Reading Reflection No. 1

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

1. There were a few things that really surprised me about Elon Musk. The first was that he created his first video game, Blaster, when he was only 12 years old. The fact that he had the capability to do that at that age is really amazing. Another thing that was surprising is that he dropped out of college. He was in school for his Phd in Nuclear Physics at Stanford for only two days before he decided to drop out. He thought that staying in school was a waste of time when he could go and start working on his ideas immediately. The thing that I most admire about Elon Musk is his work ethic. He has been known to work 100 hours a week. He has to work this much to keep both companies, SpaceX and Tesla, operational. It is amazing that anyone can work this much and still do a good job. There is really nothing that I did not admire about Elon Musk. He seems to be an all around incredible man. Musk encountered a lot of adversity and failure. One of the first adversities that he faced was when he was bullied as a child. Another adversity he faces was creating a successful business out of only producing electric cars. People said that it couldn't be done, but in 2012 Tesla’s Model S was named “Car of the Year” by Motor Trend Magazine. One of my favorite quotes from Musk is “My mentality is that of a samurai. I would rather commit seppuku than fail.” I think that this pretty much sums up his idea of failure.
2. Elon Musk shows an incredible competency to look towards the future, hence the name of the book. The technology that he is creating is like stuff we see in sci-fi books and movies. Most people could not have imagined a rocket landing vertically and being reused, but Musk is actually doing it with the Falcon 9.
3. One thing that I found slightly confusing was his idea of regenerative breaking. After a little research I now better understand the concept. Regenerative breaking is when the kinetic energy, or friction, caused by the breaks is used to charge the battery that is powering the car. This allows Tesla cars to drive farther than they normally could on a full charge.
4. Two questions I would ask 1.) Why are you so driven to put sustainable life on another planet, and 2.) Do you think that electric cars will ever fully replace combustion engines.
5. I think that Elon Musk loves hard work. It is almost crazy how much he likes working. He is quoted in the book as saying “If there was a way that I could not eat, so I could work more, I would not eat. I wish there was a way to get nutrients without sitting down for a meal.” Most people love eating, but Musk would rather work than eat. He also expects every one of his employees to work incredibly hard.