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Scott Alexander’s review of a 2015 biography of Elon Musk. Elon Musk, to me, is one of the world’s most confusing people. He’s simultaneously both one of the smartest people in the world, creating billions of dollars of value in companies like Tesla and SpaceX, and one of the dumbest, in burning billions on Twitter. Scott’s review I think is a good explanation of what’s up with Musk.
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Notes -
I read somewhere that the median score is zero and this among people who are self-selected to take it, so we're already talking people with solid math aptitude .it's pretty rare. going by that alone, if i were going to wager, you are smarter than him, for what it's worth. The Putman is very g-loaded, being a billionaire is less so (even though there is some correlation with IQ). Even if Elon understood physics well enough to solve equations even at a master's level ,that is still not as uncommon as a top Putnam score.
you take the Putnam in college; you don't have a lifetime to devote to it.
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