Elon Musk Is Not A Genius
Where do your ideas come from? Do you have enough fun?
☀️ Welcome to another edition of Louis’ Learnings ☀️
This week I share three ideas.
Do we have enough of the right kind of fun?
Why do we do what we do and think what we think?
Is Elon Musk a genius?
Enjoy!
🌍 A Quick Note of Appreciation 🌍
If you have been consistently reading my work, thank you so much for the support!
If you ever want to show your appreciation, the very best way is to give me feedback.
Tell me what you enjoyed. Tell me what you disagree with.
I’d love to hear from you 😃
Onto the newsletter…
📐 Three Ideas 📐
(1) The Crucial Value of Play
These past few days have no-doubt been the very best I’ve felt all semester.
While I could credit this to my salty meat diet, I am instead giving the credit to play.
Every day this week, I gave myself the time to leave the house and genuinely play.
Some highlights: racquetball in the dark (s/o Jackson), frisbee and DeFi (s/o Kyle), sunshine and tennis (s/o Ali and Connor), singing (s/o Connor), and billiards and tequila (s/o Elijah and Zak).
Outside of these games, my other forms of leisure do not provide an effective mental escape from thinking about school, my career, the price of Bitcoin, my productivity, my podcast, and my other projects.
Because these play activities demand my full attention (to avoid being hit in the face with a piece of rubber, plastic, or ceramic), I actually enjoy a few hours of mental recharge time.
As much as I love reading, writing, and have a genuine interest in my coursework, this *forced* time off to grunt, scream, and sprint has been an absolute gamechanger.
My challenge to you? Fit in 30 minutes of physical fun today.
(2) Personal Idea Etymology
For the unfamiliar, etymology is “the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history.”
As someone absorbed by ideas and self-experimentation, I am always fascinated by retracing my personal idea etymology.
How the heck did this idea get in my brain? Where did this come from?
Because I frequently find myself in the world of extremes (completely sober for 2020, completely vegan for 2018, currently completely carnivore), it is fun to answer the question “how did I get here?”
For a demonstration, let’s answer “why am I doing the carnivore diet?”
January 2014: My sister shows me a vegetarian documentary. I try it for a month and stick with it for 6 years.
January 2018: I befriend my first male vegan. He inspires me to ditch dairy and go ALL in.
January 2019: I read Antifragile. A seed of doubt into veganism has been planted.
May 2019: I start working out with my friend who squats 500 lbs. He nags at me to eat meat if I want my lifts to go up. I ignore him and stay small.
August 2019: I move to Thailand. I go pescatarian (fish and dairy okay) to avoid a constant language barrier.
January 2020: I’m serious about lifting and start drinking 11 cups of milk a day to gain weight. It works well. I gain 25+ pounds in 70 days. I break 225 on bench.
January 2020: Conor-White Sullivan, founder of Roam tells me to join Twitter. I follow David Perell.
February 2020: Elijah (and my professor) roast me for eating 7 hard-boiled eggs and 3 cups of whole-milk in a 9 am class. I’m tempted to find an easier way to get stronger.
March 2020: COVID hits. I can’t buy 5 gallons of milk every week. Also, gyms close. Without lifting, 100% of the milk will become body fat. My 6-year stint collapses. I eat Panda Express teriyaki chicken and a Slim Jim. The cat is out of the bag. All hell breaks loose.
Also March 2020: I start a podcast (largely inspired by David Perell).
June 2020: I find Carnivore Aurelius on Twitter. His persuasive writing convinces me to try the carnivore diet. I quit after 3 weeks.
February 2021: I get a random email offering an interview with Dr. Jaquish. In prep, I devour his entire book, a STRONG sales pitch for the carnivore diet. I then devour the Carnivore Code by Dr. Paul Saladino. I full-send carnivore again.
March 2021: You get a dramatic Louis’ Learnings email about why I dealt with awful leg cramps for four days last week.
It is fascinating to explore the unpredictable events that lead us to where we are now.
My challenge to you? Take a few minutes to think about where you are. What were the innocuous chance moments that sent you on the path to be where you are now?
(3) Elon Musk is not a genius. [Rant]
Stop telling yourself that he is. Stop telling other people that he is.
When you call Elon a genius, you imply that he is superior in an inaccessible way.
This helps NOBODY.
When you call Elon a genius you suggest that
He was born with abilities that we do not have and can not acquire.
His brain works in ways beyond what we could ever achieve.
It is not worth attempting to succeed at his level.
I’m not claiming to be as smart as Elon Musk.
Instead, I’m claiming his intelligence is much less distant when you demystify it.
Let’s analyze a few components of his success.
Elon Thinks Big: He is willing to dream on a massive scale. His imagination is limitless. Mars? Why not?
Elon Asks Questions: Is this physically possible? Is there a better way? How could I make this work?
Elon Uses Aggressive Timelines: He is always filled with urgency. You know the feeling of facing a highly public deadline; you work especially hard to meet it.
Elon Challenges Assumptions: Do we need to do things the same way as everyone else? What if we did the opposite? Why? Why? Why?
Elon Builds Rigorous Fundamental Knowledge: He learns physics by reading difficult textbooks, not by trolling Wikipedia. The height of a pyramid is limited by the size and strength of the base.
Elon Delegates: He builds teams of experts and lets them contribute.
Elon has a high Risk Tolerance: Elon is willing to fail. When you swing for the fences, you miss more often. When you hit, however, the ball sails much further.
Elon isn’t addicted to comfort: Elon (at least in the past) was not married to a baseline quality of luxury life. He was willing to stake his entire fortune on his ideas.
Are any of these traits beyond your capabilities?
Elon may be marginally smarter than average, but it is his habits that drive his success.
It isn’t raw intellectual horsepower. It is intelligent habits, systems, and questions.
It isn’t raw brains. It is bravery, chutzpah, and curiosity.
Stop treating Elon like a one-in-a-billion genetic possibility. Instead, treat him like an above-average guy with incredible success habits.
Stop selling yourself short and worshipping a human. This is golden calf 101.
Instead, build yourself to his level. Become a critical thinker. Ask big questions.
The more you study someone, the less of a genius you realize they are.
The more we tell each other that Elon is a genius, the fewer Elon Musk’s we will produce as a society.
You can do great things too. I assure you, you have what it takes.
Fun Links
My Content Updates 🎧
LK Podcast #59 with Blog of Jake: Jake, an anonymous blogger, joins us to discuss the future of crypto, longevity, and cities. We also discuss media optimism and anonymity.
LK Podcast #58 with Dr. John Jaquish inventor of the X3: Dr. Jaquish shares fitness advice and explains how to organize training around the endocrine system.
LK Podcast #57 with Scott Young author of Ultralearning: The best ideas from a decade of teaching about productivity, motivation, philosophy, and success.
LK Content Coming Soon 📅
Louis and Kyle, 1 Year of Podcasting in Review
Ryan Robinson from RyRob.com (blogger with 300k monthly readers)
Khe Hy of RadReads, Oprah for Millenials
Steph Smith from Trends (newsletter from The Hustle)
Quick Clicks
I read this entire book in 3 days. It is “the story of Jerry Weintraub: the self-made, Brooklyn-born, Bronx-raised impresario, Hollywood producer, [and] legendary deal maker. It is filled with hilarious tales of massive chutzpah.
(Idea etymology? This book was recommended to me in The Third Door, which was recommended to me by Kyle).
(2) 📈 Fun Software Tool 📈 : TubeBuddy
If you are a data nerd, you’ll love TubeBuddy. It overlays YouTube with interesting statistics about channel popularity and YouTube Search Engine Data. We’ve used it to optimize our channel (which just hit 100 subscribers 😃 ).
(Idea etymology? This tool was recommended to me by Luminita, our awesome podcast marketing intern).
That’s all for this week
Stay optimistic. Believe in your abilities. If you are literate, you can learn or do anything.
While the world is far from perfect, it is incredibly exciting and full of opportunities IF you have the right mindset.
Have an inspired week.
Much love,
Louis
Photo of the Week - Singing at The Top of Our Lungs
I clearly haven’t figured out the perfect camera angle for vlogging yet.
Maybe one day 😂
LOVED this post and Elon breakdown. I was no joke just thinking about him similarly the other day along with the whole concept of us all having the exact same 24 hours in a day. Some can masterfully leverage time. Every damn second. Many cannot.
More tennis! Less talking about Elon!