For Elon Musk, the most important life lesson (one he preaches) is "Empathy is not an asset" - which explains so much

[highplainsdem]

I saw that belief of Elon's mentioned on either Twitter or Bluesky recently, but didn't do any research to confirm he'd said that till yesterday.

From Fortune magazine, September 2023, via Yahoo:

-snip-

In recent years, Isaacson reveals, Musk has become particularly obsessed with the multiplayer strategy game Polytopia, which describes itself as a "strategy game about building a civilization and going into battle."

In fact, it became such a staple of Musk’s life—he played it with his partners, coworkers, and brother—that he even made a list of the life lessons the game taught him, which he called Polytopia Life Lessons. The very first rule: “Empathy is not an asset.”

To hear those close to Musk tell it, the game’s importance to his leadership style is more than just inference. “He said it would teach me to be a CEO like he was,” Elon’s brother Kimbal Musk told Isaacson about its influence.

-snip-

Kimbal Musk told Isaacson that his brother regularly counsels him to avoid being overly empathetic in his work. “He knows that I have an empathy gene, unlike him, and it has hurt me in business,” Kimbal Musk says. “Polytopia taught me how he thinks when you remove empathy. When you’re playing a video game, there is no empathy, right?”

-snip-

But from what Kimbal says here, his brother wasn't talking about a video game, but about real life.

The article goes on to say that Musk shows a weird kind of empathy - for all of humanity, with concern for the future of the human race.

But I don't believe that's a sincere concern or empathy.

It's more a desire to be seen as a savior of humanity. To be admired, even worshipped...and to have control of humanity's future.

And that's megalomania.

Musk is the last person who should ever have been given any power.

[CousinIT]

1. Know who is incapable of empathy? SOCIOPATHS. Nt

[mr715]

8. I think technically, psychopaths.

Sociopaths I believe retain some shreds of empathy.

Neither are clinical terms, they all get lumped into antisocial disorder or something like that.

But psychopath. I don't think he's a sociopath.

[barbtries]

14. how i describe the illness gripping millions of people these days

#MassSociopathy

[appalachiablue]

15. Check, TY, right on.

[jls4561]

2. Didn't he cheat in that game?

[Walleye]

3. If he wants to be a savior, he can give some of his riches to the people who need it.

Not take away peoples jobs just to feel powerful. He has that kind of money and he complains about homelessness he could buy each and every one of them a home

[The Madcap]

7. I remember when the national deficit was less money than he has.

Yeah, I know that there has been inflation, but it wasn't that long ago...Reagan era, if I recall correctly.

[Walleye]

9. I remember when Clinton balanced the budget, George W. Bush spent it all on a war we had to get out of 20 years later.

[dalton99a]

4. Then no empathy should ever be given to him, his family or his businesses.

[DSandra]

17. Society is WAY too nice to much of the ultrarich while they don't give ONE DAMN about all the damage that they cause...

society!

[mr715]

5. Nailed it.

Megalomania.

He wants to fulfill the trope of power-behind-the-throne.

I always thought he gave off Bond villain vibes. Some of my 8th grade students loved him because they thought electric cars were cool. Distinctly remember one of them talking about how one got shot into space.

[The Madcap]

6. I don't think Elmo gets it.

Humans will NEVER be able to colonize far enough from the Sun to stay viable in perpetuity. The Sun will eventually die, and the odds of finding a nearby star with a habitable planet (even if were possible to reach it) is extremely remote. Mars would not much of an improvement over a burned-out Earth by that point. And if he thinks it's possible to build a ship large enough to carry enough colonists to make a successful interstellar trip, he's crazy. It would probably take something larger than the biggest aircraft carrier. How in his right mind does he think that would be built and then propelled on course? You would likely have to build it in orbit to lessen the gravitational impact when starting the journey, which would be incredibly difficult if not impossible, and it would have to be able to carry enough supplies and fuel for an extremely long journey.

So, saving the human race isn't going to happen by building rockets. There is a shelf life / expiration date for the human race, and there's nothing we can do about that. Knowing the end will come should push us to use our resources wisely and treat each other better, as we try to delay the inevitable as long as we can.

Sorry for being a fatalist, but the truth must be faced. We cannot beat the universe.

[mr715]

10. Space is big.

It ain't easy to get to Mars, and Mars moves. It takes math people and rocket people to do that. You gotta train math and rocket people.

Also fatalist, but whoever goes to Mars first is going to die there.

We can't beat the universe, but the ~10 billion years the Sun has left leaves a lot for human potential. Or transhuman. Or whatever digital consciousness we might be.

[Uncle Joe]

11. That makes sense, because I believe Musk dreams of turning Greenland into a "Noah's Ark" for when it all hits the fan

either from environmental collapse, World War III or both.

That's why *rump is being belligerent to long time NATO allies Canada and Denmark.

Then Musk, his chosen followers; like minded oligarchs and servants can ride it out in Greenland mountain tunnels built by his tunneling company and rewrite history when it's over.

Musk, *rump and their oligarchic ilk long ago wrote off humanity because they can't be bothered with empathy, humility, discomfort or any form of self-sacrifice for the greater good.

They know that global warming climate change is for real, they're just not that stupid, but they have given up on humanity.

Musk and *rump are incapable of thinking outside of themselves, Musk even hires people to play video games for him, now how pitiful is that?

Elon Musk Admits to Paying People to Play Video Games for Him

https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-admits-to-paying-people-to-play-video-games-for-him-2000552872#:~:text=In%20a%20DM%20exchange%20on,doing%20it%20so%20it's%20fine.

Thanks for the thread highplainsdem.

[Disaffected]

12. Neither is psychopathy. nt

[Joinfortmill]

13. He's dangerous. Nuts, too.

[Grins]

16. I remember when "Empathy" was a principle....

The public manta at IBM when I was there was “Think…”

Internally, though, it was “Empathy.”

It was a call for IBM sales and service people to know and understand their clients; to empathize with them. So you can serve them better, a service that would be repaid over and over in the years to come.

And so easy to do!! Be human!!!
And it didn’t cost the company anything.

[misanthrope]

18. Homo sapiens is a result of social instincts

Alone in the wilderness, one human is vulnerable. No matter how clever we are, our physical prowess is unimpressive. We survived because we are social animals who use culture as our chief tool of adaptation.

So without the drive to remain in groups, we are nothing. Part of what drives those social instincts is empathy. If it weren't a vital part of the formula, then it wouldn't have been selected for in the dominant traits we carry and pass on generation to generation. Those without empathy are the deviants, the recessive traits.

If Elon wants to get down to the nitty-gritty, his lack of empathy means he is the one who doesn't make the cut, who isn't fully human. He could do us all a favor by taking himself out of the gene pool right now and let the complete human beings do the job we were meant to do, which is to care for each other in order to ensure the longevity of the species.

If he doesn't like it, he can check out now. No one is stopping him.

As I said in the last few days, Elon Musk is a threat to humanity.