The Danger Of The Certified Genius
Sheldon Cooper vs. Elon Musk
Once upon a time, the world looked at Elon Musk with awe. He seemed to single-handedly deliver benevolent innovations to the world that helped us pay more easily and securely online, put us inside electric vehicles that we can charge in our homes, and helped us capture energy from the sky to power those vehicles. He put flamethrowers in the hands of common wealthy people. He put rockets in space and landed them again. The fucking guy could do no wrong for several years.
But lately, Musk's been making news for a different reason: his controversial comments and behavior. I’ve been close enough to a few uber-wealthy people to see their behavior from afar. I’ve observed how they acted and tried to surmise how they think. And one thing I have observed is the behavior of individuals who wield massive wealth in this world is wholly influenced by the company of the friends they keep. This got me thinking about the importance of having good people around us, no matter how smart or successful we are.
Thinking of the most influential television shows in my young moral shaping, I consider Star Trek, Little House on the Prairie, and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. What made those stories so special to me? Why do they continue to affect me decades later as I lurch into my late middle ages? These shows conveyed good values inside good stories. These shows told stories about kindness, respect, and fairness—the attributes that matter when constructing a life in the fair pursuit of happiness. The characters in these stories keep each other in check, making them and their communities better.
Now, let's compare this to Elon Musk. He's super smart, like Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory. They often ignore what's best for the people around them because they're so focused on their own interests. But there's a big difference: Sheldon has friends who help him see when he's unfair and unkind. And Sheldon, even if it's a struggle sometimes, learns from his friends and tries to do better. The character of Sheldon Cooper becomes a better person over time.
Elon Musk is a genius. No doubt about it. But without his own 'Sheldon's friends' to guide him, Musk's behavior has created problems that hurt more than help. This petulant need for attention, even negative, is an addiction that comes at a great cost to all of us. This is because the mistakes of the wealthy amplify a negative effect on the poor. We must obey This Law of Human Nature when we write and enforce Laws of the Common Good.
Just like a rocket needs a navigation system to reach its destination safely, people, especially geniuses, need moral guidance to ensure their actions and decisions don't harm others. Even the smartest people need good friends and mentors. It's not enough to be a genius anymore. The world is filled with mean, smart, and morally bankrupt dumbasses. We also need to act with kindness, fairness, and respect for all, regardless of who they are, where they live, what gods they worship, who they love, or how they identify. None of that shit matters to serious people with serious shit to do. These values are the 'navigation system' that keeps us on track. For Musk and others like him, embracing the moral guidance of good friends is the key to unlocking and using the totality of genius to make this world a better place.
So, remember that no matter how brainy you are, having good people around you who share strong moral values is crucial to you not becoming a person who makes the world worse. Being a good person is more important than being smart or wealthy.
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As a person who was labeled "gifted" as early as 3 years old, I am keenly aware of the hazards faced by such children. I paradoxically became arithmetically stunted, because of my strengths in language arts.
That all came easy to me, but arithmetic came hard because learning it required effort. At the same time I was dealing with the heavy adverse childhood event of my father's battle with ALS. He was diagnosed when I was 8, and died right after I turned 12.
If it had been hard for me to read and write, if my development had followed a more normal path, maybe I wouldn't have lived with what later were diagnosed as math-related learning disabilities. My development was hobbled.
Getting through my return to college, and seeing it through to graduation with a BA in Psychology, meant a white knuckle ride through math, from Pre-Algebra through Algebra, Stats, and Research Methods. I passed, but I forgot almost all of it afterwards.
As someone for whom "That's Ms. Geek To You" became a motto, I see The Big Bang Theory as a Jock's idea of what Geeks are. There is a tone of condescension all through the show, and further through Young Sheldon. It is a steady drum beat of "if you're so smart, why are you unable to be social?"
Elon Musk's entire trajectory is not one of a legitimate STEM genius, but a marketer. The parallel in turn of the 20th Century, CE history would be the fight between Edison, the marketer with a stable of inventors working for hire, and Tesla, the STEM genius and mystic. The irony is that Musk markets electric cars, power banks, and robots under the name Tesla, while he is more akin to Edison.