Elon Musk: Quotes about thinking

“I think it is a mistake to hire huge numbers of people to get a complicated job done. Numbers will never compensate for talent in getting the right answer (two people who don't know something are no better than one), will tend to slow down progress, and will make the task incredibly expensive.”

Elon Musk

Conversation: Elon Musk on Wired Science (2007)

People , Thinking

“Although I am new in the business, my team is not. I would say that, person for person, there has never been a better rocket company in existence, in history. I don’t think there has ever been a group this talented in one place, in one company, developing a rocket – ever.
If you have millions of dollars it changes your lifestyle, and anyone who says differently is talking ########. I don’t need to work, from a standard of living point of view, but I do, you know. I work every day and on weekends and I haven’t taken a vacation for years.”

Elon Musk

Conversation: Elon Musk on Wired Science (2007)

History , Business , Thinking , Change

“I think we have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness to make sure it continues into the future.”

Elon Musk

[50-innovation-quotes-from-spacex-founder-elon-musk, https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/50-innovation-amp;-success-quotes-from-spacex-founder-elon-musk.html?mc_cid=9410b2edd6&mc_eid=6e846ba3e0]

Thinking , Light , Future

“I think that is a mistake and results in cloudy judgment on important technical issues. They can't tell if something is really good or not, so they just do what everyone else does, assuming it to be the safe bet.”

Elon Musk

Conversation: Elon Musk on Wired Science (2007)

Thinking

“I think the rocket business is quite cyclic. There are a great many peaks and troughs.”

Elon Musk

Conversation: Elon Musk on Wired Science (2007)

Business , Thinking

“If we can build something that is capable of taking people and equipment to Mars, such that it can service a transportation infrastructure for humanity becoming a multi- planet species - which I think is a very, very important objective - then I would consider the mission of SpaceX successful, at that point.”

Elon Musk

Conversation: Elon Musk on Wired Science (2007)

People , Thinking , Success

“I think we’ve got the risks pretty well characterized. I think we are at least avoiding the mistakes that have been made in the past.”

Elon Musk

Conversation: Elon Musk on Wired Science (2007)

Thinking , Past

“I think South Africa is a great country.”

Elon Musk

Source: Conversation: Elon Musk on Wired Science (2007)

Thinking , Country

“I think the reason it’s cheaper is, first of all, we are a private entity and we have a very lean system in here. What we have been able to do here at SpaceX is to cherry-pick, you know, the top one or two percent and give them, you know, capital to execute well and a clear mission, which is low cost, reliable access to space, and no other constraints.”

Elon Musk

Conversation: Elon Musk on Wired Science (2007)

Thinking

“I think there is a strong humanitarian argument for making life multi-planetary in order to safeguard the existence of humanity in the event that something catastrophic were to happen.”

Elon Musk

DK Smithsonian, Journey: An Illustrated History of Travel, ISBN 978-1-4654-6414-9 (Page 343).

Life , Thinking , Strong

“"People tend to think like, 'Why should electric vehicles have a subsidy,' but they're not taking into account that all fossil fuel-burning vehicles fundamentally are subsidised by the cost—the environmental cost—to Earth, but nobody's paying for it… We are going to pay for it, obviously—in the future we'll pay for it. It's just not paid for now."—Elon Musk”

Elon Musk

interview with Joe Rogan, published 2018-09-06

People , Thinking , Future

“When thinking about starting a business, I think it’s actually better to start in a trough and come to market in a peak, than the other way around. Frankly, if anything does, and it’s almost cliché, space has a long-term future.”

Elon Musk

Conversation: Elon Musk on Wired Science (2007)

Way , Business , Thinking , Future

“People are mistaken when they think that technology just automatically improves. It does not automatically improve. It only improves if a lot of people work very hard to make it better, and actually it will, I think, by itself degrade, actually. 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.”

Elon Musk

Career advice from Elon Musk's latest TED interview, in one sentence http://www.businessinsider.com/brilliant-career-advice-from-elon-musk-2017-5 at 2017 TED conference (May 9, 2017)

People , Thinking

“So, I think the best analogy for rocket engineers, if you want to create complicated software, you can't run as an integrated whole, or run on the computer it's intended to run on, but, first time you run it, it has to run with no bugs. That's the essence of it. So ... we missed the mark there.”

Elon Musk

Caltech Commencement Address http://commencement.caltech.edu/archive/speakers/2012_address - 2012
Quotes https://www.wewishes.com/elon-musk-quotes/, Conversation: Elon Musk on Wired Science (2007), Foreword to Marc Kaufman's Mars Up Close: Inside the Curiosity Mission https://books.google.com/books/about/Mars_Up_Close.html?id=o6XaCwAAQBAJ&hl=en. National Geographic. ISBN 978-1-4262-1278-9.

Thinking , Time

“I think there are probably too many smart people pursuing Internet stuff, finance, and law, that is part of the reason why we haven’t seen as much innovation.”

Elon Musk

Source: Book Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

Parting , Thinking , People , Law

“If AI has a goal and humanity just happens to be in the way, it will destroy humanity as a matter of course without even thinking about it. No hard feelings.”

Elon Musk

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/06/elon-musk-warns-ai-could-create-immortal-dictator-in-documentary.html
Context: If AI has a goal and humanity just happens to be in the way, it will destroy humanity as a matter of course without even thinking about it. No hard feelings. It’s just like, if we’re building a road and an anthill just happens to be in the way, we don’t hate ants, we’re just building a road, and so, goodbye anthill.

Thinking , Way , Feeling