ELON MUSK:
I think, generally, their {other people’s} thinking process is too bound by convention or analogy to prior experiences. So it’s very rare that people try to think of something on a first principles basis. They’ll say, “We’ll do that because it’s always been done that way.” Or they’ll not do it because, “Well, nobody has ever done that. So it must not be good.” But that’s just a ridiculous way to think.
INTERVIEWER:
ELON MUSK:
I don’t know. I’ve just always thought that way, I suppose. I mean, I would always think about something and whether that thing was really true or not. Could something else be true or is there a better conclusion that one could draw that’s more probable? I don’t know. I was doing that when I was in elementary school. And I would just question things. Or, maybe, it’s sort of built-in [to our nature] to question things.
It would infuriate my parents.
INTERVIEWER:
That you would think differently about things, or, what?
ELON MUSK:
“Why?” is a really hard question for some people to ask. I imagine this is because these people had parents who discouraged such questions, either because they found them annoying or because they simply couldn’t answer them. This always infuriates me though. Don’t you want to know why?? How can you not want to know??
Though Musk doesn’t actually mention creativity or curiosity, the “Why?” is really the foundation, as Musk hints at, to a successful life. He’s right: it is harder to think this way. There’s not a lot of time for your brain to just idle or veg out once you get in the “Why?” habit. But, nobody ever became an electric car baron/rocketship designer/ solar king by turning their brain off. For that matter, nobody ever became anything by turning their brain off.
See the full interview here.
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