
The Believer (2009) - todayiamme
http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/200901/elon-musk-paypal-solar-power-electric-cars-space-travel?currentPage=1
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lutusp
The irony is that Musk's behavior would lead to an Asperger's diagnosis, as it
did for Bill Gates and Nicola Tesla, except that psychologists recently
realized how much self-inflicted harm they were doing with that diagnosis, so
they voted it out of their new diagnosis manual.

Imagine voting out a disease in medicine -- imagine voting cancer out of
existence. In medicine, a science, such a thing cannot happen. In psychology,
it happens regularly.

EDIT: once again downvoted for being right and backing up every word with
evidence.

~~~
Kylekramer
So you are just going to ignore the vast majority of the history of medicine?
Or do you regularly check up on your humor levels?

Medicine, and science in general, is constantly re-evaluating and often
finding they were wrong.

~~~
lutusp
> So you are just going to ignore the vast majority of the history of
> medicine?

No, quite the contrary -- in fact I just defined the difference between
medicine and psychology. Medicine identifies new diseases using evidence.
Psychology identifies new diseases using votes. All the new "diseases" in
DSM-5 were added by a panel voting in secret.

> Medicine, and science in general, is constantly re-evaluating and often
> finding they were wrong.

Yes, using science and falsifiability (a hallmark of all scientific ideas) to
identify the wrong ideas. Psychology, by contrast, identifies wrong ideas by
measuring public reactions to their imaginary diseases. Asperger's wasn't
voted out because it's fiction -- most psychological diseases are fiction. It
was voted out because it produced an epidemic of phony diagnoses and a public
relations disaster.

> Or do you regularly check up on your humor levels?

It's not easy to find humor in stories where psychology gets it wrong and
kills children.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Riley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Riley)

Quote: "Rebecca Riley ..., the daughter of Michael and Carolyn Riley and
resident of Hull, Massachusetts, was found dead in her home after prolonged
exposure to various medications, her lungs filled with fluid. The medical
examiner's office determined the girl died from "intoxication due to the
combined effects" of prescription drugs. ... The Riley parents were unemployed
and the family relied on Social Security Benefits. From the age of two,
Rebecca was diagnosed with ADHD and bipolar disorder, mainly on the basis of
information given by her mother to child psychiatrist Kayoko Kifuji from the
Tufts-New England Medical Center. "

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_therapy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_therapy)

Quote: "Since the 1990s there have been a number of prosecutions for deaths or
serious maltreatment of children at the hands of "attachment therapists" or
parents following their instructions."

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nonchalance
I have a ton of respect for Musk, but at this stage the recent coverage seems
to treat him as the next messiah (and not just here, but also in the financial
space)

~~~
JonSkeptic
If you bought TSLA stock last year or before, he may very well be your
financial messiah.

~~~
calinet6
;)

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calinet6
I think many of us would do the same things and have the same vision as Elon
Musk given the chance.

The problem is one of funding, and the fact that acquiring money is not
normally correlated with broad vision, and that having money is not normally
correlated with executing that vision.

In short, Elon Musk's advantage is that he is an outlier in terms of how he
was able to acquire money, and how he is able to control his use of it.
Commendable, and the true lesson.

~~~
ggreer
An inspiring notion, but there are lots of people who have as much wealth as
Elon Musk. They're not doing anything like what Musk is doing. Apparently most
people either 1. retire and buy fancy yachts or 2. continue working on
whatever business made them rich in the first place.

~~~
calinet6
That is precisely my point, in noting his control over how he executes on his
wealth. Thank you for re-iterating.

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LadyMartel
It's a bit silly that the article presented him as basically godly. But
perhaps if we too, like the author, had a chance to sit down and talk to him
and really learn about his adventures, we would be in awe as well. All in all,
it was still a good read.

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davidw
Previous discussion:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=458090](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=458090)

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bsenftner
PR firm written

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mashmac2
(2009)

