QUARTZ How Elon Musk learns faster and better than everyone else Enjoy this content in How isit even possible that Elon Musk could build four mltibilion jets es uses See) les by his mid-40s—in four separ ka ion, ann aerospace)? “To explain Mask’ success others have potted to his heroic work ete (he reultly works 85-hour week} his ability to se reality Astrting visions forthe future, ands incredible resilience Buta of these fet msatistactory to me. Plenty of people have these teats. wanted to now what he dl eiferenty, ‘As kept eading dozens of articles, videos, and books about Musk, noticed huge piece ofthe puzzle was missing. Conventional wisdom says that in order to became world-class, we should only focus on one eld Musk breaks that rule. Hs expertise ranges fom eke scence engineering, ysis, nd artificial iatllgence to solar power and Ina previous atic, people ike Musk “expertgeneralits"(a term coined ty Orit Gades, chairman of Rain & Company. Expert _generaists study widely in many diferent fs, understand deeper Principles that connect those fis, and then apply the principles to their core specialty. asc on my review of Muss life andthe academic iterate related‘o earn ana experase mt conmce unt we sow aE across multiple eld in onde oinerease our ods of breakthrough The jack of all trades myth It yorte someone who loves learning in diferent areas, you'te probably familiar with this well-intentioned advice: Grow up, Focus on just one kd” “Jack ofall trades. Master of none.” ‘The imple assumption is that iy study in multiple areas, youl oly lear at surface lve, never gain mastery. ‘The sucess of exper generalists throughout time shows that this is ‘wrong, Learning across multiple feds provides an information vantage (and therefore an ination advantage) because most eaple fous on ast one fel For example, if you're inthe tech industry and everyone ese is ust reading tech publications, but you aso know alot about blogs; you ‘have the abity 0 come up with ideas that almost noone else could Vice versa. If you'e in biology, but you you also understand artificial Intelligence, you have an information advantage aver everyone ese ‘who say slloed. Despite this basic insight, few people actually learn beyond their industry liar to others in ou eld ives 1s the ability to make combinations that they can’. This the expert generalist advantage ‘one fascinating sty echoes this insight It examined how the top $9 opera composers of the 20th century mastered thelr raft. Counter to succes of top performers can solely beexplane by deliberate practice and spetaliation, the researcher eat Keith Simonton found the exaet opposite: “The compositions of the most sucessful opeati composers tended to representa mix of gems. composers were able avoid the inflexibility of to much expertise (overtraining by cross-training,” summarizes Univesity of| Pennsylvania searcher Scot Barry Kaufinan ina ScintcAnerican atte the conventional narrative Musk’s “learning transfer” superpower Starting from his early teenage years, Musk would read through | books per dyin various disciplines according to isos, Kimbal Musk To pot that contest, fyou ead one book a month sk would read 6 tines. as many books as you At first, Musk’s eaing spanned sclence fiction, philosophy, religion, programming, and biographies of scents, engineers, and entrepreneurs. Ase got older, his reaing and cree interests spread to physics, engineering, product desig, business technology, and energy. This thirst for knowledge alowed hi to gt exposed toa ‘variety of subjects he had never necessarily lemme bout in seloo,Musk als good at avery specie ype of learning tat most others aren't even aware of leaning transfer Leaming transfer staking what we earn In one context and applying lt to another It canbe taking a kere of what we lar in school a in a book and applying ito the “real world.” It can also be taking what ‘welearn in one industry and applying ito another. ™ unique two-step process fr fostering Yearning fs where Musk shines, Several fis interviews show tate has ose, First, he deconstructs knowledge into fundamental principles Mss answerona Rest AMA desres hae he does that 1esimpotant to vew inowge as sort of seman tee sake se yu uerstand the fundamental pnp, ke ‘the trunk and big branches, before you get into the Teavesdetllsor there nothing for them to hang ont. ese sess that taming your knowledge into deeper, abstract brincoles facitates lamin transfer. Reseacl also suggests that ‘one tehinlaue particularly powerful for helping people nt underlying principles. This technique clled, “eontasting cases” Here's how it works: Le’ say you want to deconstruct the etter and understand the deeper principle of what makes an "A" an A. Le’ further say that you have two approaches you could use ro do this Which approach do you think would work better? Approach #1. ach different Ain Approach #1 gives more insight into ‘what stays the same and what difers between each A. Each Ain Approach #2 ves us no insight By looking at lots of verse cases when we lear anything, we ben to intl what i essential and even caf ur on unique ‘combinations. What does x day-to-day fe? When were jumping nto 8 new fled, we shouldnt just ake one approsel or best practice, We should explore lots of aiferent approaches, dconsit each one, And then conve anid conta then This wl help ws uncover ering princes. Next, he reconstructs the fundamental principles fields Step two of Musk’ leaning transfer process involves econstuctng the foundational princples he’s learved nati intelligence, technology, physics, and engineering nt separate es: innew In aerospace in order to create SpaceX In automotive in oder to create Tesla with sef-diving features In teansin oder to ensision the liyperioop Im aviation i order to envision eestse stat that take of and and verticallyIn technology tn order to envision a ual lace that tmtetaees your brain In technology tn order to help bud Pal In technology inorder oco-fornd Opel, non-profit hat limits the probability of negative artifical ineligence fares Keith Holyoak a UCLA professor of psychology and one af the word's leoting thinkers on analogical reasoning, recommends people ask themselves the following twe questions in oder to hone ther skis: “What dors this remind me of” and "Why does it remind me of 2° By constantly looking at object in your envionment and material you read and asking yourself these two questions, you ull the muscles in your brain that help you make connections across traditional boundarles. Bottom line: It’s not magic. It’s just the right learning process "Now, we can bein toaderstand how Musk has become a world-class expert-generalist: He spent many years esdng 60 times as much as an avid reader He read widely across diferent disciplines He constantly applied what he learned by deconstructing ideas fundamental principles and reconstructing them in new AL the deepest level what we can lear fom Mss story stat we shld accept the dogna that specialization isthe best or only path toward eater succes and pact Legendary expert-generais Buckminster Fuller sures shit kn thinking we shoul al ‘consider. He shared It decades ago, but i's just a relevant today “Wie ate in an age that assimes thatthe narrowing tends of specialization to be logical, natural, and desirable. In the rmeantine, humanity has hen deprived of comprehensive ‘understanding. Speclalizaton has bred felings of sation, ‘ty, and confusion in individuals. thas also resulted in the individual's leaving esponsibility for thinking a social action to others. Specialization breeds biases that ultimately aggregate as Intemational and Meola discord, whieh In tum east wat” lf we pt inthe time and learn core concepts aross felis and anys relate those concepts back to our life and the word translating between areas becomes ich easier an faster. ‘As we build up a reservoir of "fis principles” and associate those principles with ciferent els, we suddenly gain the superpower of| eing able oo into anew fed we've never eared before, and quiely make unique contebations ‘Understanding Musk’ learning superpowers helps us gan some Insight into how he could go int an industry that has been around for more than 100 years and change the whole basis of ow the field competes. lon Musk sone ofa kind, but his bites aren't magical Want to take o fear ike Mask? Lereteda free ern oerwis you mht ike, e's base on the ening best practices of the world’s top enteeprencs vno® [tects care clit be cheaper and av ‘greener. But are they? Per How Warren Buffett’s billionaire deputy became an “expert-generalist” Tim Cook honored his friend Steve Jobs with a powerful plea for fearlessness Simple math is why Elon Musk’s companies keep doing what others don’t even consider possible Top Al researchers say they won’t make killer robots Glossier CEO Emily Weissaa a TOA tanauen doesn’t have time for excuses: “Just do your job” Zuckerberg and Gates’s lobby group is fighting for H-1B spouses’ right to work Sexual harassers in Silicon Valley have no idea how to redeem themselves The promise of a hyperloop in India: 150km in 25 minutes Our system is so broken, we're turning to billionaires like Bezos to save us 2018’s best food travel show isn’t even hosted by a chef—and that’s what makes it so great hacen nen 290 nuhlinHIeIe are Gee puUE companies with no women on their boards. Here’s the list Math class techniques can fix the writing class culture that leaves too many students behind Hyperloop One’s CEO on why it’s building an app before an actual hyperloop