How to Think Like Elon?

Elon Musk Thoughts

Just finished the Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson and feeling super inspired. These are some practical things that I’ve learned or gleaned from it.

1. You don’t want to be Elon Musk

The first practical and pragmatic thought that I have is that no you do not want to be Elon Musk. Better to be yourself.

I am grateful for all of the epic sacrifices that Elon has made, but, at the expense of his health and sanity and personal well-being, I don’t really think it’s worth it.

The simple thought I have is that instead of trying to become someone else, a better strategy is to just take the parts that you like, the parts you desire to emulate.

It does not pay to try to become someone else.

Regarding the book the reason why I find it to be such great material to read is get a sense of all the personal anguish and tragedy of Elon. For example, his first kid getting sudden death infant syndrome, and Elon having to pull the plug while his child was still in his arms, heart beating and all. Also his insanely horrific upbringing with his father, which makes in my mind, all other comparisons seem pedestrian.

2. An insanely audacious vision and goal

An idea that I borrowed from Elon is that perhaps, the only limits we should put forth are the limits of physics. That is, all of these other considerations are unnecessary and superficial. To get beyond silly regulations and “rules”, because the reason why so many things are so expensive is people just trying to game the system.

First principles thinking. That means just ask yourself; is this thing possible or not possible simply from a physics perspective?

3. Cost cutting

Why do people want to be Elon Musk? I think they think they want to spend a billion dollars, rather than being insanely scrappy.

I think the tragedy of modern day life is that we think that in order to be legitimate, we must spend exorbitant amount of money on certain things. However, perhaps the path to the greatest entrepreneurship is actually from the opposite; being able to be insanely scrappy, to bricolage, to experiment, and reduce costs seems to be a better path.

I have a simple suggestion: first always strive to reduce costs by 90%, then simply work your way backwards.

4. A passion for deletion

Delete delete delete, “if you don’t have to add back at least 10% of things, you’re not deleting enough.” Elon

I think great design, innovation and entrepreneurship comes from deletion rather than addition.

For example, deletion goes hand-in-hand with cost reduction and simplification.

Perhaps it is a good idea to delete to a fault; to even delete the necessary, in order to push the limits.

5. Design passion

I think what makes Elon Musk great is that he is almost like the ultimate merge between Steve Jobs and Jony Ive; he has a passion not only for business, but also design. It seems that he might be as fastidious, if not more fastidious for design in regards to Jony Ive and Steve Jobs.

I think Elon Musk has two pieces of wisdom. First, design sells. Or in other words ugly design or boring design doesn’t sell.

I was particularly inspired by just how passionate he was in regards to designing the Tesla model S and cyber truck. He truly truly truly wanted to blow everyone’s mind, and he personally would be present at these critical design meetings. I think the ultimate take away is that you must believe in the design so so much, 100% of your soul in it. Otherwise it will just become a lame design that nobody cares for.

To compromise on design is to compromise your soul.

6. To become an insanely great entrepreneur, you must be bad

I don’t think it’s a matter of being bad or unethical or “evil“, for the sake of it… Rather, to think and consider how perhaps to create insanely insanely epic things, what needs to push traditional morality to the side.

Muscular Growth

Something which is not discussed much; the notion of “growing“, your muscles.

To me, this is a critical distinction. Why? Assuming that life is about growth, and also this Silicon Valley obsession with growth, shouldn’t growth also be manifested to muscles?

For example, when I flex in the mirror, if my muscles don’t look more impressive, bigger, or more “swole“, then I remember, I think there’s a problem.

Certainly there are very very bad things about this line of thinking, namely that guys end up taking weird stuff like steroids supplement etc., or “natural” testosterone boosters for the sake of muscular growth. To me, this is the simple approach I make:

Lift heavier, increase your personal records for your one repetition max, and just eat more meat!

MUSK NOTES II

More acres?

Scrappy.

Scavenge, repurpose cheaply.

Save money

Anti flabby

Upend cost structure concepts

“Right” or being “wrong”?

Time will tell.

Accelerate the pace of innovation

Fitness Innovation

How much risk are you willing to tolerate?

“Vindication”

Border on the reckless?

Become more nimble.

Jealousy versus envy?

Tight control.

Tight feedback loop — innovate on a daily basis.

Brain strategy

Be like a hawk! A Guard dog!

Foreign investors?

How to design the factory?

I am addicted to innovation!

“fuck oil”

“Production quality”?

“Assembly line”?

Hardcore

“Ultra hardcore”

Supermodel

“Wacky idea”?

Matter of first principles.

What should a camera be?

Or, what is a camera?

Blue sky wacky.

“Reusable”.

Anti stasis.

Why do you care for, what don’t you care for?

For example, I don’t really care for space.

Mission-driven pioneer.

Physics problem

Pare down the contents of your knapsack

Obsession with reducing weight?

Delete or trim ***

Venture seeker.

The true holy grail?

Different order of magnitude?

Relentless goal to conquer gravity

Redesign,

How to cram more power into it?

Muscle through!

Intuition?

400 pound sandbag?

Perhaps my next fitness experimentation?

Strength and power challenges?

For example, my now infamous 1000 pound atlas lift. Accomplished.

Also, surpassing the nine plate rack pull. Most recently nine plates and a 10.

I think for myself I seek some sort of monster of a challenge. But yet the challenge itself must be interesting and orthodox enough and still tenable.

ELON GOALS

ELON NOTES

The zen of the sun and big airway strips?

The real world has the richest visual information

Concrete paradise

The ocean is vast

America is really really big.

Start notes via Isaacson:

Risk seeking innovator

Shut down fear, also shut down empathy?

Embark on epic quests

Develop a cosmic view?

Hostile bid.

“That wasn’t enough”

War and empire building game

Build your own playground? Gym concept ?

What stimulates you?

Visual Information

Train your kid to become a genius?

Mountain ranges

I fear nothing nor nobody

Don’t put effort into things you consider meaningless?

Future capitalists

Fun or boring?

What is the question?

Prevail!

It is your duty to be strong

Think about your own self and preferences

“I am wired for war!”

I cannot work nor live with other people!

Nobody knows more than I do.

Never have to work for a boss

Radically new technologies?

Greater impact in the world?

Move the needle!

Things which will truly affect humanity?

Sell directly to consumers?

Online customer destination portal

Anti VC

Anti managers

Build and create a new company or something new?

Indomitable will — what makes a great Man

Fund a new enterprise?

Win in a big way

How are you wired, who are you?

Delete!

Email over user name or phone number

Merge

Remake the entire industry?

Social network to disrupt?

AIM big.

Take it all over!

Think more engineering?

Exclusive club membership

Street fighter

I am a visionary who doesn’t play well with others

Amplify risk?

Pursue great dreams

Sand bags are cheap!!! Concrete and sand are both insanely cheap!

Cost of basic materials? The idiot index?

More efficient manufacturing approach?

50x cost?

How to push the technology forward?

Resolve?

One key metric .. cost per pound?

.50 cents per pound?

Price per pound?

Reduce mass!

Physics: more mass on a phone or anything is worse

More thrust!

What is more interesting?

You need risk to be a founder!

Buy it used!!!

Bend reality

The most aggressive

Question every cost ***

Laser focused to keep down costs!

Cost effectiveness is the ultimate goal!

Just make it in house!

Question all specifications

“Who made that requirement”?

Actual person and actual name?

Laws of physics ***

Unrealistic deadlines even when not necessary?

A maniacal sense of urgency

First principles thinking … for power, muscles, strength?

Move fast, blow things up, repeat.

Push things until they break?

Iterative design

Cheap leases!

Rapid unscheduled disassembles

Improvise.

Makeshift solutions

Every situation is salvageable

Try new ideas, okay if things blow up!

Keep working on reducing the cost!

Mercurial.

Fulfill the mission!

1,500 pounds?

Promote Innovation ***

Defense Department

Cut costs ***

Maybe the first strategy is to just first start off by cutting costs or just buying the cheapest possible thing then moving forward from there?

We need cost effective solutions!!

Buy Chinese or Vietnamese or Amazon, not American?

Common sense is bad.

Commercialize it !

Importance of the mission.

For a “fitter” planet earth and humans?

Make your own key components.

Control your own destiny

Vertical integration

Don’t rely on far away supply chains?

Source and roast the coffee myself?

Or just buy the coffee?

It ain’t in my nature to defer!

I am insanely passionate about design decisions

You gotta wow them!

Agonize over the details!

Correct yet costly decisions?

You buy a sports car because it looks beautiful!

“ we have to make it beautiful!”

Lower costs and make it more affordable!

Outlaunch

Outlift

Scrappy

I seek a great solution!

Costs must go down!

11 items on risk list, not just 10

Shop floor

How to make the product efficiently?

How to use money efficiently?

Build the machine that makes the machine?

How to design the factory, the gym?

Valor

Ars.com

Less dominant hand

24 hours of production A day?

Make your production more efficient?

Don’t outsource it !

Start with clean sheet design! Don’t modify the old.

“ true costs”

Buy directly from the source!

Grill them!

I hate liars!

When people say that they’re not lying, they’re lying.

Not a good person.

I am not good at sharing power.

I have zero interest in being a CEO and having to manage others?

Hell bent on it working!

A beautiful story

Farmer

What is the most effective exercise?

Farmer’s walk, Farmer’s carry!

You can either do this with dumbbells, heavy dumbbells, preferably 100 pound, 120 pound, or even 150 pound.

If you just got plates, just get some sort of ghetto strap to carry it.

Impossible to Satisfy— This Drives Us!

Why Doesn’t Anything Satisfy Me?

But perhaps this is my superpower?

Fortunately, the statics of Lumix G9 photos shot in grainy dynamic black-and-white mode and JPEG satisfy me!

Also, meat satisfies me! Beef neck bone is phenomenal and only 99 cents a pound! Instant pot for the win.

Problem: I have yet found a gym in LA which satisfies me.

Good thing: I am very very satisfied with the apartment me and Cindy found here in Culver City.

Also good thing, I am very satisfied with ERIC KIM Omakase coffee!

Also, I’m very happy with the clothing I have designed and made.

Theory: the only way to become satisfied with anything is to do and build and make it yourself? To innovate it yourself? To create it yourself?

Entrepreneurship by KIM

Become the change which you desire to see manifested in the world!

Become you.

Think for Yourself.

FREEDOM

Never stop innovating.

Entrepreneurship Mindset

Put a Dent in the Universe.

Health, fitness and food

How to Change the World

In this limited world, which are some big things you wish to change fix or resolve?

1. Traffic?

One of the big things I am very interested in is fixing this issue of traffic. Honestly speaking, during rush-hour the traffic is intolerable.

I’ve only lived here in LA for about two weeks, it seems that the big optimization we are trying to make is trying to save time. Fortunately we live within walking distance to the Culver City downtown area, which is great because we could kill two birds with one stone — A) we’re not stuck in traffic and B) we can enjoy the sun and the walk.

Even the big issue; the closest LA fitness to me is a 5 minute drive, but even on the drive back, it seems that the bumper to bumper traffic during rush-hour takes me almost 10 minutes! Insanely annoying!

Therefore some things I’m trying to figure out is how to save time in terms of fitness. The first simple thing is to just walk a lot, walking maybe the most beneficial thing you could do for your health and wellness.

The second thing is sun exposure. The more sun time you have, the better. If you’re worried about getting skin cancer or whatever, just put on a hat lots of sunblock and cover up.

Third, I really been enjoying going to the park and working out, both for the social life, the fresh air, and also for general well-being. I recommend the Kenneth Hahn park in LA — just drive all the way on top of the hill! There is a good calisthenics workout area.

Fourth, matters of health and physiology. A very practical thought I have is to just sell out the big bucks, pay for the 100% grass-fed beef, I think the benefits for you will be instrumental. This includes sleeping better, sleeping deeper, feeling more energized, and also certainly muscle Physiology related concepts.

2. Innovation?

Also a big thing I’m trying to innovate and pioneer is in regards to innovation. For me maybe this is my personal passion and my Archimedes lever — I am addicted to innovation, trying to make things better, more efficient and effective etc., and trying to come up with interesting novel ways to improve our lives. Why is this? Because I feel like I have some sort of duty as I have been seeking a lot of answers my whole life, and I think only recently I’ve found some answers.

3. Photo and art

At the end of the day, my number one greatest passion is photography.

Therefore, my passion for photography; promoting photography, helping encourage photographers.

4. How to make an insanely great impact?

How does one make an insanely great impact on the planet? I think it is simple; just ascertain that which you are insanely concerned about, what you care insanely about, and then use all your resources and power to seek to resolve that!

Money?

The Peter Thiel idea:

Perhaps “profit” is a pedestrian concept.

Then instead, what we seek instead is not “making money“, but building something insanely great, and then the profits will follow later.

Also another thought from Peter Thiel from his zero to one book:

Perhaps the best way to think of money or approach money is not to concern yourself with profits.

For example, Amazon for a very very very long time focused on growth instead of profits and now it looks like Amazon is running through the world. On the contrary, companies like Apple have also been very intelligent in pricing the products very high, and also being one of the most profitable companies on the planet.

But I suppose my question is this; why are we so concerned and obsessed with profits? What is it a sense of? A sense of growth, a good sense?

Income vs profits

Income, profits, expenses, net gain, savings.

There are a lot of ways to think and consider this. First and foremost, it is possible to actually make a more humble income, but create a massive savings.

Security?

I sense of security as a mindset. It don’t matter if you got $100 million in the bank, as long as you are concerned about security money or something else, you will never feel secure.

The reason why I think this is such a critical thing to consider is that people often think that more money means more security. But is this true? No.

And also, security towards what ends?

The first thought is we often seek security perhaps for our families and our future children. For example, it seems that physiologically, if a woman wants to give birth, or beget children, she needs to be in some sort of psychologically and physiologically robust health, in order to beget children. Often the reason why stillbirths occur, especially in the context of war, famine, disease, or other stressful situations is that a woman and her body knows that if the environment is not fitting to give birth to children, she will not.

Also, at theory; if an anxious mother gives birth during a tumultuous time, naturally her kids will also have higher levels of anxiety. Why? Survival mechanism. For example if a woman gives birth in refugee camp, certainly she has high anxiety. And as a consequence, her children also having high anxiety may keep the child alive! A child who is too chill and relaxed in a perilous situation might not make it.

Why make changes?

First, it is my thought that what man desires to do is exert his willpower and force upon the planet. Ultimately, I think this is our desired endgame.

For example, you could either do it in embodied reality, on the Internet, whatever.

Second, I think it is an issue of happiness and joy for a man or a person or even a child to see how he or she can affect change or manipulate the world. For example the joy of art, physics, mechanics, buttons etc.; if I press this and do this, then the reaction will be XYZ. Our great delight in action and reaction.

Now what?

A very very simple way to change the world:

Make a website/blog, and just keep posting your thoughts, opinions and philosophies.

Also, just record and vlog your thoughts and just post it to YouTube or make a podcast.

I think the big secret is to make it open and public, and easily indexable by Google.

For example, it seems the best way to get “discovered“ is organically via Google search. If not that, word-of-mouth. Or having people forward your emails to another friend.

To build a website, either IONOS.com or bluehost.com or Amazon Web Services Lightsail. I recently built two new websites; ERICkimphilosophy.com as well as erickimfitness.com

Why am I so passionate about websites?

I think it is a timing thing. I was born in 1988, and I recall in elementary school making my own firstgeocities.com website. Then later I learned how to blog, inspired by Maddox, when I was around 11 years old. I still remember the hilarity of his post on “why you should beat your children“, and me and my friends all laughing and saying how it was true.

Then later, xanga.com, and starting to blog. Then building my own website. And then the trend to continued.

The reason why I love websites so much is that it is an infinite canvas for your thoughts, your ambitions, your passions etc.

No limits, no upper ceiling!

Also an insanely great joy and recent discovery; IONOS.com recently upgraded her file limit to practically infinity!

To infinity and beyond!

Some more ambitious thoughts:

Elon Goals

The breath and future vision of Elon Musk is quite phenomenal. For example, driving in LA today, I saw the OG Tesla roadster, convertible electric car, which was essentially a retrofitted Lotus. Even when I was an undergrad at UCLA, I remember seeing one of the original Tesla dealerships.

Dream bigger?

A very simple thought I have is that it is best to set an audaciously great goal, and either miss it, or meet it halfway, rather than setting the bar too low.

What do you want out of your life?

Not happiness, not even necessarily “joy“. I think all of these are too overly simplistic commoditized notions.

For example, as man, what is it that we see to do achieve or create? I think this should be the critical goal, not happiness joy making money etc.

Everything is a work in progress

A generalized thought I have towards life is that there is no such thing as finality — everything is a continuum, and all about changes evolution and difference.

For example, today after I hit the hot sauna at the gym, and I witnessed my body in the mirror, muscles bulging, and glistening like a god, I thought to myself:

Wow, my physique is perfect.

Now what?

The future for photography

I think moving forward, I want to continue to help innovate and pave great insights into photography. It has to deal with motivation, inspiration, and also the pragmatics of composition, equipment, aesthetics etc.

The best camera set up

No no no, not the newest iPhone Pro Titan, or not a Leica, not a Fujifilm, maybe not even a Ricoh. Currently I think the new GOAT is the LUMIX G9 paired with the 14mm F2.5 lens, or I’m sure you could just get the new LUMIX G9 mark II.

Why?

First of all, it isn’t as big as you would think it is. I think one of the big benefits of a micro four third system is however relatively compact and light it is.
Second, it will last. My annoyance with the Ricoh GR cameras is that they don’t last. They eventually break, for me within a year or two. Super annoying.
Third, the tilting calculating LCD screen is actually surprisingly useful! I’ve been using a lot to photograph Seneca, with very low angles, and the result is that the photos look much more cinematic!
Fourth, the straight out of Camera JPEG actually look really great! Both for the dynamic black-and-white, gritty monochrome look, as well as color!

Now what?

Upload your best photos to arsbeta.com; the only place to get real feedback on your photos on the entire planet.
Why? — I think actually more effective than ChatGPT is the Why app? Why? ChatGPT gives you answers, whereas the why app encourages you to think, consider, and ask why?

How to advance your photography art and thinking

Turbocharge your mind, and also your creativity at an upcoming ERIC KIM workshop:

CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY: PHILLY, OCTOBER 14th, 2023
DISCOVER YOUR CREATIVE MISSION IN LIFE: DOWNTOWN LA, November 4th, 2023
INTRODUCTION TO STOICISM WORKSHOP: Downtown LA, DECEMBER 2nd, 2023

2024

CONQUER CONFIDENCE ONLINE WORKSHOP: Jan 27, 2024
April 21st, 2024: ZEN PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP (info TBA)
Social Skills workshop TBA

Workshops Page.

What to read?

Maybe it’s a good idea to read the new Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson!

And of course, free books by KIM >

Now what?

Some simple ways to stimulate your thinking and your physiology include just hitting up the hot sauna at your local commercial gym, or going to the park, doing some basic calisthenics and chin ups, taking in the sun.

Also, eat well. Get some Wagyu ground beef at the local Costco, or just buy some 100% grass fed ground beef. I think it’s the best bang for the buck food.

For coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE is the only thing I drink now!

More thoughts to come!

Forward the turbo!

If this part even one interesting idea with you, feel free to forward to a friend!

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