Category Archives: Elon Musk

Elon Musk, it seems, prioritises building spaceships over maintaining relationships. In September, the thrice-divorced billionaire told reporters that his work at SpaceX and Tesla was a big reason why he had split from Grimes, his musician girlfriend. In her latest single, Player of Games, Grimes appears to have confirmed this. Im in love with the greatest gamer, she sings, but hell always love the game more than he loves me Sail away to the cold expanse of space, even love couldnt keep you in your place.

The lyrics have prompted headlines about her shading Musk with a spicy dig, but I reckon the guy got off lightly. She could have been far ruder, particularly considering Musks record with dishing out insults.

It wouldnt have been the classiest of moves, but Im sure Musk would have been the first person to argue that nobody could possibly take an insult literally.

She could have echoed Musks recent comments to Bernie Sanders and written something like: I keep forgetting youre still alive. She could have mentioned his bizarre new haircut: the billionaire looks as if he got a child-sized toupee from the pound shop and glued it to his head. She could have made a dig about the size of his rockets. She could have pulled a Justin Bieber and sung: My mama dont like you and she likes everyone.

Im not auditioning to be Grimess assistant songwriter here. Im just saying that everyone knows that if you date a musician you run a risk of finding yourself unflatteringly immortalised. Musk, by comparison, has been treated generously. No doubt hes playing the song on repeat.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

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Elon Musk is learning a hard lesson: never date a musician - The Guardian

Rapid expansion of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service is letting CEO Elon Musk make the rules in the sector, the head of the European Space Agency said.

"You have one person owning half of the active satellites in the world. That's quite amazing. De facto, he is making the rules," Josef Aschbacher, the ESA's director-general, told the Financial Times Sunday. The rest of the world, including Europe, was not responding quick enough, he added.

SpaceX's Starlink, which beams internet from satellites in orbit to user terminals on Earth, now has more than 1,750 working satellites in orbit and serves around 140,000 users in 20 countries, according to a presentation filed by the company to the Federal Communications Commission dated November 10.

There are currently more than 4,000 active satellites in orbit, according to data from CelesTrak, cited in The Independent.

Aschbacher told the FT that the absence of government co-ordination and European countries' support for Starlink's expansion risked preventing European companies from competing in the commercial space industry and launching satellites into low earth orbit, where Starlink dominates.

Germany has applied to the International Telecommunications Union to request permission for Musk's Starlink to launch around 40,000 satellites, the FT reported. The satellite internet service was also given the green light by US regulators to launch more than 30,000 satellites, the paper added.

"Space will be much more restrictive [in terms of] frequencies and orbital slots," Aschbacher told the FT. He said that governments in Europe should support European internet providers by giving them equal opportunities in the market, the paper reported.

He told the FT that the rest of the world"is just not responding quick enough," adding that other competitors and regulators were struggling to catch up with Starlink due to its rapid expansion.

Aschbacher urged European governments to stop enabling Musk to dominate the space industry, the FT reported.

SpaceX didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider made outside of operating hours.

Starlink wants to deploy 200,000 user terminals in India by December 2022, as well as launch in the Philippines, Bloomberg reported.

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Elon Musk 'makes the rules' in space as Starlink expands: ESA boss - Business Insider

Elon Musk could become a trillionaire. Here's what that means.

Elon Musk could become the world's first trillionaire. Here's what that means.

Staff video, USA TODAY

On Thursday, SpaceX launched 48 Starlink satellites into orbit off the coast of Florida.From Arizona to Alabama, people could spot glimmers in the sky as the satellites orbited the Earth's atmosphere.

Thesestreaks of light could be the reason Elon Musk becomes a trillionaire, according to an October report by Morgan Stanley sent to USA TODAY.

Morgan Stanley predicted a $100 billion base valuation for SpaceX, chiefly driven by innovations within Starlink.

"We have long seen SpaceX as multiple companies in one," the report states. "But the largest contributor to our estimated $100 billionbase case valuation for the company ($200 billion bull case) is the Starlink LEO sat comms business which has had a number of important milestones in recent months."

So what is Starlink, and how will it make Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire?

Starlink is a broadband internet service, specializing in the expansion of coverage to rural and remote communities. It accomplishes this by launching a "constellation" of satellites into low Earth orbit via SpaceX rockets.

Musk created a "symbiotic" relationship between SpaceX launches and Starlink satellite deployments, where advancements in eithersector can reap benefits for both parts of the business, Morgan Stanley says.

As SpaceX rockets become more sophisticated, they can handle larger and more frequent payloads of Starlink satellites. As Starlink satellites gain more customers around the globe, it validates and circulates cash back into the SpaceX rocketry program.

Space travel:William Shatner went to space. Here's how much it would cost you.

Rocket launches have been a key way for SpaceX to solicit the expertise of NASA, which has sustained a long presence in space through the International Space Station (ISS).

"We've had continuous human presence in low Earth orbit for about 20 years now. But the ISS is nearing its end of life," says Phil McAlister, director of commercial spaceflight at NASA. "Prior to that end of life, we want to have commercial destinations, commercial space stations in low Earth orbit so that we can continue our human research."

The support and funding of NASA has helped SpaceX send a significant body of satellites up into space and create its own presence in low Earth orbit. Starlink now hasmore than 1,700 internet-beaming satellites circling above, according to Florida Today, part of the USA TODAY Network.

Regular people can preorder a Starlink Kit that includes a terminal (used to connect to the satellite providing internet) that they would set up themselves in their own home. The Starlink Kit costs $499, and the internet service would cost $99 per month.

Starlink Internet:SpaceX starts accepting orders for Starlink internet service

While the upfront costs for consumers to set up the terminal is high, it costs SpaceX even more, with estimates from Morgan Stanley reaching over $2,000 per terminal. SpaceX hopes to achieve economies of scale and eventually bring terminal costs down to $250 for consumers, Morgan Stanley says.

Starlink's addressable market is significant, given that much of the world is still lacking broadband internet.

In America, only about 72% of adults in rural areas have a broadband connection at home, according to February 2021 data from Pew Research Center. The Pew report also found that older people, racial minorities and "those with lower levels of education and income" are less likely to have broadband service at home.

These issues are acute for people living in rural communitiesall over America, such as Dawn Sutton fromAlamance County, North Carolina.

Sutton lives on a rural country road in southern Alamance County where internet cables stop just a mile and a half short of her home. For the past several years, she and her neighbors have periodically reached out to internet service providers askingthem to extend access and have continuously been turned down.

In order to complete her work, Sutton goes to her sons house every day and has been doing this for months on end.

Theoretically, companies could lay cable in these areas, but the cost of doing so often outweighs the benefits, leaving people like Sutton stranded.

US infrastructure spending: Charts show where billions of dollars would go

If you're a company … what's the return on investment for you if you're spending a whole lot of money to connect three households? says Kathleen Stansberry, an Elon University professor who works with the universitys Imagining the Internet Center. It doesn't make great business sense for most companies to do it and to build out services for just a handful of users.

While this may apply to fiber companies, it doesn't necessarily apply to SpaceX and satellite technology.

With the existing rocket technology of SpaceX, shooting satellites into space may be a quicker way to help people in rural areas get internet, given the high cost of deploying fiber infrastructure, according to CNET.

The revenue brought in from Starlink can help "the company attract large amounts of capital at attractive rates," says the Morgan Stanley report. This could fund further development ofmore complex launches, such as Starship, a rocket that Musk says could eventually take people to Mars.

Michelle Shen is a Money & Tech Digital Reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her @michelle_shen10 on Twitter.

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What is Starlink? Inside the satellite business that could make Elon Musk a trillionaire. - USA TODAY

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has become somewhat notorious for his Twitter presence.

It's no surprise, then, that Musk has some strong feelings about Twitter's announcement this week that founder Jack Dorsey is stepping down as CEO, with former CTO Parag Agrawal taking the reins.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Musk expressed his feelings as he is so often wont to do: With a meme.

The image, which a watermark credits as coming from the pro-Trump Instagram meme account "GrandOldMemes," depicts incoming Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal as Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and former CEO Jack Dorsey as Soviet secret police head Nikolai Yezhov.

In the first image, the two are seen walking together, but in the second image only Agrawal as Stalin remains, while Dorsey as Yezhov appears to have been dumped into the water (note the splash).

In reality, Yezhov was executed in 1940 during the Great Purge the photo was later doctored by the Soviet government to remove the former official.

The implication of the meme appears to be that Agrawal is attempting to erase Dorsey from Twitter, but it's not totally clear.

On Monday, Dorsey announced his exit from Twitter and the appointment of Agrawal. He will continue to serve on the social media service's board until next year, but is otherwise focusing on his payment processing company, Square.

Starting on December 10, Square will be known as Block, and the new company will act as an umbrella corporation over Square services, the Cash app, the Tidal music streaming service, and a Blockchain-focused cryptocurrency arm named TBD54566975 (really).

The Dorsey meme from Musk is a rare moment of seeming antagonism between two men who otherwise have a very friendly relationship. They have a shared love of cryptocurrency, and Dorsey has said Musk is one of his favorite tweeters.

Got a tip?Contact Insider senior correspondent Ben Gilbert via email (bgilbert@insider.com),or Twitter DM (@realbengilbert). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by email only, please.

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Elon Musk compared the new Twitter CEO to Joseph Stalin in an odd meme that also compared Jack Dorsey to Stalin's offed henchman - Business Insider

In a recent memo to Tesla staff, Elon Musk asked workers to reduce Q4 transportation and delivery costs by avoiding additional expenses, like incurring fees to expedite, working overtime, and using extra resources such as temporary contractors. He noted that he didn't want staff working like crazy at the end of the quarter, only to be met with a nosedive come Q1.

By avoiding the typical end-of-quarter dash, followed by the steep drop that follows it, Musk is asking staff to slow down and work to steady production. It is another genius lesson from the master of high performance's playbook. Musk isn't just urging staff to create a consistent and manageable flow; he's also brilliantly taking the pressure off of his staff's shoulders by asking them to slow down and work less.

That's right. Because while Musk has cracked the code, enabling him to easily work superhuman hours--as much as 120 per week--as a CEO he takes a different approach to management. What he understands is that increasing workplace productivity isn't synonymous with increasing staff's working hours, but rather with the exact opposite.

What Musk is really doing is brilliantly setting up Tesla to increase its productivity--using a psychological brain hack that will go unnoticed by staff. And everyone can use it.

There's one surprisingly easy way to hack productivity and combatproductivity dysmorphia.And it doesn't involve mini mediations, chanting mantras, or traditional incentives. The trick to doing more is to simply commit to doing less or asking less of staff.

That's right, if you want to do more, all you need to do is decide to do less. In doing so, you will effectively end up doing more than if you had committed to doing everything. It's called the 85 percent rule, and it says that by committing to just 85 percent, the output will often be 100 percent--if not more.

By asking less of others and of ourselves, we reduce expectations, and with that, the pressure that can paralyze productivity. More important, it creates the perception that something is easier to do. And when we believe something is easier, we will more easily do it.

This holds true across many facts of life, from work to sports. For example, research has found that when competitive runners were asked by their coaches to take a run easy, most would end up running faster than they do during races when they were expected to give it their all.

Though many work well under pressure, it's not always the most conducive to working optimally and consistently. The pressure of time is incredibly effective for some, but deadlines and time constraints aside, the pressure typically combusts productivity and it's not an effective long-term production strategy.

It's easy to get wrapped up in end-of-quarter and year-end production and sales numbers. But following a big push, teams get burnt out, and means of production get exhausted, leaving figures to crash coming into the next quarter. The genius of Musk deploying the 85 percent rule isn't just how he is yet again effectively increasing production, but also that he will have a happier workforce. And according to researchers at Oxford University, happier staff are more productive.

Ultimately, it's a long-term success strategy. Time and time again Musk does an incredible job of staying laser focused on the future--whether that looks like asking staff to work less or living in a $50,000 tiny home. Everything he does is with great attention to detail, and the detail is the future of the company.

If you ever find yourself struggling to work at maximum production, remember to take it down a notch and commit to less. Less energy, less output, less pressure, and chances are you and your team will be more productive and happier, and with that, your business will be more successful.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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Science Explains How Elon Musk Uses the 85 Percent Rule to Help Staff Increase Productivity with Less Energy - Inc.

Musk also said on a side note that Tesla makes two thirds of electric vehicles in the USA (by the way, two years already without tax credit), which is in fact twice as many EVs as the rest of the automakers combined; and that Tesla is the worlds biggest robot company, as a matter of fact.

Tesla's approach to try to achieve "SAE Level 5" is to train a neural network using the behavior of hundreds of thousands of Tesla drivers using chiefly visible light cameras and information from components used for other purposes in the car (the coarse-grained two-dimensional maps used for navigation; the ultrasonic sensors used for parking, etc.). Tesla has made a deliberate decision to not use lidar, which Elon Musk has called "stupid, expensive and unnecessary". This makes Tesla's approach markedly different from that of other companies like Waymo and Cruise which train their neural networks using the behavior of highly trained drivers, and are additionally relying on highly detailed (centimeter-scale) three-dimensional maps and lidar in their autonomous vehicles.

According to Elon Musk, full autonomy is "really a software limitation: the hardware exists to create full autonomy, so it's really about developing advanced, narrow AI for the car to operate on." The Autopilot development focus is on "increasingly sophisticated neural nets that can operate in reasonably sized computers in the car". According to Musk, "the car will learn over time", including from other cars.

Tesla's software has been trained based on 3 billion miles driven by Tesla vehicles on public roads, as of April 2020; by December 2021 that number has been multiplied several times. Alongside tens of millions of miles on public roads, competitors have also trained their software on tens of billions of miles in computer simulations, at least as of January 2020; by 2021 those numbers have also multiplied in orders of magnitude. In terms of computing hardware, Tesla designed a self-driving computer chip that has been installed in its cars since March 2019 and also developed a neural network training supercomputer; other vehicle automation companies such as Waymo regularly use custom chipsets and neural networks as well.

Tesla Dojo (or Project Dojo), to which we referred the day before yesterday (in another article related to Tesla searching for talented AI engineers), is an artificial intelligence (AI) neural network training supercomputer announced by Musk on Tesla's AI Day on August 19, 2021. It had previously been mentioned by Musk in April 2019 and August 2020. According to Musk, Project Dojo will be operational in 2022.

The Dojo supercomputer uses Tesla D1 chips, designed and produced by Tesla. According to Tesla's senior director of Autopilot hardware, Ganesh Venkataramanan, the chip uses a "7-nanometer manufacturing process, with 362 teraflops of processing power", and "Tesla places 25 of these chips onto a single 'training tile', and 120 of these tiles come together... amounting to over an exaflop [a million teraflops] of power". Tesla claims that Dojo will be the fastest AI-training computer among competing offerings from Intel and Nvidia. As of August 2021, Nvidia said the current Tesla AI-training center used 720 nodes of eight Nvidia A100 Tensor Core GPUs (5,760 GPUs in total) for up to 1.8 exaflops of performance.

Musk also referred to the development of a Tesla robot during the WSJ interview, saying that it makes total sense to put all that AI learning and data science into robots. Musk is basically looking for AI engineers to develop the next generation of automation, including a general purpose, bi-pedal, humanoid robot capable of performing tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring.

"Were seeking mechanical, electrical, controls and software engineers to help us leverage our AI expertise beyond our vehicle fleet", as per Tesla AI website.

You can actually apply for the available positions on this link, if interested.

All images courtesy of Tesla Inc.

Nico Caballero is the VP of Finance of Cogency Power, specializing in solar energy. He also holds a Diploma in Electric Cars from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and enjoys doing research about Tesla and EV batteries. He can be reached at @NicoTorqueNews on Twitter. Nico covers Tesla and electric vehicle latest happenings at Torque News.

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Tesla FSD: The Most Practical AI For Navigating The Real World, According To Elon Musk - Torque News

Tesla Had To Do This To Keep Up With The Competition

Its been over two years since the Cybertruck debuted in a rather comical launch event (remember the armored glass getting shattered?). While that turned out to be the highlight of the event, the truck actually came with a whole lot of interesting specs and features.

Tesla said it will launch the Cybertruck in three different iterations single-motor, dual-motor, and tri-motor setups. Now, Musk throws a curveball by confirming that the Cybertruck will have a quad-motor setup.

Replying to Whole Mars Catalogs tweet about a rumor of Tesla replacing the single-motor Cybertruck with a quad-motor setup, Elon Musk replied,

Initial production will be 4 motor variant, with independent, ultra fast response torque control of each wheel.

In retrospect, Tesla shouldve introduced this at the launch itself. A single-motor setup never seemed too impressive at the onset. But, it helped Tesla keep the starting price of the truck as low as possible and create hype. The single-motor Cybertruck, by the way, came with a starting sticker price of $39,900.

Weve seen what vehicles with four motors can do. The Rivian R1T with the Tank Turn created quite some noise when the automaker let out the trailer video. In fact, Rivian put this video out a month after Tesla announced the Cybertruck. So, when Musk announced that the Cybertruck will come with a four-motor option, it was inevitable this question was asked.

Musk not only confirmed the tank turn, but he also said it will be able to diagonally drive like a crab, courtesy of the front- and rear-wheel steer. This, again, is a feature weve seen on another quad-motor truck the GMC Hummer EV.

For the uninitiated, a Tank Turn is circling the vehicle on a dime on an effectively zero-turning radius, just like a tank. The Crab Mode, on the other hand, is moving diagonally, like how a crab walks. This is possible courtesy of the four-wheel steer feature. The rear-wheel steer can articulate up to 10 degrees, and front wheels can be steered at the same angle at low speeds, which enables the vehicle to crawl like a crab. Well have to see the articulation on the Cybertruck, though.

The dual- and the tri-motor models were priced at $49,900 and $69,900, respectively. The EV technology has become a lot more mainstream now and even the production has gone up considerably when compared to what it was two years ago. With the production costs being less than before, Tesla could also announce that the $39,900 price tag is now for the dual-motor model, $49,900 for the tri-motor setup, and $69,900 for the quad-motor setup.

To give you a perspective, the cheapest Rivian R1T comes with four motors and starts at $67,500. To undercut the competition, upgrading the motor options for the same price as stated before will be a big, big win for Tesla and give it the bragging rights for a long time to come.

Although expected to arrive at the end of 2021, the delivery date is now pushed by a year. Musk noted that the Cybertrucks delivery is delayed to late 2022. Well, this means that the four-motor Cybertruck will arrive in late 2022, and the dual- and tri-motor models later on. Well have to wait to hear about the other specs of this new four-motor Cybertruck. For now, these are the specs:

Single motor RWD:

Dual motor AWD:

Trimotor AWD:

Tesla is considered as the pioneer in EVs, but there are a lot of other companies that are catching up and giving the automaker a run for its money. The Tank Turn and Crab mode are examples. Rivian and GMC announced these features in their vehicles first, respectively, and it garnered enough hype. Heck, even the GMC Yukon beat the Cybertruck to the punch! In fact, Rivian even came up with something known as the K-turn that will be even more helpful than the Tank Turn. Perhaps, Tesla needs to come up with something out-of-the-box to become the talk of the town again.

What do you have to say about the quad-motor electric truck from Tesla? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section.

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Elon Musk Confirms That The Tesla Cybertruck With Four Electric Motors Is Coming! - Top Speed

MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty/Axel Springer

Elon Musk has again passed Jeff Bezos to become the richest person.

He told Forbes he'd mark the occasion by sending Bezos a silver medal and statue of the number two.

The two have taken swipes at each other for years as part of their rivalry.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Elon Musk has taken a jab at Jeff Bezos after becoming the richest person again.

On Monday, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO became the third person to ever be worth $200 billion, according to Forbes.

In response, Musk said he was sending Bezos a reminder of where they stood on Forbes' billionaires list.

"I'm sending a giant statue of the digit '2' to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal," Musk told Forbes in an email.

Bezos became the first person to reach the $200 billion milestone in August 2020. Bernard Arnault, the CEO of the French luxury conglomerate LVMH Mot Hennessy Louis Vuitton, briefly hit that mark more recently.

Musk and the former Amazon CEO have leapfrogged each other for the title of richest person multiple times.

Musk's comment toward Bezos is the latest in the rivalry between them. Earlier this year, Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, protested NASA's decision to award a $2.9 billion contract to SpaceX to land humans on the moon. On Twitter, Musk said: "Can't get it up (to orbit) lol."

Last month, the Amazon subsidiary Kuiper filed a protest letter with the Federal Communications Commission over SpaceX's plans to expand its Starlink satellite network. In response, Musk tweeted that Bezos had "retired to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX."

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Elon Musk says he's sending Jeff Bezos a silver medal and ...

Elon Musk - Estimated as 155I. What is Elon Musk'sIQ - The Iron Man in real worldElon Musk's IQ is estimated as 155 IQ, based primarily on his earlier aptitude tests, his ability to read and apply technical information, and his ability to use numbers to make process changes unique in the history of a complicated industry.

Elon Musk is a beast. What makes him more successful than anyone else? One must first understand what makes him different than the rest of us to know why he is successful. Maybe they are Elon Musk IQ and his business success.

As of October 2017, Musk has an estimated net worth of $20.8 billion, ranking in the 2017 Forbes 400 as the 21stwealthiest person in America. In March 2016, he was listed by Forbes as the 80th-wealthiest person in the world. In December 2016, Musk was ranked 21ston the forbes list of The Worlds Most Powerful People.

This study breaks down intelligence in three domains: verbal, reasoning and working memory, and I believe the authors are correct as far as intellectual abilities that predict performance in the modern workplace.

While genetics plays a large role, I think there is a significant role in changing your biology for enhancement.

Its important to note that you dont need all of these abilities, or in the same degree as Elon Musk to be successful. Ive seen people be successful with only one of these. But its the combination of these that make Elon Musk so successful, which separates him from the rest of us.

The typical book about Elon Musk's life: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.

With over 1.5 million copies sold, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and Quest for a Fantastic Future, veteran technology journalist Ashlee Vance provided the first inside look into the extraordinary life and times of Silicon Valley's most audacious entrepreneur. Written with exclusive access to Musk, his family and friends, the book follows this entrepreneur's journey, from his childhood when he was raised in South Africa until he reached the height of global business.

Vance spent more than 30 hours talking to Musk and interviewed nearly 300 people to tell the various stories of companies changing the world that Musk founded, such as PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX and SolarCity, to describe a man who has revitalized the American industry and spirited innovation at another level, while also made many enemies on his path.

Vance used the story of Musk to explore one of the big questions in our time: whether the nation of inventors and forces led the modern world for a century still survive in the era of fierce global competition or not. He claimed that Musk - one of the most extraordinary and impressive figures in American business history - is a contemporary blend of legendary inventors and industrialists like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs. More than any other entrepreneur, Musk have been dedicating all his energy and his entire future to create a prosperous future and open for the golden age of science fiction.

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Elon Musks IQ is estimated as 155 - His 7 abilities to ...

Musk (Flickr CC // Bill David Brooks)

By the age of 46 years old, Elon Musk has innovated and built three revolutionary multibillion dollar companies in completely different fields Paypal (Financial Services), Tesla Motors (Automotive) and SpaceX (Aerospace).

This list doesnt even include Solar City (Energy), which he helped build and acquired for $2.6 Billion recently.

At first glance, its easy to link his rapid success, ability to solve unsolvable problems and genius level creativity to his incredible work ethic.

Musk himself stated that he worked approximately 100 hours a week for over 15 years and recently scaled down to 85 hours. Rumour also has it that he doesnt even take lunch breaks, multitasking between eating, meetings and responding to emails all at the same time.

No doubt work ethic plays an important role in unlocking your inner creative genius and becoming the best at what you do but theres more to this there are extremely hard-working people who still make little progress in life and die before sharing their best work with the world.

What then is this missing link for innovative creativity and accelerated success?

Just like Musk, some of the most brilliant minds of all-time Aristotle, Euclid, Thomas Edison, Feynman and Nikola Tesla use this missing link for accelerated learning, solving difficult problems and creating great work in their lifetime.

This missing link has little to do with how hard they work. It has everything to do with how they think.

Lets talk about how you can quickly use this genius problem solving method.

During a one on one interview with TED Curator, Chris Anderson, Musk reveals this missing link which he attributes to his genius level creativity and success. Its called reasoning from First Principles. [1]

Musk: Well, I do think theres a good framework for thinking. It is physics. You know, the sort of first principles reasoning. Generally I think there are what I mean by that is, boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there, as opposed to reasoning by analogy.

Through most of our life, we get through life by reasoning by analogy, which essentially means copying what other people do with slight variations.

In laymans terms, first principles thinking is basically the practice of actively questioning every assumption you think you know about a given problem or scenario and then creating new knowledge and solutions from scratch. Almost like a newborn baby.

On the flip side, reasoning by analogy is building knowledge and solving problems based on prior assumptions, beliefs and widely held best practices approved by majority of people.

People who reason by analogy tend to make bad decisions, even if theyre smart.

Essentially, first principles thinking will help you develop a unique worldview to innovate and solve difficult problems in a way that nobody else can even fathom.

Heres how you can quickly use this in 3 simple steps recommended by Elon Musk himself.

STEP 1: Identify and define your current assumptions

If I had an hour to solve a problem, Id spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions. Albert Einstein

Here are some examples from everyday life in business, health and craft.

Growing my business will cost a lot of money.

I have to struggle and starve to become a successful artist.

I just cant find enough time to workout and reach my weight loss goals.

When next youre faced with a familiar problem or challenge, simply write down your current assumptions about them. (Note: You can stop here and write these down now)

STEP 2: Breakdown the problem into its fundamental principles.

It is important to view knowledge as sort of semantic tree. Make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to. [2]

- Elon Musk

These fundamental principles are basically the most basic truths or elements of anything.

The best way to uncover these truths is to ask powerful questions that uncover these ingenious gems.

Heres a quick example from Elon Musk during an interview with Kevin Rose on how this works. [3]

Somebody could say, Battery packs are really expensive and thats just the way they will always be Historically, it has cost $600 per kilowatt hour. Its not going to be much better than that in the future.

With first principles, you say, What are the material constituents of the batteries? What is the stock market value of the material constituents?Its got cobalt, nickel, aluminum, carbon, some polymers for separation and a seal can. Break that down on a material basis and say, If we bought that on the London Metal Exchange what would each of those things cost?

Its like $80 per kilowatt hour. So clearly you just need to think of clever ways to take those materials and combine them into the shape of a battery cell and you can have batteries that are much, much cheaper than anyone realizes.

This is classic first principles thinking in action.

Instead of following the socially accepted beliefs that battery packs were expensive, Musk challenges these beliefs by asking powerful questions that uncover the basic truths or elements i.e. carbon, nickel, aluminium.Then, he creates ingenious innovative solutions literally from scratch.

STEP 3: Create new solutions from scratch

The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks. Mortimer Adler

Once youve identified and broken down your problems or assumptions into their most basic truths, you can begin to create new insightful solutions from scratch. [4]

Here a three simple everyday examples of how this works (Step 1 to Step 3).

Assumption: Growing my business will cost too much moneyFirst principles thinking: What do you need to grow a profitable business? I need to sell products or services to more customers. Does it have to cost a lot of money to sell to new customers? Not necessarily, but ill probably need access to these new customers inexpensively. Who has this access and how you can create a win-win deal? I guess I could partner with other businesses that serve the same customer and split the profits 50:50. Interesting.

Assumption: I just cant find enough time to workout and achieve my weight loss goals.First principles thinking: What do you really need to reach your weight loss goal? I need to exercise more, preferably 5 days a week for an hour each time. Could you still lose weight exercising less frequently, if so how? Possibly, I could try 15 minute workouts, 3 days a week. These could be quick high intensity full body workouts that will speed up my fat loss in less time.

Assumption: I have to struggle and starve to become a successful artistFirst principles thinking:What do you really need to create great work and make a good living as an artist? I would need a reasonably sized audience that will appreciate and buy my artwork.What do you need to reach a larger audience? I probably need to do some marketing, but I dont like self-promoting so Id rather not do this.Ok, is there any way for you to promote your work without being sleazy? Yes, if the focus of selling my artwork is meaningful with a purpose of serving the audience then I could make more money to make more art, so I can serve more people. Interesting

Good ideas are always crazy until theyre not. Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future (Audiobook).

Usually, when were faced with complex problems, we default to thinking like everybody else. First principles thinking is a powerful way to help you break out of this herd mentality, think outside the box and innovate completely brand new solutions to familiar problems.

By identifying your current assumptions, breaking these down into their basic truths and creating solutions from scratch, you can uncover these ingenious solutions to complex problems and make unique contributions in any field.

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This article was originally published on MayoOshin.Com as Elon Musks 3-Step First Principles Thinking: How to Think and Solve Difficult Problems Like a Genius.

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Elon Musks 3-Step First Principles Thinking: How to ...