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Meet Elon Musk's Children: His Odd But Uplifting Reason for Having 10 Kids
Celebrities

Meet Elon Musk's Children: His Odd But Uplifting Reason for Having 10 Kids

Twitter is now yet another in Elon Musk's impressive portfolio. As a founder, or co-founder, of PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX, Musk has forged a path to becoming the world's richest human in a very unconventional way. However, as nontraditional as his entrepreneurship has been, his philosophical role as a patriarch to his ever-broadening brood is perhaps even more outside the mainstream. Elon Musk is the father to a total of 10 children.RELATED: 62 Motivational Elon Musk Quotes on Success and LeadershipAccording to a new report from Insider, Musk is the father of twins with Shivon Zilis, a top executive at another of his companies, Neuralink, who specializes in artificial intelligence and human digital interfaces. As his holdings and family expand, it is worth looking at how the most affluent person on the planet goes about the business of parenting. Meet Elon Musk’s Children In January 2000, Musk married Justine Wilson, a writer who he'd met at Queen's College while they were both students, though their romance did not ascend past awkward dates and casual flirtations until some years later. Their firstborn, Nevada Alexander Musk, arrived in 2002 but the baby was only alive for ten weeks before succumbing to sudden infant death syndrome, a mysterious malady known as SIDS that claims 2,300 infants a year in the United States. RELATED: What Elon Musk And Grimes Teach Us About Finding The OneTwo years later, the couple had twins Griffin and Vivian, and two years after that they conceived a set of triplets, Kai, Saxon, and Damian.In 2020 Musk, and the singer Grimes, welcomed their son, X AE A-XII. They had another child, a daughter named Exa Dark Sideræl, in November 2021, and one month later Zillis and Musk welcomed their pair of twins. Elon Musk Just Wants to Be a DadMusk told Page Six that he would have “as many as I am able to spend time with and be a good father.” He has highlighted his close relationship with all his children, except his eldest daughter Vivian.Vivian Jenna Wilson filed in April to have their name legally changed one day after turning 18 and also petitioned a court in Los Angeles to sever ties with Elon Musk as her father. There has been speculation that Wilson took this action in response to some of Elon’s statements on Twitter in regard to the trans community, specifically the preponderance of pronouns in daily discourse. Elon blames Neo-Marxist ideologies for his estrangement from his daughter.RELATED: Mark Cuban Offers Elon Musk a Universal Lesson in Dealing with CriticismThe deterioration of Musk’s relationship with Vivian mirrors the fracturing of his own relationship with his father, a man he has described as an architect of great evil. Though the details of what transpired between the two men aren’t exactly clear, one can surmise that Elon doesn’t wish to be the type of person he perceives his father to be, which can be one of the most powerful motivations in fatherhood.Elon’s own father, Errol Musk, has been a magnet for controversy in recent months. In August during an interview with an Australian radio program, he confided to its audience that he was not proud of his son’s accomplishments. This seemed, at least in part, to derive from some sense that Elon himself was less than satisfied with where he found himself in his career and life at the moment.Errol Musk has also been in the headlines for siring a pair of children with his step-daughter, Jana Bezuidenhout, who assumed the role of paternal parent when she was four years old.How Does Elon Manage Being the CEO of Tesla and the Dad of 10?Some of Elon’s past romantic partners, such as Talulah Riley, have gone on the record professing Musk’s devotion to his family. Riley was quoted “He tries to come home early for family dinners with me and the kids and maybe play some computer games with the boys.” At one point she described a household where nannies were deployed en masse but said that decreased over time. RELATED: Elon Musk Says This Surprising Thing Helped Him Become A Billionaire, Offers Unusual Parenting Lesson In The ProcessMusk has admitted to being hands-off in the children’s life in the early years, suggesting that the mother has more involvement during those foundational years and that his contributions come a little later in their lives. Some notable exceptions to this self-imparted exile are trips abroad where all the children typically accompany him to visit places many only read about. He also has been candid about the influence of the internet in the education of his children, specifically citing Reddit and Youtube during a 2021 Clubhouse interview as primary channels for their educational consumption. Ad Astra, a school Musk founded in 2014, was once located on the grounds of SpaceX and was the instructional hub for many children in his social hemisphere, including his own.What Are Elon’s Plans to Continue to Grow the Family?Elon Musk and ex-girlfriend GrimesErrol Musk has encouraged his son to have as many as 30 children. The elder Musk has always espoused a manifest destiny approach to procreation among the wealthy elite, likening his son to sprawling lineages of European kings. A tweet from Elon in July glibly suggested that he may be in agreement with his father. The tweet said “Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.”RELATED: Elon Musk’s #1 Tactic to Never be Afraid of FailureThis sentiment may not be as tongue and cheek as it appears. The hugely successful entrepreneur, despite some of his controversies, seems to be an ardent supporter of a greener planet as well as providing a real alternative habitat in the form of Martian terraforming. As wildly ambitious as that goal may be, Musk is a man who has attained the pinnacle of financial success by investing in the impossible. Despite the challenges he has faced as a parent he has expressed a dedication to doing his part to battle against various existential threats that may extinguish humanity, and population growth is one of them. He has the resources to support a family of almost any size and while his desires may run deeper than narcissism. As with his other endeavors he may feel uniquely suited to solving a global problem and leading by example and in that lens, he is charitably leading by example. KEEP READING: Channing Tatum’s Fear of Single Fatherhood Challenged Him to Become a Better Dad

Neil DeGrasse Tyson Answers Elon Musk's Interview Question
Uplifting News

Neil DeGrasse Tyson Answers Elon Musk's Interview Question

Have you ever been hit with a curveball of a question in an interview? The kind of question you could swear was designed to trick you? Well, as it turns out, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk uses this exact tactic to screen potential employees (go figure). So, who can answer Musk’s curveball? Famous astrophysicist, StarTalk, and Netflix’ Cosmos host Neil deGrasse Tyson can. So, what question does Musk ask prospects? According to a 2015 biography by Ashlee Vance, the question was based on his favorite riddle: You're standing on the surface of the Earth. You walk one mile south, one mile west and one mile north. You end up exactly where you started. Where are you? CNBC’s Make It recently took to the streets to ask people that very question. The results? It stumped virtually everyone they asked. That’s when they decided to ask the one and only Neil deGrasse Tyson. His answer? The North Pole. If one were to start at the Earth’s North Pole, walk one mile south, one mile west, then one mile north, they’d essentially be moving in a very large and very narrow triangle because of the curviture of the planet, ending up right back where they started. How do you approach the question? As it turns out, there’s more to this riddle then meets the eye. In fact, there are several ways it could be answered because of the nature of the question. One method of answering the question which Musk is reported to accept involves starting near one of the poles, moving out one mile to an exact point which has a one-mile circumference (meaning you’d travel one mile around in a circle), walking around, then traveling back where you started. It’s because there are so many varied ways to answer the question which is the reason that Musk reportedly asks it in interviews. When interviewing a prospect for a position at SpaceX, Musk is said to be more interested in seeing how they answer the question (their method) rather than their actual answer. So, did you get the answer? And how did you answer the question?

3 Incredible Times Elon Musk Failed and Still Came out on Top
Entrepreneurs

3 Incredible Times Elon Musk Failed and Still Came out on Top

Much to the concern of Tesla’s shareholders and board members, Elon Musk somehow manages to top headlines nearly every week for both the big risks he takes, and for his epic failures. Whether it’s due to the 120 hour work weeks, or the chronic lack of sleep that he has admitted to, it seems like the billionaire entrepreneur keeps making reckless moves and having fun at everyone else’s expense. If that’s the case, then how does he always seem to end up on top? A high risk tolerance and an embracing attitude toward failure are key personality traits for any aspiring entrepreneur, so let’s examine a few of the many seemingly career ending failures that this eccentric entrepreneur was able to overcome against all odds by focusing on what’s next, instead of dwelling on the failure itself. Nearly Going Bankrupt After selling PayPal to eBay in 2002 for a reported $1.5B, which netted Elon Musk about $165 million as one of the company’s co-founders, he began searching for new business ideas and decided that he wanted his next business to solve more important issues than simply how we make payments online. That’s why he focused his efforts on clean energy and space travel. In a bet that most people would find astonishing, he took $100 million of his own money and started the rocket company SpaceX. Within just 2 years, he had also invested another $70 million into a little known electric car company, Tesla, eventually buying it outright. Four years after his sale of PayPal, he used some of his own money as well as assets from Tesla to invest another $90 million into the solar company started by one of his cousins, SolarCity. Along the way he nearly went bankrupt and went hundreds of millions into debt, borrowing money from billionaire friends and taking loans from banks, just to cover expenses while working tirelessly to keep the value of his companies from collapsing to zero. All three companies are now household names because of the years of big bets, hard work, and relentless focus that the entrepreneur has maintained. In the end, it was his unwavering belief in his bigger mission, and his willingness to give up everything else, including his personal life, that ended up ensuring the success of these ventures. Negotiating With Russians Musk’s interest in space started when he was just a child, so to those who knew him well, the idea of starting a rocket company wasn’t all that crazy. But to everyone else, it seemed he had lost his mind. When he couldn’t find affordable rocket suppliers in the United States, he decided to go to Russia and negotiate a deal to purchase cheaper, refurbished rockets from the government. After negotiating with the Russians over three trips to the country, he and his team were literally laughed out of the room when he brought $21 million in cash to pay for 3 rockets, only to find out that the Russians were taunting him and actually planned to sell him only one for this price. Many people would throw in the towel after such a defeat, but on the flight back to the United States Elon said to his partners, “screw it, how hard can it be to build a rocket?” After reading every book he could find to become an expert in rocketry, spending many millions more on failed launch after failed launch, in September of 2008 SpaceX successfully launched its first reusable rocket, forever changing the industry. Elon himself has said: “when something is important enough, it’s worth trying even if the risk of failure is really high.” As long as you keep learning from every mistake, if you keep trying, you’re bound to get it right at least once. Getting Sued By The SEC In August, Musk made headlines when he announced his plans to take Tesla private saying that “funding is secured.” It’s difficult to guess why he would make such a statement so publicly on Twitter, perhaps he really believed that taking the company private was the best option, or maybe he wanted to encourage the investors he was courting to make their decision faster, but now we know that the bet he made did not pay off. The SEC, the regulating body that’s charged with protecting public investor interests, took his statement as an attempt to manipulate Tesla’s stock price and began proceedings for a lawsuit that would have been detrimental to the business and to Musk’s future as the company’s head. But just a few weeks later, after what was likely a series of negotiations, the SEC settled with Elon Musk and Tesla, and he got away with paying a fee and Tesla made the symbolic move of removing Musk as a Chairman of Tesla. In the settlement he still got to keep his job as CEO. Was this recent move and the many huge risks that Musk has taken throughout his life worth it? Most of us would never consider taking on giants like the Russian government or the Securities and Exchange commission. But for leaders like Elon Musk who are attempting to reinvent entire industries and create technologies that our world has never seen, constant failure is just a part of the game. It’s something they’ve accepted as their reality a long time ago. There’s a valuable lesson here for the rest of us. If you’re someone who has big ambitions and wants to leave a mark on this world, the faster you get comfortable with the inevitable failures that you’ll face along the way, the easier it will be to get back up and keep moving forward.

Mark Cuban and Elon Musk Agree This Is The One Skill AI Will Never Replace
Creativity

Mark Cuban and Elon Musk Agree This Is The One Skill AI Will Never Replace

Automation is a big part of the work force right now, and it’s just going to become more of an issue – and lead to more job elimination – in the next decade. But are workers in the U.S. ready for this impending shift? Maybe not, says billionaire investor and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Cuban said he worries that many jobs people consider to be safe simply won’t exist in a few years due to automation, and being able to think creatively will be key to survival. Why AI will never replace creative and free-thinking “I personally think there’s going to be a greater demand in 10 years for liberal arts majors than there were for programming,” Cuban tells Bloomberg. That’s because while automation will be great at data, it can’t do creative or free thinking, and that’s where creativity will come in. SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk agrees that being innovative and creative is essential, in fact Musk asks that his employees use the first principles method to foster problem-solving and innovation. Musk mentioned this strategy in a 2012 interview with the tech-focused video series Foundation, as well as at a 2013 TED conference. "When you want to do something new, you have to apply the physics approach," the billionaire explained. "Physics is really figuring out how to discover new things that are counter intuitive." Creativity and innovation have been at the forefront of inventions, discoveries, and breakthroughs in all industries forever, it makes sense this will be how people, and their careers continue to prosper and times and trends change.

Elon Musk Apologized For Calling Thai Cave Rescuer a 'Pedo' - And the Situation Is a Reminder EQ Matters
Self-Improvement

Elon Musk Apologized For Calling Thai Cave Rescuer a 'Pedo' - And the Situation Is a Reminder EQ Matters

Sometimes (often) people say really inappropriate and damaging things about others. The important thing is to know when you messed up and to apologize -- before more damage is done. Such was the case with Elon Musk, who just publicly apologized to British cave diver Vernon Unsworth after calling him a "pedo." The diver contributed to the several-day rescue operation of the 12 boys stuck in a cave in Thailand. How the situation escalated to firing insults The Tesla and SpaceX CEO had his team build a mini-submarine to rescue the boys. However, the tool didn't end up being used because the head of the rescue mission Narongsak Osottanakorn found the method to be “not practical.” Ultimately, the boys got out via the use of stretchers, but Musk’s tool was left in Thailand in case it ended up being useful in the future. This is where things got murky, because soon after, Unsworth did an interview with CNN and called Musk’s plan a PR stunt. “He can stick his submarine where it hurts,” Unsworth said. “It just had absolutely no chance of working. He had no conception of what the cave passage was like.” Musk replied with an unnecessary smear shortly after, but soon apologized. Musk tweeted that "his actions against me do not justify my actions against him, and for that I apologize to Mr. Unsworth and to the companies I represent as leader. The fault is mine and mine alone." “I am aware of his apology, and (have) no further comment,” Unsworth told Reuters over the phone Wednesday. Handling conflict and criticism with grace Whew. Ultimately, resorting to name-calling and personal attacks is never the answer, even if the other guy "started" -- it doesn't mean you have to go to that level and make a bad situation worse. It comes down to emotional intelligence and the healthiest way to handle a complicated situation with another person. Many of us have a tendency of going to an immature place, sometimes, and beneath reactivity are hurt feelings. Musk got hurt and reacted in an immature way. Having a brilliant mind doesn't shield us from the tendency to let our social skills and emotional intelligence be impacted by hurt feelings. Here is a guide to handling conflicts in a productive way if you're interested in learning more.

Elon Musk Says This One Habit Is the Secret to Becoming Successful
Skills

Elon Musk Says This One Habit Is the Secret to Becoming Successful

We love hearing advice from highly successful people on how to make it big. Although by now you've surely heard it all. Work hard, stay focused, make lists, etc. While many of the usual tips are beginning to sound like broken records, sometimes it takes a specific person to reframe it in their own way for the message to truly click. For some of you, this person may be Elon Musk. As a serial entrepreneur with large-scale successes born from equally large failures, Elon Musk is the poster child for budding entrepreneurs seeking the motivation to never give up on their dreams. In an insightful TED interview with Chris Anderson, Musk revealed what he considered to be the necessary ingredient for success: The drive to keep progressing. Why you should always strive to keep moving forward Nearing the end of the interview, Musk explained how the U.S. launched people to the moon as early as 1969. They celebrated the achievement, then retired the space shuttle. Nobody else went to orbit after that. For years, the technology used to take humanity to the moon fell into decay because no one was working to improve it. Musk traced a similar downhill trend further back in history: You look at great civilizations like Ancient Egypt, and they were able to make the pyramids, and they forgot how to do that. And then the Romans, they built these incredible aqueducts. They forgot how to do it. He points out that technology doesn't magically improve on its own. It takes passion and hard work to keep it moving forward and make it better. Otherwise, it'll just become obsolete and disappear. This rule applies to your own projects too. You can either stick with it and work hard to improve it, or you can watch it lose importance and fall behind. Your options: progress or regress Musk's arguments during the TED interview can be summed up in one sentence: Progress is the only path to success. Imagine if Musk had quit launching SpaceX rockets after the first failed attempt back in 2002. Now imagine if he had quit after the first successful launch because he had "reached his goal." Sure, we'd have a few news articles on that one achievement, but we wouldn't have any of his later groundbreaking records or the current technology paving the way to cheaper and safer space travel. Today, SpaceX is a billion-dollar company and has launched dozens of successful rockets. The company even relaunched a used rocket for the first time in history. All of this was possible solely because Musk and his talented team never stopped working to improve on what they had built. They never stopped moving forward, and they certainly won't for the foreseeable future. This is why Elon Musk and his companies are so successful. Now it's your turn. Regardless of which stage you are in your journey, whether you're still battling the odds to reach your first win or you've already crossed the finish line and have become complacent; take Musk's advice and never stop moving forward. Keep improving, stay on mission, and never ever give up.

Elon Musk's #1 Tactic to Never be Afraid of Failure
Skills

Elon Musk's #1 Tactic to Never be Afraid of Failure

Most of us are scared of failure. It's nothing new, and it's nothing to be ashamed of either. No one wants to fail at what they do, especially if it's something they're very invested in.Elon Musk has a very simple way of not letting the prospect of failure get in his way. He doesn't avoid failure or hope that it doesn't happen, instead, he anticipates that it will.How is this helpful? Well, it's a bit like preparing for the worst-case scenario before venturing out into the jungle. Some people wouldn't dare go in due to the fear of getting lost.But if you already anticipate getting lost, then you'll likely bring along extra supplies and have a way of notifying someone of your location. Now you're more confident about going into the jungle, because you have a plan if the worst-case scenario does happen.The same rules apply to everything else in life. Accepting failure can happen and creating a plan for it is like installing your own safety net. You'll be much less scared to jump into something new if you know there's a safety net, right?A quick lesson from SpaceXDo you remember the story of Elon Musk's first failures with SpaceX?When he first started the company in 2002, he had the vision that it would enable humans to become a spacefaring civilization. The rockets would be affordable to build and they would ultimately transport humans to create a self-sustaining city on Mars.This isn't the kind of pitch that would strike complete confidence into the hearts of many investors, but Elon Musk fully believed in it and he had a contingency plan if it all came crashing down (literally).In an interview with Esquire, he declared: If we don’t get the first SpaceX rocket launch to succeed by the time we’ve spent $100 million, we will stop the company.His prediction of failure very nearly came true. The first launch cost $30 million, and failed. The second cost $60 million, and also failed. The third and final launch was successful and won a billion-dollar contract from NASA.Was Elon Musk afraid of failure? Probably. Did it get in the way of his goals? Definitely not.How to always anticipate failureGetting comfortable with the idea of failing isn't easy. But there are steps you can take to create a well-thought contingency plan in case failure happens.Take a pen and paper right now and write down a project you've always been meaning to start but haven't due to the fear of not being successful.2. Now, write down the absolute worst-case scenario for that project. It could be losing money, wasting time, public embarrassment, etc.3. Next, break down the causes of this worst-case scenario. Then cross out the ones that are out of your control.4. Finally, write a contingency plan for each cause you can control. If you're worried that no one will want to buy your designer socks, your plan could be to re-use those designs on other products like t-shirts or even notebooks.The important thing here is to always expect failure and be ready for it. Only then will it stop being the reason you don't move forward with your goals. Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.-- Elon Musk

3 Traits Albert Einstein and Elon Musk Have in Common
Entrepreneurs

3 Traits Albert Einstein and Elon Musk Have in Common

It’s hard to go a minute nowadays without seeing a headline that has something to do with Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk or one of his many business ventures. Both idealistic and analytical – from creating electric batteries to literal space rockets– Elon Musk is clearly much more than just a businessman trying to turn a profit. And therein lies why he’s so interesting. For the same reason Steve Jobs was so revered, Musk has a greater mission and a vast vision for the future and the human race as a whole. So it's not surprising that Musk gets compared to Albert Einstein. Einstein was more than just a scientist, he was a philosopher and contemplated the meaning of his work and what the future would hold– and what we need to do to not only survive, but also thrive as a species. But do these two innovators actually have anything in common aside from some vague beliefs? According to New York University professor Melissa Schilling in her new book Quirky, yes, famous physicist Albert Einstein and billionaire visionary businessman Elon Musk have several eerily similar qualities. I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. – Albert Einstein 1. Self-sufficiency One of the most distinct similarities between the two thought leaders is that both experienced a feeling of being detached and out of place throughout childhood. "At first, I thought this was maybe just a side effect of something else related to innovation," says Schilling. "Particularly Einstein and Musk, they were so introspective as children that people thought they were deaf." However, this trait cultivated a high level of self-sufficiency. Musk, who attended seven different schools while growing up, escaped into his own learning frequently due to this feeling of disconnect, consuming huge numbers of books and playing video games frequently. Einstein, similarly, found it easier to rebel because he was disconnected. This played an important part later in his career, as Schilling notes: It's a big part of why he was able to cast away Newtonian concepts that held back other scientists and enabled him to come up with scientific theories that were really revolutionary for his time, Schilling says this disconnect from social constructs played a big part in Musk and Einstein's willingness to step outside the rules and create bold new ideas: "Because they didn't belong to the social world, they didn't have to obey its rules, freeing them to develop bold ideas and stick with them even in the face of criticism," she says. "This highlights the value of spending some time alone, reading, writing and thinking about things that we find intrinsically interesting." 2. Idealism Second, both Einstein and Musk were and are clear idealists. "Einstein wanted to find a simple harmonious truth about how the universe works and Musk wants to save our species by weaning us off of fossil fuels and establishing a colony on Mars," says Schilling. She continues, “When people are genuinely motivated to do something, they will work harder and longer and will stick with their goals in the face of criticism.” It’s this idealistic vision which created– and creates– such fervent work ethic and relentless persistence. Without this, we as people quickly fall off track. We need a big reason behind why we’re doing what we do to remain motivated in the long run. "Pursuing goals they see as intrinsically noble and important made them fiercely motivated and focused and it provided a form of ego defense against criticism and failure," she says. "We can all benefit by cultivating a grand ambition, a goal that is big enough to stretch our vision beyond our current horizon and important enough that it fuels our tenacious effort." 3. Their views on education Lastly, neither Einstein or Musk were model students. "Each of these men chafed at the structure of formal education," says Schilling. Both Einstein and Musk had little respect for the traditional educational structure. Musk would repeatedly skip class in college and just show up to take his exams, while Einstein consistently caused trouble for his teachers by disrespecting authority, missing class and frequently being tardy. However, when it came to the subjects that each loved and had an interest in, they typically scored very high marks. Why does that matter, aside from being an interesting similarity between the two? Well, it brings up an important point: "One of the implications for the rest of us – whether we invest in formal education or not – is that we should look for those topics we find interesting and important and study them intensely on our own terms," Schilling says. "The topics we study on our own are the areas in which we are more likely to develop creative ideas."

Elon Musk's 3 Secrets to Continuous Growth and Self-Improvement
Career Growth

Elon Musk's 3 Secrets to Continuous Growth and Self-Improvement

Over the past decade, Elon Musk has cemented himself as one of the most influential entrepreneurs of the 21st century (thus far). In many ways, he’s taken the place of the late Steve Jobs in terms of reverence as the pillar of success in the Silicon Valley, tech-startup community. But it’s more than just his success, it’s his productivity. The guy runs several billion-dollar companies at the same time and shows no sign of slowing down. What does a guy like that do each day? What principles does he live by for growth and self-improvement? Well, it turns out, there is one major principle that runs through much of his thinking and serves as a major piece of his self-improvement process: simplicity. You look at the fundamentals and construct your reasoning from that and then see if you have a conclusion that works or doesn’t work. – Elon Musk 1. Break things down to their essence According to 16 Personalities, Musk has the Architect personality. In short, this means that his process involves breaking down any and every system he comes in contact with in an attempt to rebuild it better than before. It’s a habit all architects personalities possess, however, Musk uniquely combines that behavior with a strong vision and relentless action-oriented personality. Musk is a master at looking at something, breaking it down into its fundamental parts, learning everything about how it works, and rebuilding it better than before. He approaches everything this way including his own learning and self-improvement. When asked how he manages to learn at such an incredible rate, Musk responded: It is important to view knowledge as sort of a 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. Architects often even go so far as to ruffle the feathers of others around them because they don’t care who created the system. It’s their natural inclination to approach everything they place their attention on in the same way. Similarly, Musk mentions: You look at the fundamentals and construct your reasoning from that and then see if you have a conclusion that works or doesn’t work. 2. Build the best system possible The primary element of Musk’s process when working on something is to find out how it works and then if it works as best it can or not. If it doesn’t, it’s changed until the system is optimized. Many of us follow the examples of others. And this can be incredibly effective, at least in the beginning. However, this can lead you astray because there are several assumptions you’re often making when you do this. That: Your personalities and strengths are the same You have the same resources And that your environment (economy, etc.) still allows for these same results Musk bypasses this by searching out his conclusions and then building up based solely on the facts at hand. He described his process this way when discussing the early stages of his Aerospace company, SpaceX: I tend to approach things from a physics framework...Physics teaches you to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. So I said, okay, let’s look at the first principles. What is a rocket made of? Aerospace-grade aluminum alloys, plus some titanium, copper, and carbon fiber. Then I asked, what is the value of those materials on the commodity market? It turned out that the materials cost of a rocket was around two percent of the typical price. He even does this with his daily schedule, breaking things down to five-minute slots of time over 85-hour work weeks and focusing almost entirely on concrete productivity-oriented tasks: I don’t spend my time pontificating about high-concept things; I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems. 3. Pursue it relentlessly The final piece of the puzzle is Musk’s relentless drive and optimization process. He’s constantly iterating and optimizing as he goes, never settling on that first system he built. This allows him to continue to learn and grow along the way, becoming progressively better. I leave you with these final words from Musk on the importance of feedback loops for constant improvement: I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

Elon Musk's Secret to Learning Anything Faster (And Becoming Smarter)
Productivity

Elon Musk's Secret to Learning Anything Faster (And Becoming Smarter)

You know what they say: Jack of all trades, master of none. Everyone always says to keep your sights set on just a couple of subjects. Find your niche and stick with it. It seems like sound advice, right? Focusing on one or two areas will likely make you an expert on them. However, this way of thinking doesn't apply to Elon Musk. With four billion-dollar companies under his belt in different industries (software, energy, transportation, and aerospace), it seems like Musk is one of those enviable people who can become an expert on just about anything. Is it because of his 85-hour work weeks? His endless appetite for books? Or is he simply just "one of those people"? But maybe he has a secret learning strategy. Here's how Elon Musk sets himself up to become an expert on any subject. 1. Read about everything (not just your field) Elon Musk has often said how he was raised by books. Even his mother has described how young Elon always had his nose buried in a book while growing up. From Artificial Intelligence and space to biographies and economics, Musk isn't picky when it comes to learning. While many people prefer to stick to books that are relevant to their fields, Musk allows himself to learn about anything. Why? Because what you learn now can tie into something else in the future, creating something unique. This is called learning transfer, and it's what Musk does when he applies his knowledge in one area to another. Like software and economics blending together to create PayPal, for example. Fun fact: Steve Jobs was also known for learning things beyond his industry. He once randomly enrolled in a Calligraphy class, which he ultimately used to help define the typographies used by Mac when he founded Apple years later. 2. Surround yourself with intelligent people When Musk began dabbling in the aerospace industry with SpaceX, he hired the rocket engineer Tom Mueller, who is considered the smartest propulsion expert out there. Musk hung around him and learned everything he could from him. Jim Cantrell, an aerospace consultant at the time, told Business Insider, "In the same way that Musk absorbed books, he tried doing that with other people's expertise. It was as if he would suck the experience out of them. He truly listens to people." Musk is known for doing this around everyone in his network who knows something he doesn't. So maybe start evaluating if the people you're spending your time with are helping raise your IQ. 3. Think of knowledge as a tree In a Reddit thread, a user asked Elon Musk how he manages to learn everything so quickly. In response, Musk wrote, "One bit of advice: it is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree -- make sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e. the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to." This approach makes total sense. Imagine trying to drive a car without having learned how to turn on the engine or what each pedal is for. If you don't know the basics, you're not going to understand how to apply them to other areas either, like driving a truck. Musk's entire career is based on this principle. First, he learned the fundamentals of AI, physics, and engineering; then he deconstructed these ideas and reconstructed them in new ways, creating PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, etc. While many of us may think, "Okay sure, but he's a genius. I sure won't be able to learn so many things!" Well, Elon Musk has something to say about this too: "I think most people can learn a lot more than they think they can. They sell themselves short without trying." So, give yourself the benefit of the doubt and give it a try. You may surprise yourself.