This biography, written by Walter Isaacson, provides an in-depth look at the life of Elon Musk, from his tumultuous childhood in South Africa to his rise as a visionary entrepreneur behind companies like SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity. The book is based on two years of shadowing Musk, attending his meetings, and conducting extensive interviews with him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. It explores the triumphs and turmoil of Musk's life, addressing the question of whether the demons that drive him are also what drive his innovation and progress.
What I learned from reading The Elon Musk Blog Series: Wait But Why by Tim Urban
Read The Cook & The Chef: Elon Musk's Secret Sauce on WaitButWhy.
Quotes from this episode:
Which leaves only two options: create or copy
Conventional wisdom: If something is both a good idea and possible, it's already been done.
I'm fascinated by those rare people in history who managed to dramatically change the world during their short time here, and I've always liked to study those people and read their biographies. Those people know something the rest of us don't and we can learn something valuable from them.
Musk calls this reasoning from first principles. One of the most important parts of this podcast.
Conventional wisdom screamed at the top of its lungs for him to stop.
Your entire life runs on the software in your head. Why wouldn't you obsess over optimizing it?
We mistake the chef's originality for brilliant ingenuity.
The reason these outrageously smart people are so humble about what they know is that they are aware that unjustified certainty is the bane of understanding and the death of effective reasoning.
Conventional wisdom worships the status quo and always assumes that everything is the way it is for a good reason. And history is one long record of status quo dogma being proven wrong again and again, every time some chef comes around and changes things.
----
Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here.
----
“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Founders 