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.”

  • TreadOnMe [none/use name]
    hexbear
    39
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    All the money in the world and he still just does what every poor person in their mid-20's does. I suppose it probably makes him feel 'different' than all of his peers, but this is pure neo-liberalism in action. Say what you will about the Romans, at least they appreciated the spectacular.

    • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]
      hexagon
      hexbear
      33
      7 months ago

      Dude could literally hire out historical reenactors to play a live war game, but he's obsessing over a mid af mobile game lol

        • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]
          hexagon
          hexbear
          20
          7 months ago

          I sure don't react to phone games like

          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.”

        • Sephitard9001 [he/him]
          hexbear
          12
          7 months ago

          64 gigs of RAM and overclocked i9 only to install bluestacks to emulate Diablo Immortal and never playing anything else lets-fucking-go

    • Sephitard9001 [he/him]
      hexbear
      21
      7 months ago

      Why do I get the feeling this motherfucker has the best PC money can get but barely knows how it works and can't troubleshoot so he plays Ark and Cities Skylines at max settings but still gets like 28-35 FPS and just thinks it's normal.

      Other option is he has the most expensive PC because it's brand name pre-built but has older parts and he doesn't even use them because he only plays games that use 1/4th it's processing power