Let's Find Out - Elon Musk Biography (Part 1) | ASMR

Episode Date: July 7, 2019

Elon Musk is a shining example of a self-actualized human being in the 21st century. He's intelligent, disciplined, visionary, and most importantly, passionate about technology's relationship to the human race.

Welcome back guys. I gotta drink my coffee for this video today. It's going into Elon's childhood, 20,000 other companies and jobs he had before you and at least me. The SpaceX, PayPal, took me a while before I realized into PayPal. It has just shipped a Tesla using his company from SpaceX. or his company, SpaceX, one of the rockets from his company, to send into a Mars diameter orbit. I guess it's relatively the same distance from the sun as Mars. I guess it's not actually going to just inspired, as I'm sure, to think forward and to think about our future and not as we're a future. I'm the same author, I guess it's a blog post.

Let me give credit where credits do. It's by basically try to extrapolate concepts that we can learn from Elon's life and career with a troubled father and his desire to, well, we'll get into it, but he had an interesting childhood. I'm sure it was boring to him, but relative to sure it wasn't that boring. She starts, in a hundred years when most people reading this and the person writing this are long gone. Musk's cars and rockets will still be circling the earth in the skies. How can such a person get started against all odds is the question I ask here. And more importantly, what can we learn from? This is exclusively do that, you guys.

So I'm going to try to paraphrase and glean all these. the most important aspects of the article here on Elon to see what I can use and hopefully if I think I can use it you guys can too so I'm aiming for a mutually beneficial exchange here giving you something useful to fall asleep too as is a portion of my the idea behind this channel some of the things she says here is She has some really insightful. Basically, he is to stand out about his character, or his, the way he deals with uncertainty, the books he reads,

the ways he makes promises, and patches up his own mistakes. She feels that these are all borrowable, borrowable traits for all of us to live by. Faster Headway, obsessive Nietzsche books, back there, but maybe I'll see if I can find some parallels. So to get into it, I always take a while. First thing is Elon Musk, if anybody has watched any of his in-depth,

you know, go beyond 20 minutes or so to give him a chance to really talk about his own ideas and perspectives. He always says the concept, thinking from first print. as opposed to thinking by analogy. Skeptical about how studying another person's life can help because his circumstances aren't going to be like yours. Scientists think from first principle these, and they reference photographic with dates on it

and some of his more remarkable events that took place in his life. So it didn't really make sense for me to avoid that. And, you know, when he's reasoning and trying to think through a problem, essentially, whether it's building a rocket, batteries, whether it's more of a less, less of a materialistic, existential problem, I guess, of using how do you choose which projects to pursue? He thinks from first principles instead of an analogy, like, oh, I don't know, using some ancient myth or something like, uh, uh, using some ancient myth or something like, uh, like some Chinese proverb about how cranes or tigers or frogs or praying manuses or something might act in like parables or something. And while using analogies can work and you can often get maybe some insights from that. Elon Musk when he has the time and really wants to expand all his effort towards solving one problem

he tends and he said it and in his interviews he tends to try to boil and he's actually similar to Jordan Peterson in this respect Jordan Peterson's always talking about axiomatic

presuppositions and he's always talking about distilling things to their essence and the fundamental idea behind something is probably in the same vein when he started SpaceX, his fundamental idea was that he wants to help the future, such as Mars,

as the geologic record shows, an asteroid's going to hit. That's the end of that. So I think that's an example of him thinking from first principles. He wants to, his fundamental motivation, now that he has, millions, hundreds of millions of dollars, billions now. At least his motivation when he was starting and trying to solve the problem of what to do with his life. That led to him starting SpaceX was that theory, you know, that needs a, to create a definite vision that humanity could follow. And I thought it was a, that there was a very useful term. So, 71 and with any luck you guys won't be watching this here so we see real quickly

he had tough childhood you got a little older the uh or so especially to me um nature is very impactful and influences the way we our personality develops in the subsequent decisions we make based on that but I think your childhood, the nurture aspect of all that, that equation. I think that side of that equation is very first stated. So he had a tough childhood. Next, he was a self-taught programmer at a very, very young age. So then he aced college. After that, he founded the company Zip2.

Then he founded PayPal. Then he started building rockets from scratch. started juggling being decision-maker at SpaceX and Tesla to H-3. He drifts off as if deaf, and he wasn't obviously. So parents got his adenoids removed just behind the node attic system, clears away infection and keeps body fluids imbalance by trapping germs coming in through the mouth and nose. Or age 8, to say the least, they say that effect. It's impacted his imagination because I know me reading as a young kid, which I got away from for a while.

I feel like I have a pretty active imagination. So it's, and I can absolutely trace that too. Binge reading the entire, you know, chronicles of Narnia when I'm feeling that they actually impacted the way I view the world, you know, permanently. So there before we lose it. Okay. Decisions and solid red circumstances. I guess that are really just blue circles and solid yellow circles

are going to be the results. His decisions made within his given circumstances that he had known of a library. So he reads the entire Cyclopedia, Encyclopedia Britannica. Who does that? He chooses to live with his father. Now this is circumstance, but of course it's also a choice,

a decision he's made. made a very sore spot in Elon's memory. He never really talks about him. Just to live with him. And I think that speaks to the fact that your father in your life is, at least in my life, it's a very important driving factor. It's pretty much your main influence. I can't speak for women, girls. But as a man, you know, I obviously very much identify with my father's personality. And if he was a piece of shit, I might have,

you know, I hope I would have had the, myself from him. But, uh, I think it's an integral part of developing your personality. Is having a powerful, or just a reliable father figure.

So, next, he's getting bullied at school. Um, between the ages of, of 9 and 12. And in the book, yeah, actually there is an anecdote

where he gets thrown down a flight of stairs. So, Elon's no stranger to physical violence. And I have no doubt that that made him tougher on the outside as a person and the inside too. You know,

it's a sad fact of life, but, you know, when you go through that stuff, you get tougher, you get more resent, if you can't really do anything about it, but, you know, if you, I guess if you develop other, cultivate other talents, at the same time, it might be kind of a catalyst to really get absorbed in other, you know, other activities in life. And apparently with him, that was the case,

where he, uh, next learns basic, the computer programming language. A six-month course in three days, he stayed up for three days straight learning this. Short period after that, by the time he was 12 years old, he writes an entire video game. He called Blaster and actually sells it for $500. So to me, at 12 years old, making $500 back in the early 80s, you know, that'd be like making a couple grand, I guess. Maybe not that, maybe like a grand.

today. So that's that's damn impressive and without a doubt you know that probably sharpened his business acumen and his mentality realizing that he has a skill set that he personally developed to be able to sell, you know, to be able to offer to someone and make money off it. So so by 40 says he has an existential crisis and reads Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy looking for an answer. Shortly thereafter decides on his life mission to save humanity. I think that's a gross over-simplification of his thought process, but maybe that is the essence. If you took all the science fiction books that he

said that he read, distill it down. Obviously, the most memorable science fiction book pretty much to anyone based on really its unique narrative structure alone but its actual uh very you know it's it's uh gripping writing is the hitchhiker's galic guide to the galaxy which i actually didn't read actually i've never read i listened to it i would like to read it at some point yeah without a doubt that makes you realize it makes you think on a cosmic level. It's a deeply, you know, satirical and just a silly book. It does a lot of serious topics about, you know,

that's amazing that by 14, 15 years old, he was already thinking about a big question, like what save humanity? And it's a very quixotic. It's like, it's like, it gives us, gives me meaning to, to, that resonates with me that I can say would give my life meaning. So just the fact that I, I know the solution, which would be being able to help my immediate community and just being a force to impact a few lives around me and ideally more and more,

um, you would radiate from there if I were to be monetarily successful. but he actually wants to do it and he actually is doing it you know even if everything else if he if he died today everything he's done will have made more of an impact on a positive outlook in the future to everybody who's seen what he's done then I'm sure most people will ever ever achieve but uh but maybe he's just the first Maybe he's the dawn of a new era of philanthropy that actually does something to alter our vision of a future towards more ambivalent, more altruistic, more benevolent,

I guess a combination of those words. And not just intangible, I guess, is the most concrete, important part of all that. It gets a Canadian citizenship. Yeah, if you're following, I'm loving law, hopefully I got this up. 17, he moves to Canada.

He graduated high school. Marks odd jobs, stays with relatives, gets a job shoveling dirt in a boiler room, $18 an hour. In the U.S., that's damn good money in 1989. Calls executives he reads about in the news and asks them to meet for lunch. A top executive of a bank responds

and offers an internship. It's genius, but gets chewed out for using the executive coffee machine. I think that's a, I think she wrote that, because she's an intelligent author, the lady of this blog here, as a nice metaphor for the corporate mentality that's very rigid and hierarchy oriented that you could be a genius who's probably going to be an immense asset

if you don't work your way up through the traditional methods, you're not going to be able to do. It won't be respected as much. And the idea that as a newcomer, he got chewed out for using an executive or veteran coffee machine, is testament to how reluctant and how close-minded, on that sphere, be conscientious and, you know, driven to follow the rulebook and be on time and mechanisms working in this big industrial complex, you know, that they're so reluctant to new ideas because they know it works and it unnerves them to consider pursuing any other method.

So I think that was a good analogy for that, that. He didn't. His genius was overlooked by a minor, a trivial infraction. What's the word I'm looking for? Just a trivial picture. The big picture doesn't get. The big picture gets overlooked by narrow-minded people. They're conscientious enough to keep things that already work. They just don't know how to change it. So he sells computers out of a dorm room, transfers to U of Penn University of Pennsylvania, in double majors, both physics and economics. So, yeah, this guy's impressive.

He then runs a speakeasy that makes a lot of money. By that, she just meant that means in the book. Held a lot of parties there and charged people to drink there and hang out there. So I was essentially running a speakeasy because it was an ill. illegally underground established club and this is at 25 years old now he gets a economics degree from Wharton which is a big economic always talks about that

later gets a physics degree intern jobs, capacitors research which capacitors are devices that don't need pli of electricity to be able to hold a charge They're kind of like batteries. And his second job was video games. A PhD at Stanford University in California, I guess.

I think that's where that is. And he leaves after two days. I guess at this point he probably was such a good programmer in new economics and physics so well. He didn't want to get locked in the very PhD through the PhD track. And then he, uh, in 95, he starts this company Zip 2 with his brother. He coded, coded it himself.

It's insane. It's really insane. And Zip 2 was a, I think it was essentially a, like a map quest type. Zip 2 was a company that provided and licensed online city guide software to newspapers. So, 95, you know, the internet wasn't. centralized companies, organizations had access to the internet type software was relevant. Essentially, it was like the main features of having businesses able to be found was its selling point that gave it its value. So I thought that was cool. It's fucking impressive. So impressive. He sold it for just a web search engine made 15. Not bad.

To start that company, he got 28,000 from his father. He slept in his office for three months and raised in investment, $3 million in investment money. By his investors, he got Steve Jobs pushed out from CEO to CTO. Well, that's even worse. Or I guess Steve Jobs just got completely kicked out. But I'll have to do a video on him, too. His history is really interesting. Unless he got moved out from the decision-making process.

Now he starts X.com an online baking website with his own money. In the meantime, he bought a McLaren F1 and crashed it going really, really fast. So I think that's indicative of his liberal nature as just in life, not politically, but his desire to be his business mindset, I guess. and his life, his lifestyle, I guess. So it's really interesting. I mean, for him to get where he is today, him being ultra-conservative and introverted,

and even though he kind of was those things in certain aspects, if he's not take risks? No, you're averse to risk, yeah. So if he was really risk-a-verse, I don't think he would ever, I think he would have ended up teaching, you know, being a professor or something like that. Because on risk averse.

I think it might mean like you don't care about risks, so you do take them. But without a doubt it shaped his life. And he wouldn't abandon his today, you know, as we say. You're to uncertainty when you're faced with with it. I want to avoid risk. So it means conservative. Yeah. Alright. Yeah, so this whole era in his life is pretty chaotic.

It's pretty chaotic. He starts X.com, which is essentially a proto PayPal, and he's competing with this other startup called. He has to have the negotiation tactics, the tact, the ability of persuasion and, you know, to negotiate. And he merges with Confinity to his benefit to form PayPal. all the while he's getting married, which is, I know it's really hectic. I'm not married, but no, it's not without stress.

So he's with CTO over which operating system to use. Marries his college girlfriend. And he gets ousted as CEO from PayPal. He invests money into PayPal regardless. And he goes on the vacation in Africa, I think. And he almost literally dies from malaria. So, Jesus. Then he moves to L.A. to be closer to the space industry.

I'll finish this. I just realized I got to go to work. So we're going to have to leave that there. He almost dies from malaria. Okay, so he invests a lot of money into PayPal. This map is kind of... It's... Because it's in chronological order.

And Elon was at his hands in... multiple pots at once. At this point of PayPal, he had already been ridiculously successful. I mean, he had tens of millions of dollars at this point by selling X.com or sorry, zip to and creating X.com. So he already knew it was set as far as his finances. And at this point, he was just trying to accrue more wealth so that he could truly do what he wanted to. and his initial exploration into his pursuit of making rockets and starting a space company began, I guess. So he, he's just an impressive individual. He's intelligent, but he created his own, he built his own life, you know. He didn't, he wasn't handed it. He wasn't, I'm sure he was really. smart to begin with and I'm sure he has a really high IQ but at the same time he faced a

version I'm obsessed with that word now he faced uh it's too early in the day clock so that's not good he faced um adversity it's really close he had a shitty father he got beat up at school he was a nerd but he chose to read all the time taught himself programming um and the balls really just to go out and travel to an entirely different, not country, but continent, go to school. You know, I mean, yeah, he was extremely business-minded, just knew how to make money. So the guy was brilliant, super brilliant. We're about to get into what he's actually known for.

So really, this was all just a build-up. to see where he got to how he got to where he is today. So I hope you guys liked it. I know it was kind of rambly, and hopefully I added it down a little bit, so it's not so... Such a long distance to get to the actual meat of his life. There's just so many aspects of him as a person

that's getting advice, useful practical life advice from so it was hard not to preface the chronological infographic here with an explanation of why um i i respect him as a person SpaceX and Tesla Solar City the boring company I think he's a model for the future of humanity just as just by the way he lived his life let alone all the stuff he actually created. So, hope you guys got something out of it.

I know I definitely did. Doing a little research for this. And his book was pretty insightful to, I'll leave you with that. So I'll see you next time. And as always, sleep very, very well.