Want To Innovate Like Elon Musk? Know How To Learn Like Him First
The product-development strategy behind the iPhone, Tesla Semi, and more
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If the billionaire SpaceX CEO were watching me learn how to code Android apps for the first time, he would be severely disappointed.
A few years ago, I wanted to create my own apps for the Google Play Store. The first app I published was even trending in its category. However, the illustration of my learning process would undoubtedly be thrown shade at if Elon were to Tweet on ambiem again (and, of course, if the illustration would actually be of any significant relevance to him).
I say that because my learning process was the exact opposite of the one that he religiously follows, and I can confirm first-hand that I’m incredibly stupid to have done that.
The problem is that too many people follow the same broken procedure — without ever realising how grossly inefficient (and mostly ineffective) it is.
They fail to do so because:
- They’re too busy learning to stop and focus on the underlying process of learning itself.
- They aren’t aware of a hugely superior alternative to that process.
The more I persevered using the same way of learning (hello, sunk-cost fallacy), the more obvious it became why the brain behind arguably some of the most innovative and exciting companies of the world would disapprove of my course of learning.
Here’s why
I learned about Android-specific libraries before I learned about general Java libraries and functions.
I learned how to work with complicated widgets before I learned how to perform the most basic functions (like using ArrayLists).
And it wasn’t going well for me.
Way too often, I’d have to pay visits to Google to (shamefully) look up questions which were simpler and more basic than the ones I was already answering. I constantly had to keep on going backwards and forward on the learning curve again — leading to tons of time being wasted. Only then, after a lot of thinking, I realised that the flaw lied in the way I’d learned how to code.
Leaves don’t germinate
When I started seeking a better learning method, I came across Elon’s thoughts on the same.
He has always recommended learning from the ground up.
Picture a body of knowledge (coding, for example) as a tree. This tree has a multitude of different parts. The basic ones are leaves, fruits, branches, the trunk, and then the roots.
He believes that the buildup of a body of knowledge should follow the natural process of the growth of a tree. Start with the roots. Only after that, go on to the trunk, the branches, and then add the minute leaves and fruits.
Let’s go back to my learning story. By trying to learn the specifics and complexities first, I was trying to create the leaves before I’d created the branches. That is why those leaves were constantly falling.
If I were to follow Elon’s process, my order of learning would be something like this:
- What computers are and how they operate
- What hardware and software is
- What programming really is, and why it is important
- Types of programming languages and compilers
- The algorithms, norms, libraries, etc. of the language which concerns me (Java)
- What Android really is and how it works — kernels, activity life-cycles, etc.
- Android-specific libraries and norms in Java
Are you seeing the pattern yet? This is one of the biggest reasons why Elon Musk sees the world differently — because he breaks down all the questions posed with his strong “Why-hammer”, and keeps on chipping away until he hears a clink— i.e. the first principles.
It’s not easy
This process of learning can be very taxing. It takes a great deal of patience to learn all about the history of transportation just so you can understand why Tesla is important. It can also be, in most cases, very time-consuming.
However, it is arguably a very valuable one-time investment, thus bringing this priceless Abe Lincoln quote into the picture:
“Give me six hours to chop a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
— Abraham Lincoln
A blunt axe is comparable to a blurry, poorly arranged matrix of thoughts and truths in a knowledge-block. Information and ideas will take much longer to traverse through this block, and will very often get distorted or lost in the process. A knowledge body with tons of details and weak fundamentals won’t stand, just like a tree with five tons of leaves and a thin trunk won’t.
Thus, the extra efforts, patience and time which are demanded by this arduous process of learning are very well justified.
Innovate Like Elon
A significant portion of the reason behind the success of Elon Musk as an innovator lies behind this learning process. To be more specific, it lies behind the application of the same fundamentals as this learning process to the process of product development.
I believe the phrase “rethinking a product” isn’t new to you.
Tons of startups and big companies throw it around frequently. It means going back to the drawing board, rubbing what’s been there for a long time, and redesigning the product from scratch. (Play bell_ringing.mp3. Yes, similar to the learning process).
In product design, just like in learning, Elon believes in creating from the ground up. And he isn’t the only one. Remember the first iPhone launch, back in 2007? The reason why many of us would say “yes” to that question, is the fact that Steve Jobs insisted on “reinventing” the phone — and the result was magnificent.
Recently, with the launch of the Tesla Semi truck, Elon made it very clear that he intended to rethink what a truck should be. Once again, he started at the roots and then gradually moved upwards to the details, like the shape of the leaves and the size of the fruits.
Not all manufacturers do this, and that leads to the prevalence of the same flaws and shortcomings across most of the products in the market. These flaws become inherent in the strict unwritten design norms that prevail over long periods of time. A great example would be the obnoxious physical buttons present in most phones before the first iPhone.
And then, someone like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs comes around, looks at the whiteboard, and says, “Let’s not be lazy. Let’s erase all of this and draw it all over again.”
That is what makes all the difference.
That is how some of the best innovations have taken place, and the fundamental heuristic behind all of them was the same “learn-from-the-ground-up” process which Elon religiously follows — and if you intend to do the same, it would be a great idea to learn how to learn like Elon Musk first.
