{"id":41267,"date":"2023-10-20T15:12:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/elon-musk-on-conquering-his-fears-and-the-importance-of-small-ideas-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:12:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:12:48","slug":"elon-musk-on-conquering-his-fears-and-the-importance-of-small-ideas-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/elon-musk-on-conquering-his-fears-and-the-importance-of-small-ideas-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk on conquering his fears and the importance of small ideas – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Elon<\/div>\n

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk says the best entrepreneurs are the ones that follow through with their ideas despite the naysayers and their own fear.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Y Combinator, Musk says that it takes dedicated and sometimes \u201ccrazy\u201d entrepreneurs to make huge technological advancements.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople sometimes think technology just automatically gets better every year, but actually it doesn\u2019t \u2013 it only gets better if smart people work like crazy to make it better,\u201d Musk says.<\/p>\n

And these people have to face their fears head on and overcome them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel fear quite strongly,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are just times when something is important enough that you believe in it enough that you do it in spite of fear.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople shouldn\u2019t think, \u2018well I feel fear about this and therefore I shouldn\u2019t do it\u2019. It\u2019s normal to feel fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musk says an attitude that he had nothing to lose motivated him to launch the audacious SpaceX.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen starting Spacex I thought the odds of success were less than 10%, and I just accepted that actually, probably, I would just lose everything but that I would maybe make some progress,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we could just move the ball forward, even if we died, maybe some other company could pick up the baton and keep moving forward, so we\u2019d still do some good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Small ideas<\/h3>\n

While most of Musk\u2019s ventures have focused on world-changing technologies, he says an idea doesn\u2019t have to be a moonshot in order to make a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cStuff doesn\u2019t need to change the world just to be good,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually really about just trying to be useful and to matter. If you make something that has high value to people, even if it\u2019s just a little game or some improvement in photo sharing, if it has a small amount of good for a large number of people, I think that\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

To decide whether an idea is worth pursuing, he proposes a formula.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever this thing is that you\u2019re trying to create, what would be the utility delta compared to the current state of the art times how many people it would effect,\u201d Musk says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s why I think having something that makes a big difference but effects sort of a small to moderate number of people is great, as is something that makes even a small difference but effects a vast number of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most important technological advancements<\/h3>\n

Musk says that developments in AI technology and genetic reprogramming will be some of the most important for humanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI is probably the single biggest item in the near-term that’s likely to affect humans,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really need to make sure it goes right.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says AI tech can do immense damage if it falls in the wrong hands so Musk says creators in the space should seek to keep it in the grips of the greater public not in the control of a powerful few.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best of the available alternatives that I can come up with, and maybe someone else can come up with a better approach or better outcome, is that we achieve democratisation of AI technology,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The possibility of solving genetic diseases is the second most important development for Musk.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can prevent dementia or Alzheimer’s or something like that with genetic reprogramming, that would be wonderful,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

A third development Musk is keen to see progress is the final frontier of digital technology that is its integration with the human central nervous system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a digital tertiary self in the form of our email capabilities, our computers, phones, applications \u2013 we’re practically superhuman,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we’re extremely bandwidth-constrained in that interface between the cortex and that tertiary digital form of yourself.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd helping solve that bandwidth constraint would be, I think, very important in the future as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter, LinkedIn.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk says the best entrepreneurs are the ones that follow through with their ideas despite<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}