[simondotau]

Plenty of incredibly smart people think and do incredibly stupid things.

Isaac Newton was one of the greatest mathematicians and physicists of history, inventor of the telescope, father of Newtonian mechanics, and a key figure of the Enlightenment. Yet he considered that scientific work of lesser importance, spending much of his effort studying the occult, biblical interpretation, and alchemy.

[matwood]

> Plenty of incredibly smart people think and do incredibly stupid things.

I mentioned this on an Elon thread and an SBF thread, and it fits here also. When people are so rich and powerful, it's often their own hubris that takes them down.

[loganc2342]

“Stupid” isn’t the word I would use for following your interests rather than what others would like you to do

[simondotau]

Stupid is the word I would use for discovering that you have pancreatic cancer and then believing the best course of action is to reject effective medical treatment and "cure" it with an all-carrot diet.

Stupid is the word I would use to posthumously describe the interests of Isaac Newton. I admit that it would have been difficult to recognise the stupidity of occult studies in 18th century England, but we can certainly apply that label with the benefit of a modern perspective.

[SyzygistSix]

>Stupid is the word I would use to posthumously describe the interests of Isaac Newton. I admit that it would have been difficult to recognise the stupidity of occult studies in 18th century England, but we can certainly apply that label with the benefit of a modern perspective.

It seemed to work for Jack Parsons. And many other very creative people.

[simondotau]

Correlation is not causation. There are many very creative people and uncreative people with many diverse quantities and qualities of stupidity.

[SyzygistSix]

Or maybe our conscious and unconscious brains don't work in linear fashion like factories. Inspiration matters. It doesn't matter if what it takes to inspire one, consciously or subconsciously, is weird and doesn't make logical sense but is more poetic.

[simondotau]

Maybe. Maybe not. Regardless, correlation is not causation.

[enos_feedler]

Elon Musk bought Twitter for 44B

[simondotau]

I would agree that it was stupid for Musk to buy Twitter at any price.

But 44 billion wasn't an unreasonable price at the time the amount was offered, which was immediately prior to the stock market collapse of early 2022. And most of the TSLA stock he sold to acquire Twitter was sold at near to its market peak. Effectively he swapped some overpriced TSLA for some overpriced TWTR.