I have a question. A person of such incompetence could have achieved such great success, how is that possible? In addition to being technically incompetent, he seems to be incompetent when it comes to managing people and running a business.
We all conflate success with merit and competence but in reality is much more complex than that. Having the means (cash) and insight or luck to make a bet at the right time gets you most of the way there. For the rest, you don't have to be that competent, just not completely incompetent.
Elons biggest virtue is his stubbornness on two very successful bets, those two finance and cover all of his other failures (and successes) and character flaws. For now, at least.
He's always been a shitty boss and terrible people manager. But where are you going to work if you want to be around the sexiest rockets ever made? Or even the new hotness all electric vehicle? At least for Tesla, the appeal is diminishing but the market for hardware engineers and embedded is much different than general software and there is plenty of dumb people who think is cool to work under him, he has infinite cannon fodder to burn.
His biggest mistake with twitter is to buy a company where revenue is tied to public relations and being a person who despises public relations with a passion. There is no product to sell and optimize, he didn't get a good idea that needs polishing and perfecting, he has to come up with one. That is much, much harder.
