Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have an unhealthy Twitter habit | John Naughton

They are two of the world's richest people, and both are obsessed with space travel, but they use social media for very different reasons

Why do billionaires tweet? Is it because they no longer have to earn a living? Or because they're bored? Or because they spend a lot of time in, er, the smallest room in the mansion? Elon Musk, for example, currently the world's richest fruitcake, has said that At least 50% of my tweets were made on a porcelain throne", adding that it gives me solace". This revelation motivated the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson to do some calculations, leading to the conclusion that more than 8,000 tweets over 12.5 years suggests that, on average, Musk poops" twice a day. (I make it 1.75 a day, but that's just quibbling.)

So why does Musk tweet so much? One explanation is that he just can't help himself. He has, after all, revealed that he has Asperger's. Look, I know I sometimes say or post strange things," he said on Saturday Night Live, but that's just how my brain works". Understood. It may also be a partial explanation of his business success, because his mastery of SpaceX and Tesla suggests not only high intelligence but also an ability to focus intensely on exceedingly complex problems without being distracted by other considerations.