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Quotes by Entrepreneur
!["I think it's important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it's like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths and then reason up from there."](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==)
"I think it's important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it's like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths and then reason up from there."
1
"So we originally expected to make about 35 gigawatt hours at the cell level and about 50 gigawatt hours at the module or pack level. Now we are expecting to do about 150 gigawatt hours in the same volumetric space as the original design."
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"There have to be reasons that you get up in the morning and you want to live. Why do you want to live? What's the point? What inspires you? What do you love about the future? If the future does not include being out there among the stars and being a multi-planet species, I find that incredibly depressing."
1
"It is definitely true that the fundamental enabling technology for electric cars is lithium-ion as a cell chemistry technology. In the absence of that, I don't think it's possible to make an electric car that is competitive with a gasoline car."
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"The fundamental good of society is not the state, it's not the politicians, it's the people."
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"If we drive down the cost of transportation in space, we can do great things."
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"SpaceX is only 12 years old now. Between now and 2040, the company's lifespan will have tripled. If we have linear improvement in technology, as opposed to logarithmic, then we should have a significant base on Mars, perhaps with thousands or tens of thousands of people."
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"The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You're encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren't that smart, who aren't that creative."
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"The only way to make a great product is to make a product that people want."
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"Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence."
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"It's OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket."
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"The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I'm not trying to be anyone's savior. I'm just trying to think about the future and not be sad."
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"Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough."
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"If something's important enough, you should try. Even if you - the probable outcome is failure."
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"It's not about the money. It's about the people you're working with, and how you're helping them."
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"If you look at our current technology level, something strange has to happen to civilisations, and I mean strange in a bad way. And it could be that there are a whole lot of dead, one-planet civilisations."
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"Winning 'Motor Trend' Car of the year is probably the closest thing to winning the Oscar or Emmy of the car industry."
1
"If you want to grow a giant redwood, you need to make sure the seeds are ok, nurture the sapling, and work out what might potentially stop it from growing all the way along. Anything that breaks it at any point stops that growth."
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"I think the world will be a much better place if we put our energy towards important things."
"When people stop dying, they want to create wealth."
"Mars is the only place in the solar system where it's possible for life to become multi-planetarian."
"The lessons of history would suggest that civilisations move in cycles. You can track that back quite far - the Babylonians, the Sumerians, followed by the Egyptians, the Romans, China. We're obviously in a very upward cycle right now, and hopefully that remains the case. But it may not."
"If you look at space companies, they've failed either because they've had a technical solution where success was not a possible outcome, they were unable to attract a critical mass of talent, or they just ran out of money. The finish line is usually a lot further away than you think."
"The U.S. automotive industry has been selling cars the same way for over 100 years, and there are many laws in place to govern exactly how that is to be accomplished."
"I think that's the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself."
"If you're trying to create a company, it's like baking a cake. You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion."
"You want to be extra careful when making big decisions, but once you make a decision, stick with it."
"I've actually made a prediction that within 30 years a majority of new cars made in the United States will be electric. And I don't mean hybrid, I mean fully electric."
"The idea of Tesla is to accelerate sustainable energy, to really make a difference."
"In order to have your voice be heard in Washington, you have to make some little contribution."
"Government isn't that good at rapid advancement of technology. It tends to be better at funding basic research. To have things take off, you've got to have commercial companies do it."
"I don't think it's a good idea to plan to sell a company."
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