--- title: Elon Musk on How to Build Knowledge description: "Most people can learn a lot more than they think they can" canonical: https://time.com/3818261/elon-musk-knowledge/ author: Shane Parrish article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-25T11:00:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:34.827Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Elon Musk on How To Build Knowledge og:description: "Most people can learn a lot more than they think they can" og:url: https://time.com/3818261/elon-musk-knowledge/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd6415a8d7249ce28/6987eaa9428a9eda49ccadbc/elon-musk.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Elon Musk at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California on March 17, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Elon Musk on How To Build Knowledge twitter:description: "Most people can learn a lot more than they think they can" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd6415a8d7249ce28/6987eaa9428a9eda49ccadbc/elon-musk.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Elon Musk on How to Build Knowledge > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=26f65f71-a53b-484b-9924-ae6f6fa4034c&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 10 Questions for Elon Musk [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Elon Musk](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ojvQqx85.m3u8) (6:01)  _Published 2010-07-08. The engineer-magnate is a co-founder of electric-car maker Tesla Motors. Elon Musk will now take your questions._ by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish May 25, 2015 11:00 AM UTC  Elon Musk at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California on March 17, 2015. Elon Musk at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California on March 17, 2015. David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish May 25, 2015 11:00 AM UTC Elon Musk recently did an [AMA on reddit](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rgsan/i%5Fam%5Felon%5Fmusk%5Fceocto%5Fof%5Fa%5Frocket%5Fcompany%5Fama/). Here are three question-and-response pairs that I enjoyed, including how to build knowledge. He knows how to say [I don’t know](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/05/the-power-of-i-dont-know/). --- > “” --- Everyone has that one teacher… --- > “” --- Finally, his answer on building knowledge reminds me of [The Five Elements of Effective Thinking](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/07/five-elements-of-effective-thinking/) and the [latticework of mental models](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/mental-models/). --- > “” --- **_Follow your curiosity_** _to_ [_Elon Musk Recommends 12 Books_](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/11/elon-musk-book-recommendations/)_._ **_This piece originally appeared on_** [**_Farnam Street_**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/)**_._** **Join over 50,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/)**.** ## Transcript >> Hi, I'm Bryan Alexander with TIME and I'm here with Elon Musk who's been dubbed the real- life Tony Stark and who is also the founder of PayPal, the founder of Tesla Motors and the current head of this company, SpaceX. >> Right. >> Thank you so much for joining us. >> Thanks for having me. >> Kevin Lennon in Harbor, Michigan asks: Tesla Motors was recently awarded $ 465 million in a loan from the Federal Government and I believe SpaceX seeks money from the Federal Government as well. Doesn't this contradict your libertarian views? >> No, I don't think it does contradict those views because we're just living in very unusual times. We're living in times with capital availability is extremely difficult and even the private markets somewhat weak right now. I mean, this is the worst periods-- financial period since the Great Depression. So I think, you know, special times call for special circumstances and I think in this time particularly when you're dealing with something requires enormous amount of capital to get done, which is susceptible to car company. I think it does make sense to accept alone from the Department of Energy. >> Tom Hale in New York City asks: Do you really think the electric car can replace the combustion engine? >> I think probably within 20 years, a majority of new cost manufacture will be pure electric. It will take another 10 or 15 years beyond that or the fleet of existing cost will be primarily electric 'cause it takes a while to switch out things, but I feel confident in saying that within 20 years, probably sooner, majority of new cost manufacture will be pure electric. >> And what about plans? I mean, do you have any kind of timetable for that when you talk about-- >> Yeah. >> You know, it seems pretty hypothetical at this point and when does a concrete work begin with that. >> I do feel pretty confident that with what I know-- with what I've learned from doing SpaceX, which is an aerospace company and what I've learned from doing Tesla actually has a lot of experience with electric motors and batteries like a thing. I combine the knowledge that's a boost too, then it's really ideal for creating a supersonic electric plane, right? >> You're the guy. >> I've kinda make sense. So-- >> I don't see anybody behind you. >> Right. I don't know who's been-- who's chasing on that one, but-- So, I do think I've got the necessary ingredients to design the plane and make it work. I just need enough bandwidth, a personal bandwidth to be able to get it done. >> Andrew Colgree from Perth, Western Australia asks: How did you feel when the Falcon 9 successfully launched and achieved orbit? >> I was definitely elation in that case. I was super-- super excited and glad and it was-- You know, there was a lot of riding on that rockets beyond just basics because we're really at the historic inflection point for a transition to commercial space and the success or failure of Falcon 9 was at that point in history really kind of shifted that whole debate. NASA is right now moving towards commercial. The president is moving things towards commercial. There's a lot of opposition in Congress. Ironically, a lot of that opposition is coming from Republican side of the House. I think it's somewhat not well reason that it's sort of strange that you have some Republican centers and Congressmen oppose to commercialization. You know, they think the public auction is, you know, public auction is terrible unless it applies to space. It doesn't make any sense. >> Eric Kulu from Tartu, Estonia asks: >> Wow. From Australia to Estonia. >> Yes. We give you the world here at time. SpaceX was founded with the long- term goal of enabling humanity to become a space- faring civilization. Are you hoping to see that in your lifetime? >> Yes. I really am. I know, of course, it depends on how long I live. Within 40 years, we could be a space- faring civilization. The critical breakthrough-- technological breakthrough that's necessary for that is to create a truly reusable rocket system. I mean, it's not-- you know, launching expendable rockets is nice and, yes, we can be a very successful rocket company and we could even be the, you know, the overwhelmingly successful rocket company. I think there's a good chance we could be the-- the main, you know, a very high market share and really be, you know, quite dominant in the aerospace launch. But nonetheless if we do not make reusability work, I would not consider it to be a success. >> What advice would you give to young persons of developing countries who are seriously considering to be an entrepreneur, but still feeling a bit wobbly? >> You really-- When you try to create a company what you really try to do is organize a group of people to do something useful and something useful is as measured by other people who are the consumers of your products and services. But this team may seem like an obvious thing, but often people organized groups into a company that doesn't produce something useful, or the people consider useful. So, you definitely wanna listen to any positive or negative feedback that you get, which is not necessarily you believe it, but you need to look at it if any positive or negative feedback is safe, maybe it's correct, maybe it's not. Weigh it up and just sort of [ unk ] reflect on all information you receive. >> But don't be afraid to pull the trigger even in this-- >> No. >> if you got the guts. >> Yeah, exactly. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3818261/elon-musk-knowledge/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3818261/elon-musk-knowledge/"},"headline":"Elon Musk on How to Build Knowledge","datePublished":"2015-05-25T11:00:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:49:34.827Z","description":"\"Most people can learn a lot more than they think they can\"","url":"https://time.com/3818261/elon-musk-knowledge/","keywords":["Psychology","Elon Musk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd6415a8d7249ce28/6987eaa9428a9eda49ccadbc/elon-musk.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Shane Parrish","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd6415a8d7249ce28/6987eaa9428a9eda49ccadbc/elon-musk.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Elon Musk at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California on March 17, 2015.","caption":"Elon Musk at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California on March 17, 2015.","creditText":"David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/psychology/","name":"Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3818261/elon-musk-knowledge/","name":"Elon Musk on How to Build Knowledge"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"10 Questions for Elon Musk","description":"The engineer-magnate is a co-founder of electric-car maker Tesla Motors. 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