Is Elon Musk A Genius? SpaceX Founder Is One Of The Smartest People On Earth

This question originally appeared on Quora. Answer by Rob Hanna.

175+

Why? Because I consider IQ by percentage of the population, meaning that I think Elon could hold his own and be a peer to the 27,000 smartest people on the planet. And supposedly, if I did the math correctly, that is how many people among the 9 billion global population (coming soon) are estimated to have IQs 175 or above. Whatever that number means...

Do I think Elon could keep smart company with these brightest of the bright folks and even best them – absolutely. Why?

Because Elon knows how to learn rapidly.

One of the many problems with most IQ tests is that they simply test a point in time occurrence of contextual aptitude, mental clock time and narrow realms of cognitive function. All of which my smartphone can already do better than most geniuses and with better humor and less bad breath. It's absurd we continue to judge any but the most rudimentary IQs based on such John Henryesque criteria well after our machines are at the critical thinking station.

I met Elon and was good friends with one of his good friends. Most of what I know about Elon is observational from a distance and what my friend told me. That has only added to my belief that Elon could mingle with the brightest of the bright and keep pace if not trump them over time.

Learning how to learn doesn't seem to enter into any number ranking stuff for IQs. And that's why I couldn't care less for the most part what number you ascribe to him or how important anyone feels taking tests are or relying on proxies such as solving crossword puzzles using only the across questions.... who cares. Elon has already proven how comparatively bright he is over most of humanity by doing amazing things for humanity over and over again.

And that's real intelligence.