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?
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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
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Fund a new enterprise?
Win in a big way
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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!
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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!
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Physics: more mass on a phone or anything is worse
More thrust!
What is more interesting?
You need risk to be a founder!
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Buy it used!!!
Bend reality
The most aggressive
Question every cost ***
Laser focused to keep down costs!
Cost effectiveness is the ultimate goal!
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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
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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