[mike_hearn]

What are you arguing here? That Musk knows how to write code but, in your mind, isn't a good enough programmer to ... I don't know. Do what? Run Twitter? Run SpaceX? Understand Twitter's tech stack?

The quotes you chose contain direct references to him coding, to code that he wrote himself. Where is the name dropping? Are you being confused by the reference to web servers in the first quote maybe? In 1995 the term web server meant something like Apache with CGI. Writing a custom implementation of HTTP in C was a fairly standard technique to improve performance back then. The first version of Amazon was written in C, Google's web servers were still frequently written in C++ when I joined.

I mean, you say he has only "surface knowledge" and is "acting" to "maintain the illusion", but how many programmers could knock out their own implementation of HTTP in C on their own, let alone implement BGP and all the other low level stuff you need to bring a T1 online? How many would even understand what Musk was talking about?

[tarsinge]

And what's his point? That he invented internet? Implementing a basic HTTP in C is like a first year CS lab (https://quip.com/Km9EAe5ARGZI). Without further information how do we know he is not inflating some toy week-end project any C programmer could have done back then? Also what's with specifying it's in C/C++? It was either that or assembly. Again hard to see his point. It gives me the same vibe than when he was proud of "direct flipping of CPU registers". All of this is very average if you were a hobby programmer at the time, we are not talking real world engineering like OS kernel (Linux/NT/...) or Game (Crash Bandicoot, RollerCoaster Tycoon, ...) just to name a few on top of my head.

My point is contrary to what he and his supporters claim he has has no deep understanding of the actual tech of his companies. I'm not arguing he doesn't know tech enough to run a tech company. It's common to find tech executives and VP that coded in their younger years. He might sit maybe a bit above a decent salespeople that has a good understanding of his product line, but below a Bill Gates and definitely not at the level of a ML researcher or Tech lead. He is maybe more invested that a typical CEO in day to day operations, but the aura of genius/inventor added on top is an illusion.