Ask HN: What should I ask Elon Musk for HTBTF? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What should I ask Elon Musk for HTBTF?

48 pointssama82 comments

I'm recording the next episode of this tomorrow w/Elon (http://www.ycombinator.com/future/) and have time for a few more questions. Any requests?

View on HN

What does he do to keep his energy level to the point that he can do all he's doing. From a distance it seems like he must have superman levels of energy.

Cocaine

He actually responded to the original question on twitter with "Large amounts of crack"

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/754277459009298432

Good question. What's his work out, sleep and diet like ?

He actually has already discussed his sleep, diet, and exercise habits in this interview:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE4iFYqi4QU

The part you're looking for is 2-3 minutes in but its worth watching the whole thing as they ask him some questions that are different from the usual ones.

Because he gets nine hours a night, has scrambled eggs and salmon every morning after his daily cardio and yoga....err no he doesn't, he's like the rest of us. Six hours and coffee if your lucky! He really is human!

I suppose this is one of those self sustaining phenomena, like a fire. Doing it, gives him the energy to do it further..

Getting there is harder..

BIG ONE: How you deal your fam. life, giving the fact that you are so busy changing the world? Especially kids... This is really valuable info to me.

Success of companies is highly dependent on perfect timing. Tesla got the timing right, and perfect execution also helped its success. Can the same thing be said about SolarCity? Is the technology and the market ready for solar?

Not an Elon maniac here or familiar with your podcast but it might be interesting to ask what he considers his biggest strength and biggest weakness. I rarely hear this asked of successful people.

A few ideas:

- the optimal form of government (direct democracy for every level, semi-dictatorship like in companies,...)

- self-organization: how do he manage his tasks, agenda, priority and how to maintain a good equilibrium with personal life

- what he think could be his next fight (after space exploration and removing the dependency to oil)

- what can we do against the rich getting richer and taking control of all the ressources

What will be on red dragon launched to Mars during the 2018 launch window?

What are examples of soliciting negative feedback you have gotten that you found useful?

How did you get your first customers for zip2?

Which electric plane prototypes do you find most interesting?

What are your thoughts on bio-engineered organisms for terraforming Mars?

What are your thoughts on the issues with falcon wing door?

If you were to write a sci fi novel, what might be the premise?

after the reusable falcon heavy and mars colonial transporter…. what will be most important technology to develop or refine for the purpose of mars colony?

Please don't ask these questions... which will solicit these often given answers:

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs? To reason from first principles rather than by analogy, and to seek out and listen to negative feedback, particularly from friends.

How did you get the idea to start your companies? When I was in college there were five areas I thought would most affect the future of humanity. 1 Internet 2 sustainable energy 3 space exploration. 4 genetics 5 ai

What is your motivation for starting Space X? To make life multi planetary to avoid an extinction event, man made (climate change) or natural (asteroid).To make life mult-planetary we need to lower the cost of rocket launches. The key is reusable rockets. Think about airplanes being destroyed after every trip.

Watch Elon musk's interview on khanacademy.org under entrepreneurship. He answers these questions there.

Is the work in making rechargeable lithium ion cells that retain their capacity over hundreds of thousands of charge cycles going to be commercialized in batteries and if so, what is the timeframe for that?

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3060005/mobile-wireless...

The same goes for the aluminium ion cell:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/stanford-rese...

Also, why did Tesla call the Model S 100D the first electric car to surpass 300 miles on a single charge when the Tesla Roadster 3.0 already hit that milestone?

How big of a role does empathy have in truly solving some of the world's biggest problems?

What does Elon base his ethics on? There seems to be an underlying philosophical framework for the types of projects that he thinks are important for humanity. He seems to put a lot of weight on future lives -- is he a utilitarian/consequentialist?

1/ When do the whole world change to electric vehicles considering very small batteries production capacities overall comparing to amount of cars in the world. 10, 20, 30 years? It does not look like, even if everybody want to switch to electric, it is possible to do in the next 10 or 20 years.

2/ Hence another question. When does he think self driving cars become mass market? Not based on legislation, but cars on the roads en masse. Considering that a self driving car is probably full electric car, wouldn't low production capacity of electric cars just halt mass self driving cars implementation in the next 10 years due to lack of cars to use?

Does he worry that the low gravity of Mars may not be sufficient to sustain life? We know we can survive in zero g for a few years but the damage to the body can include vision impairment, bone lose, etc... Does this maybe make Venus a better target?

Well it depends. If human will move to Mars, do they really need not to lose their bones strength and so? If people on Mars will keep 1/3 of what their body compared to Earth because there is about 1/3 gravity, they will be fine for Mars becausee they adapted. But they won't be able to come back.

Venus gravity is just little lower than Earth's but that mean it is harder to land same amount of cargo there (compared to Mars) + you are definitely not coming back because of it anysoon.

Why would they not be able to come back? Just build their bodies back up. Or keep them in shape to begin with.

10 days later I realize... interestingly we know what happens to the body when it's exposed to zero gravity and 1g of gravity... but we really don't know what happens at 20% or really anything between zero and one g...

What's his worst and best case scenario for the future? Specially regarding energy, transportation and the social effect things like solar, self-driving cars and cheap access to space will bring.

His experiences working with regulators/Government agencies?

Tesla and SpaceX are in really strict industries when it comes to regulation, how did he navigate through all of this when going from 0 to product?

Would be interested to know what his biggest regret is and how he dealt with it.

How does he balance the skepticism that comes with an analytical mind, with the optimism necessary to pull off something new?

Put another way, how do you build something cool without succumbing to bullshit?

Does he think it prudent for someone to challenge the payment processors with a new network?

More specifically, does he think it's possible to supplant the current payment landscape with a new centralized system (non-cryptocurrency)?

The background for this question is that it seems like everybody hates PayPal. Venmo, while gaining quite a bit of traction, doesn't seem like it's going to be the one. The rest of the challengers seem to have either died off due to regulation or lack of uptake.

I know it's a sensitive topic, but it would be so interesting if he could talk candidly about the co-founder relationship issues at Paypal, with PT and Max. His bio is very vague about it. Also, what he thinks a team with him, Peter and Max could have achieved together at Paypal had they worked together for 10 years on creating the bank of the modern era, instead of spliting up and exiting in a couple of years.

Relevant for both YC & Elon: Since it seems like every company trying to hyperscale is experiencing a desperate shortage of tech talent, how can we get more unexposed people excited about technology? If Elon didn't have an engineer parent, what could have been another avenue for him to have been exposed to technology, and how might we be able to target those entry points globally to train more great founders and engineers?

How do you keep yourself motivated, obviously you have been very successful, and have built great companies. Is it the mission behind the companies that keeps you motivated? Or is there someone or something? I am sure the daily drills of running billion dollar companies can be tiresome but what is your secret for being so motivated and what drives you now to keep pushing the limits.

What is his ultimate ideal vision of the future. We know transportation and energy. What about healthcare and delivery of health. How about the fundamental structures upon which our world is built, what will be the role of government and financial institutions in a decentralized platform world? Will the cease to have complete control over us and dictate our lives from the shadows?

The other day I pulled up behind a Tesla Model X with a SpaceX license plate frame. The driver looked to be no more than 22 years old. The Hyperloop competition drew more team designs than the last DARPA Grand Challenge. How much of doing what you do is about inspiring the next generation to take moon shots?

Follow up: how the blazes do you keep the SpaceX factory floor so pristine? I've been inside clean rooms that look worse ;)

There's a zamboni like floor cleaner that goes and cleans the rows. Since they are assembling the engines not in a clean room, you still have to be worried about small things falling into them.

Does SpaceX consider some other business models other than launching satellites like space tourism , asteroid mining , building a solar panels in space , building something like CERN Collider in space

What are some of his failure stories (not the breakdown in 2008)? His success stories are very inspirational, but the failure ones can help us relate and act on the inspiration. We know the superhuman Elon Musk, we need to know the human Elon Musk. I think that will really help the inspiration spread into action all around.

If there is a renewable energy revoluntion since now and on, and having energy-unit prices between PV and HC that equal in 2023, what will it happen with oil-dependant economies which have overdebt for current and future projects? Will it cause another economic crisis?

Elon, you are known for taking over projects within your companies when you feel they are not executing well enough (autopilot, manufacturing process, etc).

There are often several broken projects in a startup; how do you decide when to take over a project and fix it personally?

What's cost of sending a ship to Mars? If $x, can a group provide another $x so in effect we can send 2 ships. Spread the risk and/or send double the supplies at the same time knowing that we get window of launch opportunity only every 24 months

How does he personally deal with things like self-doubt, imposter syndrome, or depression?

1)How to filter out good ideas?

2)What work/jobs will teenagers of today will be doing in the future?

3)College degree is deemed crucial in India, how important will it be in years to come? Both for hiring people and maybe for getting hired by some company.

Does he think that the advice which YC gives, usually to software companies, (ship fast and iterate, make something people want, only talk to users and build the product) can also be applied to cars and space?

This is basically design thinking concept, which can applicable to anything literally. You can find that in details https://www.ideo.com/images/uploads/thoughts/IDEO_HBR_Design...

What tools and/or strategies do you use under maximum stress or pressure?

What do you think about:

* As space access becomes cheaper, which economic opportunities will open, at which price point?

* Mining asteroids and Moon

* Space manufacturing. Any manufacturing more feasible in space than on Earth?

* Space power plants (solar?)

* Beamed propulsion. Lasers or microwaves?

Has his view on bitcoin changed? How does he view blockchain tech in general. Does he see machine to machine payments happening on tesla vehicles if so what tech or back end would he use?

How does he assess risks?

He thought that Tesla would most likely fail, and yet he invested 50% of his Paypal money on Tesla, and the other 50% on SpaceX.

Risk is irrelevant to Elon.

Even if risk is irrelevant to Elon—assumption—he still likely assesses it.

If there is one thing you can change in the process of battery R&D, what would it be?

And likely a related question: Which scientific data is not readily available but would help battery R&D?

Question for Elon:

What do think humanity's purpose is? You believe that colonizing space will protect us from extinction-- what purpose do we have to as a species to go on?

What is his work ethic? Before merger of Solar City and Tesla, he was heading 3 companies (including space X) which has been reduced to 2 now.

What other companies would he be starting if he had the time

He answered this question before. I think his answer was supersonic jets, or electric jets. Also, Hyperloop.

Should initial settlers going to Mars be given a tax free exemption status on earth for life (or eternity)?

Should we extend that to their heirs as well?

You mentioned that you work over 80 hours a week. Going between SpaceX and Tesla and having a family, how do you not burn-out?

Hi Elon,

Since you have a passion for Mars and Space Ships, has the video game project "Star Citizen" crossed your path yet? They're doing some pretty amazing things with how they're able to render a full solar system and planets you can actually land on.

I ask because it would be very interesting if Space X utilized this software to create simulations for Mars! The game engine could support simulating leaving earth in a SPACE X craft, the travel to Mars, landing, and exploring.

-Jason

If you were to build commercial space stations around earth/mars, how would you do it as compared to the ISS?

After AI what does the average person's day look like?

How do we create structures to prevent imperialism and war in space?

My girlfriend wants to ask: do you have any ideas for an upcoming space engineering thesis (2 years till graduating)

How do you think that the advent of autonomous electric semi trucks will affect rail based freight long term?

Build products people use or create products people would want to use? How's Tesla or SpaceX doing it?

Is there any mantra you repeat in your head to keep yourself going or guide your way through difficult decisions?

How can we become the best engineers?

How/where does he get the all these super cool energy to do all these ground breaking work?

What are his thoughts on the role of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in medicine?

Tesla's self-driving technology is much of America's first real interaction with coming autonomous vehicle technology. Let's say he's stopped on the street by my grandmother. How does he explain to an older person the ways in which this revolution will be controllable, compatible with humans, and not destructive to much of our labor-driven society?

What's the biggest limitation he's facing right now with Tesla / SpaceX?

Is OpenAI the most important non-commercial endeavour you are involved in right now?

Given that Tesla, OpenAI, and SpaceX are successful, what does Elon work on next?

What can be done to accelerate distribution of hi tech to developing countries?

Is he really going to attempt terraforming / colonisation of Mars any soon?

How do we find the cheat codes for the simulation?

What could NASA learn from SpaceX and vice-versa?

A first principles breakdown of poverty.

How long until a solar powered spacecraft?

What will be future with neural lace technology look like in 2022? (5 years)

Would we cheat death with same consciousness without dependency on our physical body?

what books does he recommend to entrepreneurs and more importantly why..

Thoughts on Aramco IPO?

cryptocurrencies

Tabs or Spaces

:)) Brilliant

Reply on news.ycombinator.com