Joe Rogan: Now you're in the middle of this uh, this strange time where you're selling your houses, you say you don't want any material possessions. I've been seeing all that and I've been really excited to talk to you about this. Because it's an interesting thing coming from a guy like yourself. Like why are you doing that? Elon Musk: I'm slightly sad about it actually. Joe Rogan: If you're sad about it why you doing it? Elon Musk: I think possessions kind of weigh you down. Then they're kind of an attack vector. You know. People say hey billionaire you've got all this stuff. Like well, now I don't have this stuff, what you gonna do? Joe Rogan: Attack vector meaning like people target it? Elon Musk: Yeah
I think we need to be very cautious about anything that is anti-meritocratic and anything that results in the suppression of free speech.
Its bizarre that we've come to this point where, like free speech used to be a left or liberal value. And yet we see from, in the quotes left, a desire to actually censure.
I really can't emphasize this enough. We must protect free speech, and free speech only matters, its only relevant when its someone you don't like saying something you don't like, because obviously free speech that you like, its easy.
Elon: We're not in any danger of resource collapse. Maher: But lot's of people don't have enough food or water. Water, we will run out of water. They're running out of sand. Elon: Earth is 70% water by surface area. Maher: But you cant drink that. Elon: Desalination is absurdly cheap. Maher: Why don't we do it then? Elon: We do it. Maher: You have a lot of free time. Elon: There's a lot of desalination done. There's plenty of water. It's not an issue. I want to be clear.
Anyone who says that questioning them is questioning science itself cannot be regarded as a scientist.
I think possessions kind of weigh you down. Then they're kind of an attack vector. You know. People say hey billionaire you've got all this stuff. Like well, now I don't have this stuff, what you gonna do?
What many people do not appreciate is that technology does not automatically improve; it only improves if a lot of really strong engineering talent is applied to the problem.
One [path] is that we stay on Earth forever and then there will be an inevitable extinction event. The alternative is to become a space faring civilization, and a multi-planetary species.
We are going to try to send something to Mars on every Mars rendezvous from this point on.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk thinks you should work on your “soft skills,” especially if you want to keep your job in the face of increasingly sophisticated automation. “A.I. will make jobs kind of pointless,” Musk told the audience at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai...
“Any product that needs a manual to work is broken.”
I have been disappointed to discover how many contractor companies are interwoven throughout Tesla. Often, it is like a Russian nesting doll of contractor, subcontractor, sub-subcontractor, etc. before you finally find someone doing actual work. This means a lot of middle-managers adding cost but not doing anything obviously useful. Also, many contracts are essentially open time & materials, not fixed price and duration, which creates an incentive to turn molehills into mountains, as they never want to end the money train.
Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job done, not through the “chain of command”. Any manager who attempts to enforce chain of command communication will soon find themselves working elsewhere.
Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren’t adding value. It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.
Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time. Please get of all large meetings, unless you’re certain they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them very short.