Getting lucky (Paypal) and being a good grifter (Tesla) does not equal having brains. At most, if one wanted to be generous, you could say SpaceX was a venture made at an opportune time, but I would attribute that less to brains than luck, since the driving impetus for its founding was not "NASA is phasing out certain services which private companies will need to pick up" but "I just got rich and now I want to fund space exploration." Which, to be fair, is better than what most people do when they first get rich - but is hardly proof of intelligence.

I mean, you don't go from millionaire to billionaire in a decade without having some brains.

It's not uncommon for the lottery to get up over a billion anymore and it doesn't take a whole lot of brains to gamble

Unlike many I do agree. Elon is extremely good at some things, like self-promotion. With some starting capital and understanding of venture capitalism it can get you a looong way.

Scamming people at that level requires serious skill. And makes you a terrible person.

He's a good salesman with autism. Don't suck his dick that hard.