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Notes -
While not necessarily a cause of the haywiredness, I wonder how much of this behavior goes unchecked because Elon's lack of a mentor who he both trusts and respects. Sure, Thiel and Page and a handful of others played a part in shaping his (apparently now previous) worldview, but once you become arguably the most powerful person in the world, I can imagine other people's advice stops being helpful and becomes more of a hindrance. Why would I listen to someone who is less powerful than me telling me to cool it when everything I've done up to this point (SpaceX, Tesla, Starlink) has been—as most people have put it—net positive for the world, especially when I was told I would fail but ended up fine and thriving?
Having a trusted and respected mentor who can help pull your reigns in when needed is a nice thing that Elon doesn't seem to have at the expense of his sanity.
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