Musk Talks About His Childhood, Growing Up with Asperger Syndrome
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Musk is therefore everywhere. However, the man remains a mystery. The business man tried to clear up some of that mystery in a recent Ted Talk interview.
He said that he had an unhappy and lonely childhood and that he spent a lot of time in his books rather than playing with children his age.
"I did not have a happy childhood to be frank," Musk told Chris Anderson of Ted Talk. "It was quite rough."
"But I read a lot of books. I read lots and lots of books. Gradually I understood more from the books that I was reading and watched a lot of movies. It took me a while to understand things that most people intuitively understand."
The 50-year-old billionaire says he did not master social codes. He didn't understand social cues, for example. This was due, Musk explained, to the fact that he had Asperger's Syndrome.
Everyone's experience is going to be somewhat different, but I guess for me, the social cues were not intuitive. I was just very bookish and I didn't understand these," Musk, the father of seven children, including six boys, also recounted.
Failing to understand the outside world, he turned to the inner world. He found this world, especially in computing.
"I found it rewarding to spend all night programming computers, just by myself. I think most people don't enjoy typing strange symbols into a computer by themselves all night," the tech tycoon recalled. "They think that's not fun, but I thought it was. I really liked it. I would just program all night by myself and I found that be quite enjoyable. But I think that is not normal."
“I was just absolutely obsessed with truth, just obsessed with truth," Musk said. "The obsession with truth is why I studied physics, because physics attempts to understand the truth of the universe. Physics, it's just what are the provable truths of the universe and truths that have predictive power."
He added:
For me, physics was a very natural thing to study," the mogul added. "It was intrinsically interesting to understand the nature of the universe, and then computer science or information theory also to just understand logic. There's an argument that information theory is actually operating at a more fundamental level than even physics. Physics and information, really interesting to me."
This quest for the truth, which appeared quite early, plunged him into depression.
"When I was young teen, I got quite depressed about the meaning of life. I was trying to understand the meaning of life, reading religious texts and reading books on philosophy. I got into the German philosophers, which is definitely not wise if you're a young teenager, I have to say, a bit dark, much better read as an adult," recalled a visibly moved Musk.
He notably read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams, which tells the story of a man who flees into space with his alien friend so as not to die on earth.
It's "actually a book on philosophy, just disguised as a silly humor book," Musk said.
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
It is Autism Acceptance Month
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
18 Dec 2021, 9:21 am
