What is the deal with these people who are super-successful offline (e.g. Chamath, Marc Andreessen, Elon Musk), but on social media have such mediocre, cringe, or bad opinions, getting easily-verifiable facts wrong or just repeating sale or boring stuff, or digging in when wrong? Why is there such a large disconnect between being so successful in one domain (e.g. creating companies) and the ability to produce good, well-informed opinions online?
My answer: People who are really successful offline tend to be specialists--they find something that works, and then scale or repeat it. People who have "good opinions about a broad range of topics" are generalists, but this does not necesailty lead to large wealth, which typically requires specialization.
Generalists tend to be higher IQ and get bored more easily, seeking novelty, but this comes at the cost mastery at a skill to become wealthy. Becoming a billionaire at running restaurants means knowing everything about the restaurant industry--perhaps not exactly intellectually simulating work--but necessary for success. Specialists can be really smart, but I would say generalists are smarter in the aggregate. There is no "industry person" who is as broadly read about history and other humanists topics as Moldbug, for example, as the ultimate generalist.
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I mean more effective than being the richest person on the planet, owning one of the most popular social media platforms, having literally run US Government department, soon to have launched more stuff in space then the rest of humanity combined, having the ear of US President (even if they disagree sometimes), and plausibly soon leading the Mars landing project? How much more effective do you want him to be? Is he to gain prescience, merge with sand-trouts and become a Divine God-Emperor of the Universe, setting the humanity on the Golden Path?
We don't even need to cite those examples: tesla and space-x alone are more than a million people will ever accomplish. His reach is huge, no doubt.
But lot of people wonder, "How can someone so successful and smart be so shallow at politics? Why isn't there more of a skill transfer?" I would argue that this is asking too much--top verbalizers are rarer than top business people. Moldbug has often complained that Elon's views are pedestrian, and I'm like, "yes, compared to you , almost everyone is."
But to answer your question, I think he would be more effective if he tried, or at least ghostwrote, a college-level essay articulating his politics or "worldview". It would go viral and be read by important people and probably move the needle in ways a meme tweet cannot. This would not be a big time investment away from his businesses given he already spends a lot of time on twitter .
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