We all know Elon Musk as the funniest man alive.
but did you know that Musk is also a lifelong gamer? for example, here he is in the chess club of his whites only apartheid prep school.
grew out of that though.
really want to highlight the phrase “understandable when all we had to play with were squirrels and rocks.” what the fuck is he talking about?
in any case, he clearly has some issues around the game and I suspect his performance in the chess club. the dude loves to downplay the complexity of the game.
he knows how to tune it up, though.
hmm. fog of war, tech trees, randomized starting positions. that actually sounds a little familiar. could it be…?
OH YEAH BABY! you knew it had to be polytopia!
what the fuck is polytopia?
this is polytopia:
sophisticated Gamers will notice three things here:
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this is clearly a mobile game first, meaning it was developed to fit into the industry’s nastiest shithole: the ios and android app markets. i’ll tell you right now that polytopia doesn’t have gambling in its microtransactions (which instantly makes it cream of the crop), but you can expect it to be braindead and shallow.
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this game is for children. look the bright primary colors, the character’s huge eyes, and the low poly style, which evokes minecraft.
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this game looks a LOT like civilization. specifically, it looks like civilization 3:
For those not familiar, the civilization series is the standard bearer for the 4X genre. it’s a style of slow, macromanagement focused turn based strategy focused on the “four Xes” of exploration, expansion, exploitation, and extermination. thematically, they present societies as machines for producing imperialism. the civilization games are also fearsomely complex and famously deep.
not so with polytopia:
so yeah, it’s baby civilization. but the thing that really kills me is that musk is obsessed with this game. like… really obsessed, according to a story published on yahoo finance.
This puff piece is sourced from “Benzinga,” a tech finance news site that seems to mostly post about crypto, ai and tesla. context clues suggest the content is entirely ripped from walter isaacson’s biography of musk. I have to emphasize that all of this is intended to be flattering - right in the middle, they take a break from the content to shill some affiliate link I won’t click on:
that’s the image of musk they want to convey. anything they include is in support of that.
saying “I am just wired for war” because you play a lot of polytopia is classic elon cringe. beating a game’s developer is nothing to brag about, by the way. most game developers are terrible at their own games.
i would argue that ragequitting to the parking lot to smack down your employee/mother of your children in a baby game is also not something to brag about:
flexing on mom almost shows up more than once in the article…
… except, twist, for some reason he beat his employee but not his partner???
and yes, he sulked like a little shitbag he when he lost. one has to suspect that if his sycophants weren’t constantly throwing polytopia matches against him he’d have turned on it just like he did chess.
before you read this next bit I want to emphasize again that EVERYTHING IN THIS ARTICLE IS INTENDED TO BE FLATTERING.
his brother seems to feel the same way
(and from another benzinga sourced yahoo finance story):
here’s what i think: elon musk isn’t learning shit from polytopia. he’s a profoundly stupid and childish man who likes moving brightly colored blocks around and being told he won. he’s projecting the disgusting and wretched pile of deficiencies which is his personality onto a game for babies. as someone who only fails upward and cannot stand to fail, it is impossible for him to learn from reality; doing so would require facing what is too painful to face.
We’ve got Chess 2, the Sequel and 4D chess that have solved any problems chess may have
Iirc there have been various sequels to chess, it being tried so often and never succeeding like chess is actually a interesting point of discussion in game development.
Perhaps the most successful “sequel to chess” is actually the genre of chess problems, i.e., the puzzles about how Black can achieve mate in 3 (or whatever) from a contrived starting position that couldn’t be seen in ordinary (“real”) gameplay.
There are also various ways of randomizing the starting positions in order to make the memorized knowledge of opening strategies irrelevant.
Oh, and Bughouse.
I always liked what we called kickchess. The purpose of the game is to get rid of all your pieces asap, and if you can take a piece you have to. Just turns the whole game upside down. Get rid of that queen!
@Soyweiser @blakestacey the only “Sequel To Chess” that matters is chessboxin’
Musk isnt allowed to box by his mom.
@Soyweiser @megaman remember when the Netflix show about chess got its own tie-in game? https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/346101/the-queens-gambit-the-board-game
My 3 seconds of looking at that make it more interesting than i thought it would be. I really hoped it was just a “branded” chess board, which would be very funny.
But it looks like everyone sets up 3 pre-moves and then goes from there (if i read it for a whole minute i would know).
Feels like someone thought up a chess puzzle game and then when the biggest show on TV was about chess they finally got a chance to put it out there
I didn’t remember as I didn’t know.
Sounds like he sucks at strategy, on top of being a big whiny baby about it.
Good thoughts here
doing so would require facing a reality that is too painful to face.
This ties in directly with his belief that we’re all in a simulation but despite that, somehow is the only “real” person. It’s also why he hides behind plausible deniability for dumb shit like cheating at games. He thinks reality doesn’t matter, which is why he dangles it in everyones faces that he’s totally cheating in games and using alts on twitter, but “nyeah nyeah you can’t prove it.” It also lines up with the person he visited with at Auschwitz who stated it’s worse than Musk being a Nazi, he literally just does not care. He was unmoved. He just genuinely thinks he’s the only thing that matters.
The comparisons to Trump are apt. All Musk knows is that as long as he can lie to people he can make money, and he can use that money to obfuscate what he is doing to the courts and make them tied up for years in court to just prove the basics. He thinks none of it matters and is all a joke. He doesn’t understand that other people don’t have the means (nor the desire) to live life the way he does, because he doesn’t understand us as real at all.
His inability to believe anything is real probably is manifesting as some kind of public humiliation fetish where he gets off on people knowing he’s doing it but not being able to prove it. The Nazi salute and jokes are another aspect of this, treating reality as a total false, and treating truth and objectivity as things to be torn down because in his mind: it’s not real so nothing matters.
It’s all fucking solipsism with extra steps and he hasn’t even done the philosophical legwork… He’s just playing Polytopia and claiming it’s more rigorous than it actually is because he’s too much of a dumbfuck to know any better.
He is a deeply, deeply unwell man.
side note, beating a game’s developer is nothing to brag about, by the way. most game developers are terrible at their own games.
Also, didn’t turn out real hot for Stevie “Killcreek” Case… I feel bad for that woman and how she was treated by Romero and men in the gaming/game development space in general. Not a single one of her relationships with other folks in the industry worked out, and it all started because she was a Quake champ and beat Romero at a deathmatch. I still remember when she was on the cover of PC Accelerator… it’s a testament to how badly the industry treated and viewed women at the time, nothing but a sexist trope grossly sexualizing her.
It’s all fucking solipsism with extra steps
or not, like when he told Grimes to her face that he thought she must be an ideal simulation for him
There’s a good insight from this armchair psychoanalysis. The typical narcissist is technically capable of performing the whole pretend-to-care-for-game-theoretic-reasons behavior, provided that there is an incentive for them. However, if Elon genuinely believes himself to be Christ or Buddha or Roy, then his abilities don’t matter, because he will never have the incentive to deflate his beliefs and face his own limitations and mortality. In short, Elon’s attitude can’t be adjusted and his mental health will never improve.
In OPs post it stuck out to me that Elon counsels his brother on shutting down empathy, to be a better CEO, and the brother complaining about how he, and not Elon, got the empathy gene.
Just coming out and saying that your brother doesn’t feel empathy with other people is certainly a choice. So is presenting it as an advantage.
Polytopia is fun, but Jesus. I can’t imagine bragging about a super simple 4x at all.
You know how when you’re into something, and you hear someone speak about it so wrongly, with confidence, that it becomes immediately clear that they’re full of shit?
That’s every chess player reading his takes on chess.
I think that happens to him in many of the things he talks about, from games to running a website
That was also me when he pulled the PoE2 stunt.
Most people actually were kinda okay with the idea that he was legitimately high ranked in Diablo4; he does play games, and he clearly doesn’t have a fucking job, so he could’ve grinded enough. But then that fucking amazing stream happened that proved he was just a sad little child.
Good thing he’s being rewarded at every step of the way! All the proof I need that there is no god.
“Legitimately high ranked” in this context means “claimed he was top 50 by registering for an opt in leaderboard site with under 5,000 users”. He wasn’t good at diablo 4 either. Personally, I’m in the camp that believes he is buying accounts or paying individuals to play accounts for him 90% of the time. Dude even had trash stat distribution in elden ring, his build was both not meta and hardly workable, no stats at a breakpoint, set up to fat roll. No MLGS, just wearing extremely heavy armor and weapons with C int scaling that you get off the ground that way. Plus, tech genius that he is, took a phone picture instead of a screenshot. It would not surprise me to learn he save edited a bad character because the total level was quite high but the hovered weapon was unupgraded.
You misunderstood me.
Before the poe2 thing came out, it was generally accepted to be possible to be him on d4. Obviously he just paid someone to do it, but it wasn’t really everyone’s opinion until recently. Now nobody can deny it.
Personally, I’m in the camp that believes he is buying accounts or paying individuals to play accounts for him 90% of the time.
Elon Musk’s Video Game Character Caught Leveling While He Was at Inauguration
I mean hell, i’m a screaming dilletante and know he’s fulla shit
“Elon is funny” is akin to “Elon is in shape”
I mean, I thought the idea of him fitting in that suit was hilarious.
Don’t mind me, just imagining a brighter world where the people in power learn Settlers of Catan instead of Chess or Civilization.
I love both the content of this post and the fact that it’s a self-contained torture test for our pict-rs upgrade
also, lol @ musk, war genius, starting a domestic dispute with his ex-girlfriend cause she dared to betray him in his baby mobile 4x game when betrayals are a core part of every 4x I know
I’m getting the strong mental image of musk being the guy who flips the board 12 hours into Twilight Imperium cause the other players didn’t let him win
I’ve played a lot of Polytopia in my time. Probably haven’t touched in over a year but I used to participate in Discord tournaments and the like. Knowing I have likely beat Musk mercilessly in a strategy game is nice.
I hope you have, tho I suspect he only plays against sycophants
There is a concept I was once taught through a very long winded story about a master and his pupils, but thankfully the great Bruce Lee summarized it: “Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch and a kick was just a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer just a punch and a kick was more than simply a kick. Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch - a kick is just a kick.”
One becomes a beginner when they can see the thing. You become a novice martial artist when you can differentiate a punch from a person’s arms flailing around.
One becomes an expert when they can define the thing. When they can lock down what a punch is, and can systematically separate it from other things that aren’t it.
One becomes a master when they can intuit the thing. When you can use, identify, and understand the thing no matter what shape or form it takes.
One becomes enlightened when they can apply their specific masteries as generalization. When they have mastered the art of mastery itself.
Elon is certainly an expert. He can describe things. He can define things. He can reframe things into contexts that he understands. He’s so tantalizingly close to seeing the truth, but is so far away from even comprehending how to begin connecting the dots.
I see where he is coming from regarding gaming and economics or organizational tactics. I have played many games at a competitive level, and a select few at a professional level. I know what he’s trying to get at because I was very similar when I was like ~20 and didn’t realize that the art of mastery of goes so far beyond anything an expert could fathom. I am by no means a master, but I see the trap of expertise and… maaaaannn… It’s just so disappointing to see people in positions of power get stuck running in circles and holding everyone else back.
Elon is certainly an expert. He can describe things. He can define things.
I don’t know what context you are referring to, but I don’t think Elon is an expert at anything
I am referring to the context in which it was written and defined above, and also inheriting the concepts laid down from the original post regarding the p2w mobile game that he clearly has achieved some level of expertise in.
it isn’t a p2w mobile game and I see no reason to believe he’s achieved any level of expertise in it
Elon is an Expert Beginner: he has become proficient in executing the basics of the craft by sheer repetition, but failed to develop meaningful generalizations.
The original Expert Beginner concept was defined here in terms of the Dreyfus model, but I think it’s compatible with Lee’s model as well. In your wording of Lee’s model, one becomes an Expert Beginner when their intuition is specialized for seeing the thing; they have seen so many punches that now everything looks like a punch and must be treated like a punch, but don’t worry, I’m a punch expert, I’ve seen so many punches, I definitely know what to do when punches are involved.
One becomes a beginner when they can see the thing. You become a novice martial artist when you can differentiate a punch from a person’s arms flailing around.
One becomes an expert when they can define the thing. When they can lock down what a punch is, and can systematically separate it from other things that aren’t it.
One becomes a master when they can intuit the thing. When you can use, identify, and understand the thing no matter what shape or form it takes.
One becomes enlightened when they can apply their specific masteries as generalization. When they have mastered the art of mastery itself.
Thank you for sharing that concept, that’s really good and I will keep that for future reference. It’s a quality way to describe beginner to master and the difference at each stage.
this for the specific concept in japanese martial arts (and sometimes applied elsewhere too)
“Hi. I’m Elon Musk, and welcome to Jackass.”
[No disrespect to Jackass.]
you can’t invent new pieces during the game
Yeah. That’s what my (chess) captain keeps telling me.
you got me worried for a minute that he’ll leak classified info on warthunder forum (it’ll be on twitter instead)
I am quite certain that Chess can be fully solved
Certifiable genuis thinks an impartial game can be solved, I wish I were capaple of making brilliant insights like that. No, seriously, I missed the first day of game theory 101 and need Sprague-Grundy explained to me.
Wait i thought chess was not an Impartial game?
Aw shit, I haven’t played in an eternity and forgot stalemates were a thing, which is something there’s no excuse for not taking five seconds to consider. I’m deleting my snarky comment and hoping that you and the person who upvoted you are the only people who saw it.
And now I wish I knew what it said! I only just recently started getting into chess and it’s really complex but I’m having fun lol
I think what makes it not impartial is that the white player cannot move black pieces (or vice versa). in an impartial game which moves are available is only allowed to depend on the game state, not on which player you are
the existence of stalemates prevents chess from being a combinatorial game at all, although I’m sure there are workarounds (I guess a lazy one would be to declare that white always wins stalemates)
Declaring black wins draws would be more in the spirit of how the game is actually played at high level. I don’t think anyone seriously considers the possibility that black could have a forced win in chess from the starting position.
whatever. I’m just indicating you can turn it into a combinatorial game if you want
white always wins
this is the method Elon prefers
I have some minor things to say. First a correction (people keep saying this and it is a weird mistake) Grimes was his girlfriend, never his wife.
Then the whole thing where people say you gotta play this to understand his genius or whatever, that is all just cargo cult behavior, it is the black turtlenecks. (I recall a story of a university with a beloved, genius but somewhat odd professor to which the students looked up, they wanted to be like him. So eventually the students started to touch the walls when walking through the halls, as the professor also did that while walking, the cargo cult).
Zilis clearly understood the assignment of playing Polytopia with your emotionally stunted boss/owner (as in the business sense, clearly the workers should be their own owners), as do prob a lot of other employees he beats. Let the Wookie win.
“I am just wired for war”
Reminds me of the sort of image of the military general aristocrats of WW1 who made the war last longer and did one more assault just before the peace was signed because of their warrior honor whatever. Unrelated, here is a blog post of acoup (a real historian), listing various articles that the USA needs soldiers, not warriors (and explains the distinction), halfway somewhere.
“when you’re playing a video game, there is no empathy, right?”
That is a darkly revealing quote (like the whole thing is). More points for Zilis and the others who let Musk win.
First a correction (people keep saying this and it is a weird mistake) Grimes was his girlfriend, never his wife.
whoops! edited
on my part I think it’s because I keep seeing Elon described as having “divorced energy”
on my part I think it’s because I keep seeing Elon described as having “divorced energy”
It is also a very common mistake people make (or a ‘joke’, in some way I don’t get but there are a lot of weird jokes/rumors about musk which people take for granted (which is worse as blueanon people are now on the job and are just making shit up (yes, im talking about and still angry about the Seth A. post))) so it happens. Wonder if it would have been better or worse for her and the kids if they had gotten married.
finger draggers
Could be the same story which got telephoned into my story. I also only heard it from a different person ages ago.
@sc_griffith he is a Pathologically Divorced man
You can’t be this divorced if you’ve ever actually been married, since that tends to create and/or require connecting with another human being and feeling something not unlike love, at least for long enough to get the papers files.
