elonmusk What's happening with him is foremost sad. My guess is large part of it is mental health deterioration, possibly precipitated by a combination of lack of sleep, stress and maybe substances. This leading to a condition where his epistemics declined and is increasingly delusional. This does not mean stupid - arbitrarily high intelligence is compatible with loosened grip of reality. For most of us, this would be a point where our families and friends would intervene. My guess Elon's situation is less lucky due to being surrounded by a mix of sycophants, people whose fortune is tied to Elon-as-enterprise, crackpots, and politicians. If you imagine yourself being in the situation, whatever insanity you come up with, there will be people cheering and applauding it as brilliant. Also - few years ago he decided to fight a powerful egregore (a collective thought-form that takes on a life of its own). The egregore fought back: I think it is really quite psychologically hard when hundred million people hate you for no good reason, but with religious passion. Imagine that: my guess is in such situation you learn to largely ignore the hate, writing off criticism as people acting on behalf of the egregore. Unfortunately this decouples you from the feedback loops which may have helped you stay sane. Overall it is sad: the Elon who once dreamed of helping the world would likely be horrified by what he's become. The crucial lesson here is this: if you want to impact the world positively, your sanity and epistemics are the foundation. Everything else—your decisions, your influence, your impact —flows downstream