Elon Musk: The Unauthorized Autobiography by J.T. Owens X

Author:J.T. Owens X
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Elon Musk, Tesla, SpaceX

Innovation

I keep getting asked this question: how do you do more innovation? I think the number one thing is people should just try. An important thing in innovation or creating new things is to try really hard to just do that, which may sound incredibly obvious, but that's what people most often don't do. Literally, just try like did you try yesterday? Did you try today? I think people self-limit more than they realize.

I think what a lot of people don't appreciate is that technology does not automatically improve. You know, we sort-of take it for granted, like it's as though things automatically improve. They do not automatically improve! They only improve with lots of effort and resources. Egyptian civilization got to the point where it could create things like the great pyramid of Cheops but then lost that ability and never got it back there. Roman civilization went through a deep dark period, and there are many examples in history where civilizations have reached a certain technology level and then have fallen well below that and then recovered only millennia later.

The United States is sort of like that comment about democracy, it’s a bad system but it's the least bad. The United States is the least bad at encouraging innovation. Silicon Valley actually I'd say is particular good at encouraging innovation. Silicon Valley is just orders of magnitude better than any place in the world for creating new companies and fostering innovation, it’s quite remarkable. I don't think we necessarily need to worry about some other country out there out-innovating us. I don't think people realize that almost all innovation in the world comes from America, a ridiculous percentage. But that doesn't mean it couldn't be better. It's not a given that things improve. It only improves if a lot of really strong engineering talent is applied to the problem that it improves. There has to be a forcing function. People have to do it.

It is generally true that innovation comes from questioning the way things have been done before. Cross-pollination of industries is helpful. It takes a lot of mental exertion to innovate and I think it is helpful to learn about different industries and try to cross-pollinate, because very often people get silo-ed in a particular industry. If in the education system you're taught not to do that, that will inhibit entrepreneurship. I would encourage someone to do the 101 of almost everything that they find intrinsically interesting, and to think how they might combine things from one discipline to another. I think this is a great way to come up with new ideas. It's been quite difficult to run SpaceX and Tesla but since I got both on my mind there has been good ideas going back and forth. For example the Model S is the only all aluminum body and chassis car in North America. In the aerospace industry that's the default.

You can definitely start a company at any age and be successful, it's really

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