What I learned from reading Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance.

---

Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode.

---

I don't want to be the person who ever has to compete with Elon (0:47)

Musk expects you to keep up (2:45)

Short of building an actual money-crushing machine, Musk could not have picked a faster way to destroy his fortune. He became a one-man, ultra-risk-taking venture capital shop (4:41)

Revisit old ideas (5:22)

It was not unusual for him to read ten hours a day (7:49)

His approach to dating mirrors his approach to work (9:32)

Humans are deeply mimetic (10:59)

Thinking from first principles (14:37)

What it is like to work with Elon Musk (17:40)

He would place this urgency that he expected the revenue in ten years to be ten million dollars a day and that every day we were slower to achieve our goals was a day of missing out on that money (19:28)

What he went through in 2008 would have broken anyone else. He didn't just survive. He kept working and stayed focused (23:29)

A tenet of Elon's companies: make as many things yourself as possible (25:39)

The power of the individual in an age of infinite leverage (27:31)

The Internet taught me nearly everything I know. It is the modern day equivalent to the library of Alexandria, except it's much harder to burn to the ground. It is indispensable for realizing human rights, combating inequality, accelerating development, and quickening the pace of human progress (29:37)

Focusing on the endpoint (30:19)

Grand Theft Life (32:00)

“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast