The Profile Dossier: Elon Musk, the Architect of the Future

Author: Polina Marinova (The Profile) One-line: A “Profile Dossier” deep-dive on Elon Musk from Polina Marinova’s The Profile, read by Kyle on 2020-07-02.

Notes

• Read on 2020-07-02. No highlights or notes were captured in the source daily-note beyond logging the read.

How it connects

• Polina Marinova / The Profile — the newsletter and its long-form “Dossier” format.
• Elon Musk — the subject of the dossier.

Saved from Roam

• Tags: Polina Marinova The Profile Elon Musk
• Source: https://theprofile.substack.com/p/the-profile-dossier-elon-musk-the
• SpaceX. Tesla. Neuralink. SolarCity. Starlink. The Boring Company. Hyperloop. OpenAI. Future of Life Institute.
• Elon Musk is taking on … virtually everything. The self-made billionaire is singularly focused on “saving humanity” by creating a clean energy future, colonizing Mars, and attempting to expand the breadth of human consciousness.
• “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” Elon Musk
• His work paid off in spades recently when SpaceX made history as the first private company to launch humans into space. It demonstrated to the world that rocket reusability as a long-term approach can make space exploration cheaper and more sustainable. In other words, Musk did it even though the odds were not in his favor.
• Ever wonder what keeps Musk up at night? The possibility that when machines become smarter than humans, robots will take over the world and make us all their slaves. Here’s a terrifying scenario of the future: Imagine tiny synthetic bacteria with tiny computers hiding inside your bloodsteam & everyone else’s. And then, simultaneously, they release one microgram of botulinum toxin and everyone just drops dead at the same time. Game over for humanity.
• The writer explains that needing someone so badly that you feel like nothing without them is considered codependence. Musk disagrees and says, **“It’s not true. I will never be happy without having someone. Going to sleep alone kills me.” **#Love
• “It feels like consciousness exists in a different dimension, but that could be an illusion,” Musk says. “If you damage your brain in some way physically, then you damage your consciousness, which implies that consciousness is physical.”
• “Too many smart people go into finance and law. That’s both a compliment and a criticism.” Elon Musk
• Thinking of our brains as computers can actually serve us well. It allows us to consider the distinction between our mental “hardware” (our raw intelligence and natural talents) and our “software” (our belief systems & thought patterns). The hardware is like a ball of clay handed to us at birth, but it’s the software that determines what kind of tool the clay gets shaped into. In other words, your brain software is the most important product you possess, so make sure you design it well, test it every day, and optimize the software by ingesting quality information. Mental Models
• Musk believes we need to think like a scientist, cut through all the conventional thinking, and start with only the information you know to be scientific fact. Here’s what he says about how he learns: **“It is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree — make sure you understand the fundamental principles, like the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to.” **First Principles Investing 101 2.0
• Because so many of us crave connection, we’re willing to flush our independent reasoning skills down the drain and blindly adopt a certain group’s dogmatic beliefs instead (ie: install someone else’s software). This is how a lot of conventional thinking is born, so to find out just how open-minded your friends are, try challenging their beliefs and assumptions about politics or religion. Think for yourself. #Compromise
• The chef reasons from first principles, whereas the cook works off of some version of a recipe that’s already out there. While creating something new may be messy and terrible and awful at first, remember that in this life, we only have two options: create or imitate. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new ingredients. Create or Imitate
• #Quotes
  • “I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.”
  • “It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.”
  • “If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it’s not.”
    • ((cjz41kVuP)) Michael J. Sullivan
  • “There’s a tremendous bias against taking risks. Everyone is trying to optimize their ass-covering.” Risk Management
  • “Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”
• “Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.”