Kevin Rose interviews Elon Musk [video] | Hacker News Reader

Kevin Rose interviews Elon Musk [video]

foundation.bz

95 pointsbeniaminmincu14 comments

I've heard him say this in multiple interviews, so here it is for posterity. He shares these principles:

1. Seek out negative feedback. Ask your friends NOT to tell you what they like about your product, but rather what they don't like. Underweight positive feedback, and overweight the negative.

2. Reason from first principles rather than by analogy. It's easier to compare a situation or a problem to something similar to it and be satisfied by the analogy. It's much harder to actually think and reason about it logically as you would a physics problem.

The second principle is something that Larry Page said at the Google IO keynote earlier in the week too. He was making reference to the fact that from a purely physical perspective, the raw material cost of a smartphone is about $0.50 - $1.

I saw this and I think he got it from Elon actually (just replace smartphone with rocket), I've heard Elon mentions these things a lot in interviews.

Point 1. is easy enough to act on, but point 2 is less clear. I'd love it if you could summarize a couple examples of it in practice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_principle

Have an upvote for sharing this!:). I've watched several of Musk's interviews, and he does share these principles. It has also struck a chord with me.

For those who needs transcript for the video:

http://shitelonsays.com/transcript/foundation-20-elon-musk-2...

Also, don't forget to check out the rest of the site for more Elon Musk transcripts.

Thanks. Just posted on Twitter asking about the transcript. We'd have gladly done this for free.

This particular interview is actually quite old (not that it isn't still incredibly fascinating). The Foundation series has been going on for a long while, and Kevin has created 30 interviews with outstanding people.

If you have some time to spare, each interview is worth a watch: http://foundation.bz/

From September 2012. Links to https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=...

"I wasn't sure if that meant starting a company of if that meant working for a company that makes cool stuff," so I did both and started a company that makes cool stuff. Nbd, guys.

There is a lot more going in at Foundation http://www.googleventures.com/foundation

Great link thank you for sharing.

I have to point out they're weirdly wearing matching clothes.

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