Elon Musk says his mind is a 'storm’—and he calms it by playing video games, his ‘primary recreational activity'
Elon Musk says his mind is a 'storm’—and he calms it by playing video games, his ‘primary recreational activity'
"Killing the demons in a video game calms the demons in my mind,” says the world's richest man.
Anyone who runs a company needs a way to de-stress. For some CEOs that might mean golf or sailing. For Elon Musk, who runs or owns Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter), the main method is playing video games.
“It calms my mind. Killing the demons in a video game calms the demons in my mind,” Musk told podcaster Lex Fridman in an episode released Friday. He added later, “I’ve played a lot of video games because it’s my primary recreational activity.”
The world’s richest man also said, “My mind is a storm. I don’t think most people would want to be me. They may think they would want to be me, but they don’t, they don’t know, they don’t understand.”
Musk’s longtime companion Grimes, with whom he has three children, told biographer Walter Isaacson that Musk has no “hobbies or ways to relax other than video games, but he takes those so seriously that it gets very intense.”
Among his favorite titles is The Battle of Polytopia, billed as a “strategy game about building a civilization and going into battle.” Players compete to control resources and develop technologies, and they wage battles in order to build an empire. Musk’s brother Kimbal told Isaacson that his famous sibling said Polytopia “would teach me to be a CEO like he was.” The game was also fodder for a series of life and business lessons for Elon, with the first one being, “Empathy is not an asset.”
Another favorite of Musk’s is Elden Ring, centered on war and empire-building, which he told Fridman was a “candidate for the best game ever, top five for sure.” He added that it’s “incredibly creative” with “stunning” art.
“Beating hatred in the internal realm,” he added, “is the hardest boss battle in life and in the video game.”
Musk’s game-playing has also preceded some key business decisions. He pulled the trigger on buying Twitter right after playing Elden Ring until five in the morning, Grimes told Isaacson.
Mostly, Musk seems to use video games to get into a certain zone.
“If you play a tough video game, you can get into a state of flow which is very enjoyable. Admittedly it needs to be not too easy, not too hard—kind of in the Goldilocks zone,” he told Fridman.
“I guess you generally want to feel like you’re progressing in the game. And there’s also beautiful art, engaging storylines, and it’s like an amazing puzzle to solve.”
This article is so embarrassing that I'm never playing a video game again.
Money is wasted on the rich. He could be doing literally anything in the fucking world and he's playing phone games. The only difference between him and an iPad kid is the amount of money he can spend on digital gems/gold coins/pay-to-play currencies. I fantasize about what I could do with a few thousand dollars and he burns that speeding up construction of his digital buildings and buying skins. Hell, he could commission a game made by any studio exactly to his fucking specifications but he still plays the same garbage as anyone else.
what a fucking self absorbed loser. just say you play video games for the same reason everyone else does- they're fun distractions. 'omg my brain is such a unique stormy snowflake that I respond to the same advertising stimuli as everyone else omg omg guys DAE have a storm in their head?????'
That sounds like ADHD.
Which makes him throwing a fit about one of his ex-wives being on Adderall real fucking stupid.
This makes Elon look so cringe that I thought this had to be c/fakenews
i am never playing video games again having learned this
Permanently Deleted
“Empathy is not an asset.”
“Beating hatred in the internal realm,” he added, “is the hardest boss battle in life and in the video game.”
I'm sorry you keep trying to jump onto the enemy with a spike on its head instead of using the hammer
i love how he always has to evangelize the most common shit he does as being soooo special.
Permanently Deleted
look, i like video games. i think video games are great.
but they are just about the least unique or interesting hobby one can have, no less because you're a billionaire 50 year old nerd. it is kind of funny that his favorite game is some middling indie civilization builder he just found browsing the nintendo eshop though. that's exactly the kind of game your annoying divorced uncle should be into. if he said his favorite game was like Ocarina of Time or Hearts of Iron IV or Planescape: Torment or something I'd know he's full of shit.
e: never mind, it's a game that's available to play on the big stupid screen in the tesla center console. pretty sure this whole article is just an ad for it.
Imagine how empty your life must be to get your life lessons from mobile games, when you are one of the richest persons in the entire world. All this money and all he buys is gigantic amounts of cringe.
they made a gamer the richest guy in the world, a GAMER
also bruh [redacted] yourself
The game was also fodder for a series of life and business lessons for Elon, with the first one being, “Empathy is not an asset.”
learning this from a kids civ game and applying it in such a way that effects thousands of lives? very cool and normal
I have terminal gamer brain and this makes me understand more precisely than before the hatred that musk inspires in people who are experts in the fields he puts himself into
I was kind of with him when he talked about a hard game, requiring a lot of focus, being therapeutic--its' like how Tetris helps people with PTSD. But my gamer brain seethes when he says it has to be not too easy not too hard; part of the therapy is feeling the hard game becoming easy, at least imo
The "storm" is what is left of his empathy struggling to escape his narcissistic brain.
???? The Battle of Polytopia and Elden Ring......the dichotomy
Guarantee this is what he does for “work”
Lmao this is his favourite game?
I dunno, it's probably good and I'm not gonna shame anyone for liking a "casual" game or whatever, but it looks like the kinda shit you'd see Jerry play on his ipad in Rick & Morty. It doesn't look like some immense 4D-chess kinda game. This is the "tough" game? It makes Civ VI look deep lol
It would be kinda entertaining to watch him lose to an 8-year-old at Mario Kart.
My mind is the misters they use in produce sections, but running constantly.
ugh, a G*mer
Permanently Deleted
He plays Candy Crush Saga.
ok
:konstantin-syomin-shining:
context
Russian marxist known to be incredibly anti-gaming
Yeah dude I also play engaging tactical simulations (Arknights and Vampire Survivors).
#relatable
Putting everything else aside, any competent businessman, who is at the helm of as many ventures as he is, would delegate responsibilities to other people and basically operate as a final decision maker or as basically the public facing figure head. That would remove a huge load from his shoulders.
But, his ego is so massive that he insists on having his finger in the pie of everything, and refuses to do that.
