Despite being a poster-child of controversies, Elon Musk has built four multi-billion dollar companies in four distinct fields: software, energy, transportation, and aerospace. At the age of 12, he coded a video game called Blastar which was later sold for $500. However, like you often read in the bios of extraordinary people, he could never fit in well at school. Known to be a product of self-learning, Musk claims to be raised more by books than parents. A close relative once revealed that he used to finish 2 books in a day—a lot of science fiction and eventually, a lot of non-fiction too. Until this day, the thought of every new company in his mind is followed by an intense period of reading where he is known to speak to many experts majorly to receive book recommendations.
Conventional wisdom suggests that we should target to gain expertise in only one field at a time whereas Musk breaks that rule by depicting competence that ranges from artificial intelligence to solar energy. Experts believe that learning across multiple fields provides an information and innovation advantage because most people focus on just one field. For example, consider that you’re in the tech industry and everyone is reading tech publications but you also know a lot about biology. This might give you the ability to come up with ideas that almost no one else in your vicinity could and vice-versa is true as well. If you’re in biology, but you also understand artificial intelligence, you have an information advantage over everyone else who stays siloed. This is exactly where Musk shines. Several of his interviews show that he has a unique two-step process of learning:
- Deconstruct knowledge into its fundamental principles: This refers to the idea that when you are learning a new subject, don’t just focus on one approach but look at several ways to understand the topic and then compare each one. This process will invariably highlight underlying fundamental principles for you. Although sounding simple but it often is the most difficult part and the key remains to be asking the right questions. By challenging the common assumptions, keep digging deeper and deeper until you are left with only the basics.
- Reconstructing the fundamental principles in new fields: Fundamental truths are like building blocks. Once they are gathered, you can use them to create an entirely new and innovative solutions. One of the world’s leading thinkers Keith Holyoak recommends that people should ask themselves the following two questions: What does this remind me of? and Why does it remind me of it? By constantly looking at objects in your environment and asking yourself these two questions, you build the muscles in your brain that help to make connections across traditional boundaries.
This process is also called First-principles thinking which basically means breaking down complicated problems into basic elements and then reassembling them from ground up. Using the mentioned approach, Elon Musk has been able to apply the principles of artificial intelligence, technology, physics, and engineering in:
- aerospace in order to create SpaceX
- automotive in order to conceptualize Tesla
- trains in order to envision the Hyperloop
- infrastructure in order to build The Boring Company
This approach isn’t just for building rockets or electric vehicles. Too often, we make major life decisions based on outdated or false information but in a rapidly changing world, historical truths and experience may not always work. Therefore, it is sometimes necessary to take a step back and use the first principles approach to create a more customized and creative solution.