Elon Musk Says Sometimes He Feels Lonely

Oh, please.

Star Boy

It's lonely at the top — even for Elon Musk.

Even being the world's richest person, a billionaire CEO of multiple companies and a guy who threatens foreign dictators with flamethrowers isn't enough to keep Musk from getting lonely sometimes. In a new interview with Business Insider published yesterday, the CEO of Insider's parent company, Mathias Döpfner, got the moody and unpredictable Tesla and SpaceX head to open up about his feelings.

"There are times when I feel lonely, yes," Musk told the outlet. "I'm working on the starship rocket and I'm just staying in my little house by myself, especially if my dog is not with me, then I feel quite lonely because I'm just in a little house by myself with no dog."

There's a number of things Musk could have on his mind. The breakup with singer Grimes that's been news fodder for weeks, the pushed-back rocket launches and production timelines and the knowledge that his intervention in Ukraine is actually saving lives and causing more tension during Russia's invasion of the country are all great candidates.

It sounds like kind of a lot for anybody.

Mad Genius

There is a problem with asking Musk about whether he gets lonely, though. Plenty of interviewers and writers paint white tech and science bros as troubled geniuses of the Albert Einstein (an emotionally abusive cheater) variety or the Steve Jobs (a verbally abusive and miserly millionaire) variety or the Jeff Bezos (billionaire who got egged after demanding a historic bridge be taken apart to accommodate his superyacht) variety.

But to really understand any of these men, as well as their innovations, failures and successes, we have to stop propping them up as creative geniuses who can get away with gross behavior simply because they're smart men.

It sucks to hear Musk gets lonely, seriously. It's a human emotion we can all relate to and humans are worthy of compassion simply for existing.

But instead of asking him whether he's the eccentric, Batman-esque reclusive hero building a space ship to the next great beyond in a tiny house with a tiny dog (and he very well may be just that), can we just start with whether he supports, say, racial equality?

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