Elon Musk: Who's Better? Engineers or Scientists?
Summary
TLDRIn an interview at the USA Science and Engineering Festival, Elon Musk discusses the symbiotic relationship between science and engineering, emphasizing the importance of engineering in driving scientific discoveries. He highlights the slowing pace of physics due to a lack of engineering advancements, such as particle colliders. Musk also shares his motivations for creating companies like PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX, aiming to expand human consciousness and understanding of the universe. He encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to overcome the fear of starting companies and to focus on creating compelling prototypes to drive change.
Takeaways
- đŹ Elon Musk is a proponent of engineering, suggesting that engineers often drive scientific discoveries.
- đ Historical figures like Galileo, Faraday, and Maxwell were great engineers who contributed significantly to science.
- đ The lack of advancements in physics is attributed by Musk to a slowdown in engineering, specifically the development of particle colliders.
- đ§ Musk believes in expanding the scale and scope of consciousness to improve our understanding of the universe.
- đ€ He emphasizes the importance of asking the right questions, as highlighted by Douglas Adams in 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'.
- đ Musk's ventures like PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX aim to change human consciousness and operations significantly.
- đĄ The motivation behind his ventures is to grow the scale of human consciousness and understanding.
- đŒ Starting a company involves studying engineering, designing new things, and creating a compelling prototype.
- đž Venture capital can provide funding to help take innovative ideas to the next level.
- đ Fear of starting a company should be managed, as the worst outcomes are not dire, according to Musk.
Q & A
Who is Todd Seer interviewing at the USA science and engineering festival?
-Todd Seer is interviewing Elon Musk at the USA science and engineering festival.
What is Elon Musk's educational background according to the transcript?
-Elon Musk is classically trained as an engineer and a physicist.
Who does Elon Musk believe wins in the debate between scientists and engineers?
-Elon Musk suggests that engineers often win the debate, but also acknowledges that many great scientists were actually great engineers.
Who are some examples of individuals that Elon Musk considers to be both scientists and engineers?
-Elon Musk mentions Galileo, Faraday, and Maxwell as examples of individuals who were known for their scientific discoveries but were also great engineers.
What does Elon Musk think drives advancements in physics?
-Elon Musk believes that engineering, specifically the development of tools like colliders, drives advancements in physics.
Why does Elon Musk think physics has slowed down in recent years?
-Elon Musk thinks physics has slowed down due to the lack of engineering advancements, such as the development of a new collider.
What motivates Elon Musk to create companies like PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX?
-Elon Musk is motivated by the desire to grow the scale and scope of consciousness and improve our understanding of the universe.
What advice does Elon Musk give to people who want to make change?
-Elon Musk advises people to study engineering, design new things, create a compelling prototype, and not fear starting a company.
What does Elon Musk think is the key to making a difference in the world?
-Elon Musk believes that asking the right questions, as highlighted by Douglas Adams in 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', is the key to making a difference.
What is Elon Musk's perspective on the role of venture capital in starting companies?
-Elon Musk sees venture capital as a strong industry that provides funding to take ideas to the next level once a compelling prototype is created.
How does Elon Musk view the potential risks of starting a company?
-Elon Musk downplays the risks of starting a company, suggesting that the worst that could happen is not starving or dying of exposure.
Outlines
đ Interview with Elon Musk on Science and Engineering
In this interview at the USA Science and Engineering Festival, Todd Seer sits down with Elon Musk to discuss the roles of science and engineering. Elon, trained as a physicist and engineer, is asked to choose between the two professions, to which he responds that engineering often drives scientific discoveries, citing examples like Galileo, Faraday, and Maxwell. He argues that advancements in physics have slowed due to a lack of engineering progress, specifically mentioning the need for a new particle collider. Elon also discusses his ventures like PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX, emphasizing the importance of expanding human consciousness and understanding of the universe. He suggests that the real challenge is not the information available but the motivation to act on it.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄEngineer
đĄScientist
đĄPhysics
đĄCollider
đĄConsciousness
đĄPayPal
đĄTesla
đĄSpaceX
đĄVenture Capital
đĄPrototype
đĄApathy
Highlights
Elon Musk believes that engineering often drives scientific discoveries.
Historic figures like Galileo, Faraday, and Maxwell were great engineers.
Physics advancements have slowed due to a lack of engineering progress in particle colliders.
Engineering advancements are crucial for driving physics discoveries.
Elon Musk's ventures aim to grow the scale and scope of human consciousness.
Improving our understanding of the universe is a key motivation for Musk.
The importance of asking the right questions rather than just having answers.
Musk discusses overcoming apathy and taking action on the information we have.
Starting a company is easier if you study engineering and design new things.
Creating a compelling prototype is crucial for starting a company.
Venture capital can provide funding to take ideas to the next level.
Musk encourages people not to fear starting a company.
The worst-case scenario of starting a company is not as bad as one might think.
Musk's discussion on space exploration and the commercialization of space travel.
The interview took place at the USA Science and Engineering Festival.
Musk's ventures like PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX are changing human operations.
Transcripts
[Music]
so my name is Todd Seer we are here at
the USA science and engineering festival
and I'm sitting down with Elon Musk to
talk about science engineering and the
generations to come now Elon you're
you're classically trained as an
engineer as a physicist is physicist
here's the question then what's better a
scientist or an engineer who wins
engineer every time uh well I wouldn't
say every time and a lot of people that
sort of um are known for their
scientific discoveries are actually
really great Engineers like Galileo for
example okay okay very good or Faraday
or really Maxwell or anyone I mean I I
think you know it is an interesting
debate as to sort of does Engineering
Drive discoveries in physics or just
physics you know just drive discoveries
in engineering I think actually it's
mostly engineering um and I think for
example in in recent years um if you
look at how how much physics has slowed
down because the lack of really um
Engineering in the form of a collider so
everybody's just sitting around waiting
for a bloody collider so I'd say if if
physics was really driving things why
aren't the advancements being made uh
and and it's I think it's it's clearly
uh the engineering of of the collider is
what drives the advancements interesting
now you've with between PayPal and more
than just these things of course but
you've got PayPal Tesla and SpaceX all
three of these things are huge
challenges huge ways basically changing
the way people think what drives you to
try to find these opportunities but not
in a economic way but these ways to kind
of change the way human beings
operate I think it's good to grow the
scale and cons the scale scope and scale
of
Consciousness um and uh and thus improve
our understanding of the universe and um
and and the sort of and and in fact to
improve the sort of questions that we we
we would ask you know as sort of as
dougas Adam said said in TR guide of the
Galaxy the real trick is the question
not the answer there's so much
information but the need to kind of get
over the apathy of having the
information to doing something about it
now not all of us are going to start
space exploration companies and electric
vehicle
companies this the scale changes but
what can people do or what what
motivations do people need to harness to
try to make change as opposed to just
reading about
change
um and that's not supposed to be an easy
question I don't oh it's it's this well
um like I said I think um if if you if
you study engineering and and you figure
out how to design new things um then um
It's relatively easy to start a company
um you just need to get a few
like-minded people um with you and and
then focus on creating a prototype a
compelling prototype as soon as possible
um and then that you know there's
there's a there's a strong Venture uh
Capital industry in this in this country
that will give you funding to take
things to the next level um and that
that's all there is to it um and you
might if you know tried a few times you
might may or may not succeed but um I
think sometimes people fear fear
starting a company too much um you know
they have to say really what's worst
that could go wrong you're not going to
starve to death you're not going to die
of exposure um what's the worst that
could go wrong you
know so I've been speaking with Elon
Musk here at the USA science and
engineering Festival uh in our next
video you can learn more about what Elon
has done with space exploration and the
commercialization of space
[Music]
travel
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