Note: English is my 2nd language

Introduction

In the last days I read the book by Ashlee Vance about Elon Musk ( ISBN-13: 978-0062301253 ) and was thinking about how is it possible that one human being is able to do all this work. Especially when we are teached from an early age on, that we can't be good in many different fields. So I asked myself, how is Elon doing it, first and foremost where his companies are acting on different types of fields like:

• automotive
• Ai
• Space
• ...

Some facts you should know about Elon Musk

Elon Musk made his first money with company Zip2, sold it, build X.com/Paypal, sold it and then started the following companies or took them over:

1. SpaceX (2002) - privatising space with reuseable rockets
2. Tesla (2003/2004) - invested in it and is CEO and Lead Architect - building electric cars, trucks 
3. SolarCity (2006) - founded by brother Kimbal Musk and Elon invested in it, Elon bought SolarCity with Tesla in 2016
4. (Hyperloop) (2013) - passenger and freight transportation on long distances
5. OpenAi (2015) - Researching on the field of open AI
6. Neuralink (2016) - searching ways to connect the human brain to machines/the internet,...
7. Boring Company (2016) - digging tunnels faster and cheaper than ever, passenger transport in cities to avoid traffic jam

How is he handling all that stuff to do?

About this topic you can find a lot on the internet, but I will stick out some short and important thins:

1. He works about 80 - 100 hours per week
2. Musk sleeps about 6 hours per day
3. He spends about 80 % of his work with design and engineering
4. Weekly schedule:
   1. Monday and Friday - SpaceX
   2. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - Tesla
   3. Saturday and Sunday -  spends time with his family, but answering E-Mails in the mornings (which he isn't doing in the week) -  or working for SpaceX/ the other companies
   4. half a day at - OpenAi
   5. Some hours for other companies
   6. hits the gym once or twice a week

How is Elon solving problems?

Due to his outrageous knowing of physics Elon is breaking down every problem to the absolute minimum of given knowledge and not to the present reality. 

 

"All great Acts of Genius began with the same consideration: Do not be constrained by your present reality."

Leonardo Da Vinci 

- source and read more: Inc -

Due to the article from inc.com he is breaking the problems down to the absolute standards, like the general laws of physics, in which of course he is an expert.

It's all about first principles thinking. David Strauss made an amazing list for this:

 

1. Identify the problem you want to solve.
   It might be "My product is too expensive" or "Our CEO and CFO have different visions for the future of the company." 
2. Make a list of all of the reasons you think you can't solve this problem.
   Your reasons might include "My parts cost is too high" or "The CFO doesn't want to spend more money on innovation." 
3. Make a list of any and all obvious solutions that you think would  solve the problem, but that don't solve the problem adequately.
   Hint: Here's where "Compromise" often rears its head. A solution for an over-expensive product might typically be moving  manufacturing overseas--but then quality control and shipping costs can  increase. A CEO and CFO might agree to cut one department to give more  resources to a high-performing team, but layoffs might decrease office  morale and severance packages reduce the financial benefit in the short  term. 
4. Ask yourself: "If the problem didn't exist and I could create a  solution that was based on a desire, what would that solution be?"
   If your core desire is to develop an inexpensive product that is  effective, then you might design a new product made with more  sustainable and inexpensive materials, or with a completely unique  engine or operating system. 

- source and more: Inc - 

How is he learning and remembering those things?

At first and most importantly it's obvious, that he is having a very high IQ and even a better memory, this is of course one of the main reasons. Musk is reading many books till a very young age. At about beeing 11 years old he focused on reading physics and much else, allthough his father was a very very good engineer, so the thoughts may come up, that he learned those things to impress his dad. When Elon was about 9 years old, the parents split up and the 3 children stayed with the mother, after a few years Elon decided to starliving with his dad. His dad is often described as not an easy person, so I think there's a chance, like said above, that Elon wanted to impress him.

- source and read more here: Quora -

According to his brother Kimbal Musk, Elon read about two books a day, which would be a staggering 60 books / month. I think this number is a bit high, and surely he can't do this now with his much work, but it gives him a solid foundation about many things. 

Obviously he is having a very good learning transfer to apply and use the knowledge out of the books in his day to day life as an entrepreneure. He is using this also to transfer knowledge from one industry to another, which is playing out now with his many companies in different fields like Space, transportation, AI, Solar-Power....

Musks learning transfers can be reduced to two fields:

1.  First, he deconstructs knowledge into fundamental principles
2.   Next, he reconstructs the fundamental principles in new fields

So the best way of learning is to find a real world problem and learn by solving and transfering knowledge to it, of course you have to be convinced and should have fun and interest in this project, cause in the beginning and other phases there will of course be a lot of issues going on, especially at your first times.

- source and more: Quartz -

What our schools are doing wrong is another topic, but about this I wanna talk in another post.

The anecdote that I like nearly most about Elon Musk is the following:

In an interview he just tells besides, that he build a private school for his 5 kids, cause he didn't like the public school system. 

- I especially liked, that he is just telling it besides, as this is normal for people building up an own school.

  - Wanna see more here you go