Using Elon Musk’s Learning Method to Become an Expert in Any Field

When we think of rich and successful people, one of the names that inevitably comes to mind is Elon Musk, and with good reason.  Not only is he incredibly wealthy, but he has also been amazingly successful in a number of business ventures and he is an expert in several totally different disciplines.  He started one of the first electronic payment companies, which became PayPal, which is still a leader in online payments.  He also started SpaceX and Tesla among many other ventures.

As a child, Elon learned how to code on his family’s Commodore VIC-20 computer and became proficient enough to create programs that he could sell.  He eventually graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with two degrees, one in Economics and one in Physics.

The fact that his first successful ventures were in computers and the internet in Silicon Valley at the beginning of the internet boom is not a surprise.  He loved computers and coding and trained himself to improve at it.  Many of his companies are technology based because of this.

Elon’s Amazing Expertise With NO Training

The amazing part of Elon Musk’s rise to success is his ability to quickly become an expert in very difficult technical fields.  Fields that he has NO training in whatsoever!  Again, his degrees are in economics and physics, not battery technology, vehicle engineering or rocket science.

So, how did he become one of the world’s leading rocket scientists and electric car manufacturers?  He did it with what he calls a Semantic Tree.

One bit of advice: it is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree — make sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e., the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to.

-Elon Musk

Having a Strong Base to the Knowledge Tree

What Elon is saying is that to become very knowledgeable in a subject, the fastest and most effective way is to establish a very solid foundation of the basics of that subject, just like the trunk of a tree.  Once you know the basic concepts and tenets very well, you can build on that knowledge and branch out into more complex subjects, with the ability to relate them all to the foundations of the subject.  This allows you to better remember everything in a systematic way that locks in the knowledge.

Making Connections

He then moves onto the brilliant second step that allows him to expand his knowledge very rapidly.  He makes connections with other information he has and relates is to the base of knowledge in the new discipline he is learning.  He does not make connections for the sake of knowledge; he connects them back to the tree trunk.

From Computers to Rockets and Electric Cars

For example, when he was learning about rockets, he attempted to buy them from Russia.  After initially refusing to sell him any, they offered to sell them for $8 million each.  Elon refused, on the basis that the price was much too high.  He went back to the fundamentals of rocket science which are naturally heavily concentrated in getting the rockets into space, not spending huge amounts of money.  He created a company that could build affordable rockets leaving more resources for the fundamental goal:  getting to space.  He then made the connection from his knowledge of technology lowering costs and fundamentally changed travel to space by making it more economically viable and bringing it into the private sector instead of government agencies.

He did the exact same thing with Tesla.  He learned the fundamentals of vehicle engineering and battery technology and then used connections with other knowledge that he had to find methods to lower the costs of the batteries, while making them much better at holding a charge, thus increasing the distance the cars could drive.

Traditional Learning Does the Opposite

While it may seem like common sense to learn a subject by concentrating on creating a strong base of fundamentals, the reality is that most learning does the exact opposite.  We are taught branches of random knowledge that we then need to try and relate to the subject.  To continue the tree analogy, we gather sticks that we then pile together in our minds, hoping that we remember some of it, rather than systemizing the knowledge by relating it back to fundamental principles we learned first.  Learning fundamentals first locks in the knowledge while gathering random knowledge and trying to remember it encourages us to forget it as it is haphazardly gathered up in our minds.

As an example, think about the number of people you know, possible yourself, who took language classes in school, often for many years and yet who to not speak a word of that language!  The traditional leaning model is to teach random facts and try to have students memorize them.  We are taught how to count, colours, the names of animals, etc. 

Elon’s Method to Learn a Language

A much more effective way to learn a language would be to start with a base of fundamental words and phrases.  Simply taking a list of the most popular words and phrases and learning them would make someone able to speak a language in hours, not years.  The genius of this method is that you would be building on a base of knowledge you have in your first language and connecting it with methods to communicate in the new language.  You would be using words and phrases that you will hear often in the other language and can use in the most common situations, regardless of where you are or what language you are speaking.

Your ability to tell a hotel concierge your name and that you would like to visit the Louvre museum is likely a much better use of your language skills than your ability to count or recite primary colours in French.  The discussion will also prompt the other person to use phrases that are probably in common use to direct you to where you want to go.  In other words, using fundamental words and phrases that you would know, if you established a strong base of knowledge.

Create a Tree Trunk

So, to become an expert in a field that you have no knowledge in, rather than attempt to memorize facts and details, use Elon Musk’s method and learn the fundamentals of that subject to create a solid “tree trunk” of knowledge and then once you have it, branch out, using other knowledge that you have and make connections back to the main subject.  If short order, you too can have a superior level of expertise in that area.