[edblarney]

Most of these guys are not really geniuses, they are good, smart guys who made some money and started to believe their own hype long ago, and nobody dares call them out on it. They are surrounded by enablers.

Paradoxically - this is a path to success - their self-belief is so strong that it's very convincing - and so long as they have 'success' to point to - then it all snowballs from there.

The press writes 'puff pieces' to build up character, they read it and believe it.

I witnessed this with the CEO of an F50 firm that I worked at. This CEO would say crazy, irrational things, make up words. Even to the press - nobody called him out on it - because we were doing well. Printing money. Everyone at the company treated him like some kind of demi-god. Then, when things started to go awry, the press started calling him out on his nonsense, eventually lost his job.

This article is a good example: Thiel is obviously a smart, successful man. But look at how crazy some of his statements are! Most people saying such things would be laughed out of the house. But they have enough acolytes who just eat it all up.

[argonaut]

Here's the thing: you may be right that Elon is not a genius, for example. But I can't deny he's a master salesman. Generating this hype is precisely what a salesman needs to do. That in of itself leads to genuine success.

[aoeu345]

  Most of these guys are not really genuises

You have one anecdote to support your sour grapes claim that America's current best innovators are all frauds. Support the men and women who are building our future, your children depend on them.

[RobertKerans]

'not a genius' is not the same as 'a fraud', they can still be very successful. They are very smart in certain areas, and they are extremely good selling things in certain areas, but 'genius' is a bit much