13 ms·

Elon Musk AMA

569 points by kfinley 12y ago

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- jacquesm 12y ago
  5000+ comments, page read only due to 'heavy traffic'. Actual answers to pointed questions, one of the best AMA's ever on Reddit.
- nrs26 12y ago
  Wish it was longer / more in depth. Seemed like he was rushing through it. Like he has more important things to do...
  - veb 12y ago
    To be fair... he probably does.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - ajays 12y ago
    I think he has something big coming up tomorrow: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/01/spacex-dragon-crs-5-launch-historic-core-return/ http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/01/spacex-dragon-crs-5-l...
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
  - EpicEng 12y ago
    People here typically expect a higher level of quality in a comment. Not that you said anything bad, just nothing that added anything meaningful to the discussion. I wouldn't recommend whining about the downvotes. I've had plenty of comments end up in the negative, it happens, no big deal.
  - melloclello 12y ago
    > Σοβαροφάνεια That's a cool word.
jacquesm 12y ago
"When going through hell, keep going".
- ChuckMcM 12y ago
  I saw that, great quote. I also love its corollary, "If you are digging yourself into a hole, first stop digging."
  - ojbyrne 12y ago
    Not sure what the word is, but I don't think its "corollary." Its the anti-corollary.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
    - efuquen 12y ago
      yah, a corollary would end more like "dig until you get to the other side". Definitely prefer Churchill's version :)
    - programmer_dude 12y ago
      Converse?
    - OscarCunningham 12y ago
      Niels Bohr: "Two sorts of truth: profound truths recognized by the fact that the opposite is also a profound truth, in contrast to trivialities where opposites are obviously absurd."
      - ChuckMcM 12y ago
        Ok, added that one to my quotations file.
- kyllo 12y ago
  That's actually a country song.
reustle 12y ago
Nice to see his sense of humor here too https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rgsan/i_am_elon_musk_ceocto_of_a_rocket_company_ama/cnfq6yo https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rgsan/i_am_elon_musk...
whichdan 12y ago
If you just want to read the questions/responses: http://www.reddit.com/r/tabled/comments/2rh6si/table_iama_i_am_elon_musk_ceocto_of_a_rocket/ http://www.reddit.com/r/tabled/comments/2rh6si/table_iama_i_...
- simple1 12y ago
  I also made a site (http://www.amatranscripts.com http://www.amatranscripts.com) that transcribes popular AMAs. Elon Musk's is here: http://amatranscripts.com/ama/elon_musk_2015-01-05.html http://amatranscripts.com/ama/elon_musk_2015-01-05.html
  - dmunoz 12y ago
    Nicely done. I've seen a couple of these sites, but I quite like the output of yours. Is there any logic as to what order the questions and replies are displayed on the page? It doesn't seem to be either of reddit's 'top' or 'best' sorting. Perhaps whatever order they landed in within the JSON?
    - simple1 12y ago
      The questions and answers are presented in the order that they were answered, which I believe gives the best flow to the "interview".
  - SammoJ 12y ago
    This is brilliant, thank you. On the Musk transcript I found this formatting confusing: "Have you played Kerbal Space Program? What do you think SpaceX uses for testing software?" I can't access Reddit to see what the original comment was.
    - Tyrannosaurs 12y ago
      Two KSP mentions: Q: In order to use the full MCT design (100 passengers), will BFR be one core or 3 cores? EM: At first, I was thinking we would just scale up Falcon Heavy, but it looks like it probably makes more sense just to have a single monster boost stage. Q: Nice to see you are doing things the Kerbal way. EM: Kerbal is awesome! The second one: Q: "Hi Elon! Huge fan of yours. Have you heard of/played Kerbal Space Program? Also do you see SpaceX working with Squad (the people behind KSP) to integrate SpaceX parts into KSP?" Reply (not from EM): What do you think SpaceX uses for testing software? EM to Reply: Kerbal Space Program! Short version - Elon Musk likes and plays Kerbal Space Program.
read 12y ago
Q: What daily habit do you believe has the largest positive impact on your life? A: Showering Q: Would you ever consider becoming a politician? A: Unlikely
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- read 12y ago
  I'm starting to believe there's an odd property to curiosity. Unique observations are threatening to people's identity. Those were two actual questions asked to Elon along with his responses, and the two that stood out for me the most. Did he mention showering because that's the time he gets most of his ideas[1]? Did he say no to politics because it's more likely to change the world through innovation[2]? Result: 8 downvotes. It'd be enough if the comment was downvoted just once, to sink in the page. That happens to everyone. But seven other people found it imperative to make an authoritative statement on the matter. Impressive. Did that keep their identity safe? Pushing threatening ideas away isn't the best way to help rearrange the semantic tree in your mind. Could there be an inverse correlation between being downvoted and having good ideas? It shouldn't be a surprising discovery on valuable ideas if you consider the nature of the most valuable startup ideas: look like bad ideas but are good ideas. So if you want to know if your ideas are good, it's not enough to see them gain support. It's also important to see people turn against them. I know HN guidelines discourage commenting on downvotes, because they make for boring reading, but I'm starting to think being downvoted is a positive sign of how dangerous your ideas are. Are you being downvoted enough? [1] http://paulgraham.com/top.html http://paulgraham.com/top.html [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8801803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8801803 edit: revised 80% of this after having a shower
  - DanBC 12y ago
    Your first post got downvotes because it is devoid of content. It just quotes, with no comment or context, two questions and answers. I'm not sure how you get the idea that you're somehow provoking people with dangerous ideas.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
axefrog 12y ago
One thing I'd have liked to ask if I hadn't missed the window of opportunity would be regarding his desire to go to Mars himself. I have often wondered about the psychological effects of being effectively stranded on a barren, lifeless planet potentially for the rest of your life. On Earth, we can "get away from it all" and go to the country, go camping near a nice stream, listen to birds sing, go for a swim in the ocean, sit in a nice garden and eat our lunch, and so forth. How would one cope with the loss of all of that, not to mention also having to deal with the long-term physiological effects of a change in gravity?
- grondilu 12y ago
  Throughout history men have probably lived through worse conditions, either while being prisoners of war, stranded on a desert island and whatnot. The way to cope with such harsh conditions is, I suppose, always the same : hope of escaping and returning home.
  - eru 12y ago
    In this case, the coping strategies of martyrs seem more apt. "You are doing it for the cause."
    - grondilu 12y ago
      That seems to work with Mars One, for instance.
- jdiez17 12y ago
  I don't have a citation on hand unfortunately but I do remember he said he'd want to "die on Mars... just not on impact."
lukeqsee 12y ago
I found his comment regarding learning to be the most insightful. It is a more developed explanation of what I have found to be an effective strategy for me: > One bit of advice: it is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree -- make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to. Without the structure of prior knowledge, I never understand or remember facts; however, when I've had the time to develop that "first principles" knowledge, I can usually grasp and understand the significance of minutiae. How do you of HN learn? Is it similar?
- tvcgrid 12y ago
  I highly recommend Make It Stick. Spaced repetition, testing effect, effortful learning, retrieval training, constructing mental models... it's chock full.
  - pocketheyman 12y ago
    Another vote for Make It Stick. I did much better in my classes and was much more efficient in my prep using the SPRInt method (Spaced Repetition, Interleaving topics, Testing). I tried to read 'How we learn' but it really couldn't hold a candle to Make It Stick.
- zamalek 12y ago
  That quote is basically how I learn. I know concepts, not facts and recreate the facts as I need them. That being said, it's definitely not how everyone learns and I would classify it as bad advice: schools have the correct learning strategy for the vast majority of the human race, so stick to that. If you are one of the outliers (as you have said you are) you would have figured this all out a long time ago, even if you cannot articulate it.
  - lotsofmangos 12y ago
    Schools massively vary in learning strategies though. Saying to stick to schools rather than teaching yourself, as a learning strategy, is a bit like saying to stick to food from shops rather than trying to grow your own, as an eating strategy.
icpmacdo 12y ago
I really like this comment https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rgsan/i_am_elon_musk_ceocto_of_a_rocket_company_ama/cnfprcf https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rgsan/i_am_elon_musk... Saying that he has no idea what is going to happen with the launch tomorrow, its a refreshing honesty. I was also wondering on an semi unrelated note if HN had ever had AMA's from interesting people? I am not preposing that they should start happening though.
- efuquen 12y ago
  Ha, that was one of my favorite answers. When I started reading the question I kept thinking, you know he must of pulled that number out of his a* * (as Musk likes to say). Had a huge smile when I read him admitting it. Edit: If anyone knows how to get a double asterisk in an HN comment would be grateful for the knowledge, was forced to add the unnecessary space. So far tried the HTML number code, which didn't work, and the help has no guidance.
  - JacobAldridge 12y ago
    Asterisks * * (in Arc? Or just on HN?) is used to start and end italics, so has a tendency to disappear. I'm surprised to learn you got them with the space - seems to do that when there's nothing to italicise.
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    You could try this: test ** test But you'd be stuck with the fixed width font. The formatting page is not much help either: https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc Maybe something like \*\* could be done.
- smackfu 12y ago
  It's cute but I don't really buy it. You think he hasn't asked his engineers what the chance of success is? And that they haven't calculated it using actual numbers based on the previous test landings?
  - 12y ago
mason240 12y ago
The moderators of r/IAMA apparently deleted several of the highest voted questions. http://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/2rgzgo/official_spacex_teslamotors_solarcity_subreddit/ http://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/2rgzgo/official...
- Cogito 12y ago
  Yeah, I've been following r/spacex for a little bit. When they started trying to work out some good questions a day ago someone suggested that everyone upvote the resulting questions but the mods there quickly shut that down. [1] The reasons given for deleting the comments was specifically what everyone was trying to avoid, that is voting brigading. As far as I can tell no one was asking for votes, simply working together to produce some high quality questions. [1] https://i.imgur.com/lBCWvQh.png https://i.imgur.com/lBCWvQh.png
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    That's the attitude that they say murdered wikipedia. Rules are there to foster a better community, not to kill off good community initiatives. As soon as the adherence to the rules becomes more important than the quality of the product you've basically lost it. The whole trick is to know when not to apply the rules. AMAs are an exceptional item and a different ruleset for AMAs would not be all that hard to imagine. Pity.
    - jebus989 12y ago
      "Murdered" Wikipedia whose fifth pillar is "ignore all rules"?
      - jacquesm 12y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6612638 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6612638 http://www.gwern.net/In%20Defense%20Of%20Inclusionism http://www.gwern.net/In%20Defense%20Of%20Inclusionism And many others like it.
kakakiki 12y ago
"The best teacher I ever had was my elementary school principal. Our math teacher quit for some reason and he decided to sub in himself for math and accelerate the syllabus by a year. We had to work like the house was on fire for the first half of the lesson and do extra homework, but then we got to hear stories of when he was a soldier in WWII. If you didn't do the work, you didn't get to hear the stories. Everybody did the work." Amazing.
singingfish 12y ago
I live in australia and I have 4kwh of solar panels on my unoccluded WNW facing roof. My electricity grid connection charge is around $300 AUD per year (around USD 250 per year at current rates - which is about the same as my annual electricity bill since I currently feed into the grid at the wholesale rate). Given a 10 year payback time, how long will it take until a battery array with say two days headroom and a small generator is cost effective for me? Say I'm prepared to pay double that in order to mitigate market risk?
sillysaurus3 12y ago
Does anyone know why Musk believes so strongly that robot overlords are a serious threat? I don't understand how wasting any time worrying about AI taking over, Terminator-style, is productive. We're not going to be developing Strong AI any time soon, so it's simply not a problem worth worrying about. And if we do, the Strong AI won't be in any position to "take over." It probably won't even want to take over. That's a very human trait, and Strong AI wouldn't be human. I'm wondering whether he was tricked by someone at DeepMind, perhaps the same way people were tricked hundreds of years ago into thinking a chess-playing robot was possible.
- akanet 12y ago
  As far as I can tell, you have two main objections to prioritizing worrying about Strong AI: 1) Strong AI is very far away, so no use worrying about it yet. 2) Strong AI if developed will not be likely to take over. to which I would counterpoint with: 1) Sure, but when it happens, it will only happen once and thereafter will likely be out of our hands and control. Thinking about the groundwork that needs to go into safely developing an AI is cheap relative to the opportunity cost of getting it wrong. Prevention, cure, etc. 2) If developed, Strong AI will likely have SOME goal. It's not that a Strong AI will actively seek to rule humans, it will just have aims that will likely consider us as disposable as ants. To quote Yudkowsky: "The AI does not hate you, nor does it love you, but you are made out of atoms which it can use for something else." - https://intelligence.org/files/AIPosNegFactor.pdf https://intelligence.org/files/AIPosNegFactor.pdf (Artificial Intelligence as a Positive and Negative Factor in Global Risk)
  - FooBarWidget 12y ago
    I still don't buy the doom scenario. There is so much more to world domination than just intelligence... like having the proper weapons. See https://what-if.xkcd.com/5/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/5/ Pigs are also intelligent, but they never dominated humans because they don't have / cannot use guns.
    - scanr 12y ago
fubarred 12y ago
In the US, up-vote for Challenger Schools (at least circa 1980's). They teach successful behaviors and are worth every penny. (Reaching and accelerating kids early is important.)
- umbrae 12y ago
  Was that mentioned anywhere in the AMA? I can't seem to find a thing on that.
  - fubarred 12y ago
    Nope, Musk did http://www.whps.co.za http://www.whps.co.za Merely an observation that early environment shapes attitudes to life, learning, etc. which can either drive out curiosity and/or ambition or amplify it. (Excluding crucial social navigation and team dynamics, hitting most all of intelligence, ambition, curiosity, confidence (and so on) to do well, but not developing one or more of those tends to become self-limiting factor/s.) Overcoming adversity (being bullied) also helps.
lotsofmangos 12y ago
I am still reeling from having just learned that in Wernher Von Braun's book 'The Mars Project', it is proposed that the leader of the Martian government when it is formed shall be known as the 'Elon'. https://i.imgur.com/65YR89H.png https://i.imgur.com/65YR89H.png
- throwawaymars 12y ago
  The book says no such thing. http://books.google.com.uy/books?id=V16e-xQmyZQC&pg=PR5&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com.uy/books?id=V16e-xQmyZQC&pg=PR5&sour... Edit: There appears is a posthumously published book named Project Mars that says that. Not sure if I trust it.
  - lotsofmangos 12y ago
    I confused things as there are two separate books with very similar titles by Braun, 'Project Mars' (ISBN - 0973820330) and 'The Mars Project' (ISBN - 0252062272). The first is sci-fi and the second is technical. Here's a pdf of Project Mars - http://www.wlym.com/archive/oakland/docs/MarsProject.pdf http://www.wlym.com/archive/oakland/docs/MarsProject.pdf The reference to the Elon is on page 177. I hadn't initially noticed the fact it was posthumously published in 2006, however it would seem like an odd kind of forgery, if it is one. Equally it does seem odd that Braun would choose Elon as the name of the Mars leader, so perhaps it might be a real work but with Elon added as a joke by the translator. Or perhaps Braun chose the word Elon because he sometimes thought of leaders as trees, or something, and it is all just a massive bit of luck. Personally I'm starting to suspect another explanation however. And if I'm right, there is an entire warehouse full of empty Elon Musk clones on ice, waiting for the spirit of Wernher Von Braun to animate each one in turn, in the event of damage occurring to the current corporeal vessel.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
sidcool 12y ago
Elon Musk is a super star on Reddit. I am personally a big big fan. If you see his responses, they are terse and snappy.
jonpress 12y ago
This guy has everything. Why is it that people feel an urge to praise him right to his face? His ego is going to start leaking out of his eyeballs.
- jacquesm 12y ago
  Compared to the entertainment crowd he's doing pretty good, he's coming off like a reasonably normal person. People are praising him because he's actually worthy of that, compared to say Justin Bieber.
- JesseObrien 12y ago
  Check out this video, he's very humble and down to earth. He's worthy of the praise he gets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOpmaLY9XdI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOpmaLY9XdI
  - jonpress 12y ago
    I didn't mean to say that he has a big ego. What I meant was that he probably has to put some effort into not letting it 'get to his head'.
- marze 12y ago
  Almost everything. He doesn't have a city on Mars.
happyscrappy 12y ago
>3.Our spacesuit design is finally coming together and will also be unveiled later this year. We are putting a lot of effort into design esthetics, not just utility. It needs to both look like a 21st century spacesuit and work well. Really difficult to achieve both. I don't understand how looks are a legitimate criterion.

Elon Musk AMA

569 points by kfinley 12y ago

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

jacquesm 12y ago
5000+ comments, page read only due to 'heavy traffic'. Actual answers to pointed questions, one of the best AMA's ever on Reddit.
nrs26 12y ago
Wish it was longer / more in depth. Seemed like he was rushing through it. Like he has more important things to do...
- veb 12y ago
  To be fair... he probably does.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- ajays 12y ago
  I think he has something big coming up tomorrow: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/01/spacex-dragon-crs-5-launch-historic-core-return/ http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/01/spacex-dragon-crs-5-l...
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- EpicEng 12y ago
  People here typically expect a higher level of quality in a comment. Not that you said anything bad, just nothing that added anything meaningful to the discussion. I wouldn't recommend whining about the downvotes. I've had plenty of comments end up in the negative, it happens, no big deal.
- melloclello 12y ago
  > Σοβαροφάνεια That's a cool word.

jacquesm 12y ago

"When going through hell, keep going".

ChuckMcM 12y ago
I saw that, great quote. I also love its corollary, "If you are digging yourself into a hole, first stop digging."
- ojbyrne 12y ago
  Not sure what the word is, but I don't think its "corollary." Its the anti-corollary.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - efuquen 12y ago
    yah, a corollary would end more like "dig until you get to the other side". Definitely prefer Churchill's version :)
  - programmer_dude 12y ago
    Converse?
  - OscarCunningham 12y ago
    Niels Bohr: "Two sorts of truth: profound truths recognized by the fact that the opposite is also a profound truth, in contrast to trivialities where opposites are obviously absurd."
    - ChuckMcM 12y ago
      Ok, added that one to my quotations file.
kyllo 12y ago
That's actually a country song.

reustle 12y ago

Nice to see his sense of humor here too https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rgsan/i_am_elon_musk_ceocto_of_a_rocket_company_ama/cnfq6yo https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rgsan/i_am_elon_musk...

whichdan 12y ago

If you just want to read the questions/responses: http://www.reddit.com/r/tabled/comments/2rh6si/table_iama_i_am_elon_musk_ceocto_of_a_rocket/ http://www.reddit.com/r/tabled/comments/2rh6si/table_iama_i_...

simple1 12y ago
I also made a site (http://www.amatranscripts.com http://www.amatranscripts.com) that transcribes popular AMAs. Elon Musk's is here: http://amatranscripts.com/ama/elon_musk_2015-01-05.html http://amatranscripts.com/ama/elon_musk_2015-01-05.html
- dmunoz 12y ago
  Nicely done. I've seen a couple of these sites, but I quite like the output of yours. Is there any logic as to what order the questions and replies are displayed on the page? It doesn't seem to be either of reddit's 'top' or 'best' sorting. Perhaps whatever order they landed in within the JSON?
  - simple1 12y ago
    The questions and answers are presented in the order that they were answered, which I believe gives the best flow to the "interview".
- SammoJ 12y ago
  This is brilliant, thank you. On the Musk transcript I found this formatting confusing: "Have you played Kerbal Space Program? What do you think SpaceX uses for testing software?" I can't access Reddit to see what the original comment was.
  - Tyrannosaurs 12y ago
    Two KSP mentions: Q: In order to use the full MCT design (100 passengers), will BFR be one core or 3 cores? EM: At first, I was thinking we would just scale up Falcon Heavy, but it looks like it probably makes more sense just to have a single monster boost stage. Q: Nice to see you are doing things the Kerbal way. EM: Kerbal is awesome! The second one: Q: "Hi Elon! Huge fan of yours. Have you heard of/played Kerbal Space Program? Also do you see SpaceX working with Squad (the people behind KSP) to integrate SpaceX parts into KSP?" Reply (not from EM): What do you think SpaceX uses for testing software? EM to Reply: Kerbal Space Program! Short version - Elon Musk likes and plays Kerbal Space Program.

read 12y ago

Q: What daily habit do you believe has the largest positive impact on your life? A: Showering Q: Would you ever consider becoming a politician? A: Unlikely

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
read 12y ago
I'm starting to believe there's an odd property to curiosity. Unique observations are threatening to people's identity. Those were two actual questions asked to Elon along with his responses, and the two that stood out for me the most. Did he mention showering because that's the time he gets most of his ideas[1]? Did he say no to politics because it's more likely to change the world through innovation[2]? Result: 8 downvotes. It'd be enough if the comment was downvoted just once, to sink in the page. That happens to everyone. But seven other people found it imperative to make an authoritative statement on the matter. Impressive. Did that keep their identity safe? Pushing threatening ideas away isn't the best way to help rearrange the semantic tree in your mind. Could there be an inverse correlation between being downvoted and having good ideas? It shouldn't be a surprising discovery on valuable ideas if you consider the nature of the most valuable startup ideas: look like bad ideas but are good ideas. So if you want to know if your ideas are good, it's not enough to see them gain support. It's also important to see people turn against them. I know HN guidelines discourage commenting on downvotes, because they make for boring reading, but I'm starting to think being downvoted is a positive sign of how dangerous your ideas are. Are you being downvoted enough? [1] http://paulgraham.com/top.html http://paulgraham.com/top.html [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8801803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8801803 edit: revised 80% of this after having a shower
- DanBC 12y ago
  Your first post got downvotes because it is devoid of content. It just quotes, with no comment or context, two questions and answers. I'm not sure how you get the idea that you're somehow provoking people with dangerous ideas.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

axefrog 12y ago

One thing I'd have liked to ask if I hadn't missed the window of opportunity would be regarding his desire to go to Mars himself. I have often wondered about the psychological effects of being effectively stranded on a barren, lifeless planet potentially for the rest of your life. On Earth, we can "get away from it all" and go to the country, go camping near a nice stream, listen to birds sing, go for a swim in the ocean, sit in a nice garden and eat our lunch, and so forth. How would one cope with the loss of all of that, not to mention also having to deal with the long-term physiological effects of a change in gravity?

grondilu 12y ago
Throughout history men have probably lived through worse conditions, either while being prisoners of war, stranded on a desert island and whatnot. The way to cope with such harsh conditions is, I suppose, always the same : hope of escaping and returning home.
- eru 12y ago
  In this case, the coping strategies of martyrs seem more apt. "You are doing it for the cause."
  - grondilu 12y ago
    That seems to work with Mars One, for instance.
jdiez17 12y ago
I don't have a citation on hand unfortunately but I do remember he said he'd want to "die on Mars... just not on impact."

lukeqsee 12y ago

I found his comment regarding learning to be the most insightful. It is a more developed explanation of what I have found to be an effective strategy for me: > One bit of advice: it is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree -- make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to. Without the structure of prior knowledge, I never understand or remember facts; however, when I've had the time to develop that "first principles" knowledge, I can usually grasp and understand the significance of minutiae. How do you of HN learn? Is it similar?

tvcgrid 12y ago
I highly recommend Make It Stick. Spaced repetition, testing effect, effortful learning, retrieval training, constructing mental models... it's chock full.
- pocketheyman 12y ago
  Another vote for Make It Stick. I did much better in my classes and was much more efficient in my prep using the SPRInt method (Spaced Repetition, Interleaving topics, Testing). I tried to read 'How we learn' but it really couldn't hold a candle to Make It Stick.
zamalek 12y ago
That quote is basically how I learn. I know concepts, not facts and recreate the facts as I need them. That being said, it's definitely not how everyone learns and I would classify it as bad advice: schools have the correct learning strategy for the vast majority of the human race, so stick to that. If you are one of the outliers (as you have said you are) you would have figured this all out a long time ago, even if you cannot articulate it.
- lotsofmangos 12y ago
  Schools massively vary in learning strategies though. Saying to stick to schools rather than teaching yourself, as a learning strategy, is a bit like saying to stick to food from shops rather than trying to grow your own, as an eating strategy.

icpmacdo 12y ago

I really like this comment https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rgsan/i_am_elon_musk_ceocto_of_a_rocket_company_ama/cnfprcf https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rgsan/i_am_elon_musk... Saying that he has no idea what is going to happen with the launch tomorrow, its a refreshing honesty. I was also wondering on an semi unrelated note if HN had ever had AMA's from interesting people? I am not preposing that they should start happening though.

efuquen 12y ago
Ha, that was one of my favorite answers. When I started reading the question I kept thinking, you know he must of pulled that number out of his a* * (as Musk likes to say). Had a huge smile when I read him admitting it. Edit: If anyone knows how to get a double asterisk in an HN comment would be grateful for the knowledge, was forced to add the unnecessary space. So far tried the HTML number code, which didn't work, and the help has no guidance.
- JacobAldridge 12y ago
  Asterisks * * (in Arc? Or just on HN?) is used to start and end italics, so has a tendency to disappear. I'm surprised to learn you got them with the space - seems to do that when there's nothing to italicise.
- jacquesm 12y ago
  You could try this: test ** test But you'd be stuck with the fixed width font. The formatting page is not much help either: https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc Maybe something like \*\* could be done.
smackfu 12y ago
It's cute but I don't really buy it. You think he hasn't asked his engineers what the chance of success is? And that they haven't calculated it using actual numbers based on the previous test landings?
- 12y ago

mason240 12y ago

The moderators of r/IAMA apparently deleted several of the highest voted questions. http://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/2rgzgo/official_spacex_teslamotors_solarcity_subreddit/ http://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/2rgzgo/official...

Cogito 12y ago
Yeah, I've been following r/spacex for a little bit. When they started trying to work out some good questions a day ago someone suggested that everyone upvote the resulting questions but the mods there quickly shut that down. [1] The reasons given for deleting the comments was specifically what everyone was trying to avoid, that is voting brigading. As far as I can tell no one was asking for votes, simply working together to produce some high quality questions. [1] https://i.imgur.com/lBCWvQh.png https://i.imgur.com/lBCWvQh.png
- jacquesm 12y ago
  That's the attitude that they say murdered wikipedia. Rules are there to foster a better community, not to kill off good community initiatives. As soon as the adherence to the rules becomes more important than the quality of the product you've basically lost it. The whole trick is to know when not to apply the rules. AMAs are an exceptional item and a different ruleset for AMAs would not be all that hard to imagine. Pity.
  - jebus989 12y ago
    "Murdered" Wikipedia whose fifth pillar is "ignore all rules"?
    - jacquesm 12y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6612638 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6612638 http://www.gwern.net/In%20Defense%20Of%20Inclusionism http://www.gwern.net/In%20Defense%20Of%20Inclusionism And many others like it.

kakakiki 12y ago

"The best teacher I ever had was my elementary school principal. Our math teacher quit for some reason and he decided to sub in himself for math and accelerate the syllabus by a year. We had to work like the house was on fire for the first half of the lesson and do extra homework, but then we got to hear stories of when he was a soldier in WWII. If you didn't do the work, you didn't get to hear the stories. Everybody did the work." Amazing.

singingfish 12y ago

I live in australia and I have 4kwh of solar panels on my unoccluded WNW facing roof. My electricity grid connection charge is around $300 AUD per year (around USD 250 per year at current rates - which is about the same as my annual electricity bill since I currently feed into the grid at the wholesale rate). Given a 10 year payback time, how long will it take until a battery array with say two days headroom and a small generator is cost effective for me? Say I'm prepared to pay double that in order to mitigate market risk?

sillysaurus3 12y ago

Does anyone know why Musk believes so strongly that robot overlords are a serious threat? I don't understand how wasting any time worrying about AI taking over, Terminator-style, is productive. We're not going to be developing Strong AI any time soon, so it's simply not a problem worth worrying about. And if we do, the Strong AI won't be in any position to "take over." It probably won't even want to take over. That's a very human trait, and Strong AI wouldn't be human. I'm wondering whether he was tricked by someone at DeepMind, perhaps the same way people were tricked hundreds of years ago into thinking a chess-playing robot was possible.

akanet 12y ago
As far as I can tell, you have two main objections to prioritizing worrying about Strong AI: 1) Strong AI is very far away, so no use worrying about it yet. 2) Strong AI if developed will not be likely to take over. to which I would counterpoint with: 1) Sure, but when it happens, it will only happen once and thereafter will likely be out of our hands and control. Thinking about the groundwork that needs to go into safely developing an AI is cheap relative to the opportunity cost of getting it wrong. Prevention, cure, etc. 2) If developed, Strong AI will likely have SOME goal. It's not that a Strong AI will actively seek to rule humans, it will just have aims that will likely consider us as disposable as ants. To quote Yudkowsky: "The AI does not hate you, nor does it love you, but you are made out of atoms which it can use for something else." - https://intelligence.org/files/AIPosNegFactor.pdf https://intelligence.org/files/AIPosNegFactor.pdf (Artificial Intelligence as a Positive and Negative Factor in Global Risk)
- FooBarWidget 12y ago
  I still don't buy the doom scenario. There is so much more to world domination than just intelligence... like having the proper weapons. See https://what-if.xkcd.com/5/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/5/ Pigs are also intelligent, but they never dominated humans because they don't have / cannot use guns.
  - scanr 12y ago

fubarred 12y ago

In the US, up-vote for Challenger Schools (at least circa 1980's). They teach successful behaviors and are worth every penny. (Reaching and accelerating kids early is important.)

umbrae 12y ago
Was that mentioned anywhere in the AMA? I can't seem to find a thing on that.
- fubarred 12y ago
  Nope, Musk did http://www.whps.co.za http://www.whps.co.za Merely an observation that early environment shapes attitudes to life, learning, etc. which can either drive out curiosity and/or ambition or amplify it. (Excluding crucial social navigation and team dynamics, hitting most all of intelligence, ambition, curiosity, confidence (and so on) to do well, but not developing one or more of those tends to become self-limiting factor/s.) Overcoming adversity (being bullied) also helps.

lotsofmangos 12y ago

I am still reeling from having just learned that in Wernher Von Braun's book 'The Mars Project', it is proposed that the leader of the Martian government when it is formed shall be known as the 'Elon'. https://i.imgur.com/65YR89H.png https://i.imgur.com/65YR89H.png

throwawaymars 12y ago
The book says no such thing. http://books.google.com.uy/books?id=V16e-xQmyZQC&pg=PR5&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com.uy/books?id=V16e-xQmyZQC&pg=PR5&sour... Edit: There appears is a posthumously published book named Project Mars that says that. Not sure if I trust it.
- lotsofmangos 12y ago
  I confused things as there are two separate books with very similar titles by Braun, 'Project Mars' (ISBN - 0973820330) and 'The Mars Project' (ISBN - 0252062272). The first is sci-fi and the second is technical. Here's a pdf of Project Mars - http://www.wlym.com/archive/oakland/docs/MarsProject.pdf http://www.wlym.com/archive/oakland/docs/MarsProject.pdf The reference to the Elon is on page 177. I hadn't initially noticed the fact it was posthumously published in 2006, however it would seem like an odd kind of forgery, if it is one. Equally it does seem odd that Braun would choose Elon as the name of the Mars leader, so perhaps it might be a real work but with Elon added as a joke by the translator. Or perhaps Braun chose the word Elon because he sometimes thought of leaders as trees, or something, and it is all just a massive bit of luck. Personally I'm starting to suspect another explanation however. And if I'm right, there is an entire warehouse full of empty Elon Musk clones on ice, waiting for the spirit of Wernher Von Braun to animate each one in turn, in the event of damage occurring to the current corporeal vessel.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

sidcool 12y ago

Elon Musk is a super star on Reddit. I am personally a big big fan. If you see his responses, they are terse and snappy.

jonpress 12y ago

This guy has everything. Why is it that people feel an urge to praise him right to his face? His ego is going to start leaking out of his eyeballs.

jacquesm 12y ago
Compared to the entertainment crowd he's doing pretty good, he's coming off like a reasonably normal person. People are praising him because he's actually worthy of that, compared to say Justin Bieber.
JesseObrien 12y ago
Check out this video, he's very humble and down to earth. He's worthy of the praise he gets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOpmaLY9XdI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOpmaLY9XdI
- jonpress 12y ago
  I didn't mean to say that he has a big ego. What I meant was that he probably has to put some effort into not letting it 'get to his head'.
marze 12y ago
Almost everything. He doesn't have a city on Mars.

happyscrappy 12y ago

>3.Our spacesuit design is finally coming together and will also be unveiled later this year. We are putting a lot of effort into design esthetics, not just utility. It needs to both look like a 21st century spacesuit and work well. Really difficult to achieve both. I don't understand how looks are a legitimate criterion.