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RT X Freeze: Walter Isaacson explains exactly how Elon Musk uses first principles thinking to build rockets: When young Elon wanted to send people to ...
RT X Freeze
Walter Isaacson explains exactly how Elon Musk uses first principles thinking to build rockets:
When young Elon wanted to send people to space, he first tried buying used rockets from Russia. They jacked him around - it didn’t work
So he went back to first principles.
He asked:
Exactly how much does each material in a rocket cost? How much is the Inconel? How much is the carbon fiber? How much is the fuel?
What’s the total cost of the raw materials compared to the price of a finished rocket?
That’s first principles
He realized: if he could cut manufacturing costs by a factor of 10, he could actually build affordable rockets
Same mindset at Tesla: someone says “we need this patch of felt at the bottom of the car” and Elon replies, “Tell me the principles of physics that make that true”
Isaacson notes: America used to be a nation of risk-takers. Now we have more referees, guardrails, and lawyers saying “that’s probably not a good idea” than people willing to shoot off a rocket
Elon wants to calculate the risk and then actually take it
This is why SpaceX exists. This is how impossible things get done
Walter Isaacson explains exactly how Elon Musk uses first principles thinking to build rockets:
When young Elon wanted to send people to space, he first tried buying used rockets from Russia. They jacked him around - it didn’t work
So he went back to first principles.
He asked:
Exactly how much does each material in a rocket cost? How much is the Inconel? How much is the carbon fiber? How much is the fuel?
What’s the total cost of the raw materials compared to the price of a finished rocket?
That’s first principles
He realized: if he could cut manufacturing costs by a factor of 10, he could actually build affordable rockets
Same mindset at Tesla: someone says “we need this patch of felt at the bottom of the car” and Elon replies, “Tell me the principles of physics that make that true”
Isaacson notes: America used to be a nation of risk-takers. Now we have more referees, guardrails, and lawyers saying “that’s probably not a good idea” than people willing to shoot off a rocket
Elon wants to calculate the risk and then actually take it
This is why SpaceX exists. This is how impossible things get done