Former SpaceX Exec Explains How Elon Musk Taught Himself Rocket Science

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Winston

Lorenzo von Matterhorn
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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/former-spacex-exec-explains-elon-152840164.html

Excerpt:

He committed textbooks to memory.

"He is the smartest guy I've ever met, period," Cantrell tells us. "I know that sounds overblown. But I've met plenty of smart people, and I don't say that lightly. He's absolutely, frickin' amazing. I don't even think he sleeps."

Cantrell tells us that he soon discovered that he and Musk shared an affinity for applied knowledge, and he loaned him some textbooks to study (they "were never returned, by the way!" Cantrell says). The books were "Rocket Propulsion Elements," "Aerothermodynamics of Gas Turbine and Rocket Propulsion," "Fundamentals of Astrodynamics," and the "International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems."

He doesn't know exactly how Musk would read or take notes, but he knows that he practically memorized them.

"He would quote passages verbatim from these books. He became very conversant in the material," Cantrell says.

He built a network of the smartest people.

Musk "knows everything about what he's building," Cantrell says, but of course even he understands that he can't master everything. That's why he used Cantrell's network in the aerospace industry to gather some of the best in the business. "It was like spaceapalooza!"

For example, they hired the rocket engineer Tom Mueller, who Cantrell says is the smartest propulsion expert out there. Musk respected his deep knowledge and let him take care of things that he'd learned from years of research.

In the same way that Musk absorbed books, he tried doing that with other people's expertise. "It was as if he would suck the experience out of them. He truly listens to people," Cantrell says.

Musk would absorb this information and then hold his own in conversations — and he didn't hold back. Cantrell says that Musk took a tech entrepreneur's approach to the industry and believed that many of the opinions of industry mainstays were stupid.
 
I had just read that over on Yahoo. He definitly is a very smart guy. His ability to memorize so much information doesnt really surprise me. Sure wish I could remember everything Ive read!
 
He has some ideas that I don't necessarily agree with but no one can doubt his intelligence. Very bright person.

I love Space X. I have some issues with Tesla but Space X should be his primary focus and sounds like it is from recent history.
 
We need more people in the world doing this. In comparison, Bill Gates solved a very simple problem and now gives money to causes--he is not really applying his brain power to any significant world problems like Elon is.
 
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