He is smart. What he has not figured out even yet is that this is an end of world scenario that the billionaire class has been fantasizing about for 100 years. No one can believe that what is happening can be on purpose and nefarious except us "dumb lucky guess people." If you don't believe they are trying to kill humanity and enslave whoever is left then you can't see it. That is why he fails. It is beyond his ego making the wrong decision, it's that he still believes the old world exists. It doesn't. They have destroyed all the bridges going back to that world.