For a long time I’ve observed a pattern that, when news articles talk about Elon Musk, they’re dishonest (about what he’s said, done, and believes), and that his actual writing and beliefs are consistently more reasonable than the hit pieces portray.
Some recent events seem to me to have broken that pattern, with him saying things that are straightforwardly false (rather than complicated and ambiguously-false), and then digging in. It also appeared to me, at the public appearance where he had a chainsaw, that his body language was markedly different from his past public appearances.
My overall impression is that there has been a significant change in his cognitive state, and that he is de facto severely cognitively impaired as compared to how he was a few years ago. It could be transition to a different kind of bipolar, as you speculate, or a change in medications or drug use, or something else. I think people close to him should try coaxing him into doing some sort of cognitive test which has a clear point of comparison, to show him the contrast.
Well, if you want to try to use video game playing as a measure of anything, it’s worth noting that his preferences have, fairly recently, shifted from strategy games (the original Civilization when younger, but even as of 2020--2021, he was still playing primarily strategy games AFAICT from Isaacson & other media coverage—specifically, being obsessed with Polytopia) to twitch-fests like Elden Ring or Path of Exile 2… and most recently, he’s infamously started cheating on those too.
I don’t think D4 works, because the type of cognition it uses (fast-reflex execution of simple patterns provided by a coach) are not the kind that would be affected.
For a long time I’ve observed a pattern that, when news articles talk about Elon Musk, they’re dishonest (about what he’s said, done, and believes), and that his actual writing and beliefs are consistently more reasonable than the hit pieces portray.
Some recent events seem to me to have broken that pattern, with him saying things that are straightforwardly false (rather than complicated and ambiguously-false), and then digging in. It also appeared to me, at the public appearance where he had a chainsaw, that his body language was markedly different from his past public appearances.
My overall impression is that there has been a significant change in his cognitive state, and that he is de facto severely cognitively impaired as compared to how he was a few years ago. It could be transition to a different kind of bipolar, as you speculate, or a change in medications or drug use, or something else. I think people close to him should try coaxing him into doing some sort of cognitive test which has a clear point of comparison, to show him the contrast.
He plays Diablo 4, right?
In-game season changes come with balance-patch changes, but if his rift-clearing abilities are tanking, that says something.
Well, if you want to try to use video game playing as a measure of anything, it’s worth noting that his preferences have, fairly recently, shifted from strategy games (the original Civilization when younger, but even as of 2020--2021, he was still playing primarily strategy games AFAICT from Isaacson & other media coverage—specifically, being obsessed with Polytopia) to twitch-fests like Elden Ring or Path of Exile 2… and most recently, he’s infamously started cheating on those too.
Could just be aging or lack of time, of course.
I don’t think D4 works, because the type of cognition it uses (fast-reflex execution of simple patterns provided by a coach) are not the kind that would be affected.