Just saw Musk posted a correction about his South African roots—turns out he's got British/English heritage, not Afrikaner background like everyone assumes. Pretty interesting that he drew a parallel to J.R.R. Tolkien, who was also born in South Africa but had English parents. Both ended up leaving the country young, but apparently kept that connection.

It's wild how much speculation there's been around Musk's upbringing in South Africa. The whole Afrikaner vs English settler distinction is actually pretty significant culturally—different languages, different histories, totally different contexts. Musk's been pretty vocal about dismissing some of the narratives around his past, especially that emerald mine thing.

Musk's obviously obsessed with Tolkien anyway, so this parallel feels natural for him to make. Says something about how these narratives get built up and then need correcting. Anyone else think people get too caught up in the background story instead of just looking at what someone's actually doing?