Table Of Content

The Engineer Follow Elon Musk on a journey from South Africa to Mars Erik Nordeus Thisbookisforsaleathttp://leanpub.com/theengineer Thisversionwaspublishedon2014-08-19 ThisisaLeanpubbook.Leanpubempowersauthorsand publisherswiththeLeanPublishingprocess.Lean Publishingistheactofpublishinganin-progressebook usinglightweighttoolsandmanyiterationstogetreader feedback,pivotuntilyouhavetherightbookandbuild tractiononceyoudo. ©2013-2014ErikNordeus Contents Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 SandHillRoad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 LostCities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 BoredomLeadstoGreatThings . . . . . . . . . . 35 WhatDoIDoNow? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 TheMeaningofLife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 TheOutsider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 JoiningtheMafia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 IDon’tNeedTheseRussians . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 LaunchingaTruckIntoSpace . . . . . . . . . . . 136 TheElectricStars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 CONTENTS YouCan’tSellaCarThatLooksLikeCrap . . . . 170 Tesla’sMacintosh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 TroubleinParadise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Iceberg,RightAhead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 AnotherIceberg,RightAhead . . . . . . . . . . . 219 Revenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 HalfwaytoAnywhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 TheLeaningFactories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 ABurningMan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 JoiningtheThrillionaires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 IdeaOverload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 EndoftheBeginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342 ElonMusk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342 TeslaMotors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 SpaceX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351 Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354 Preface The history of The Engineer - Follow Elon Musk on a journey from South Africa to Mars began in 2006 when I read a book about peak oil. The idea behind peak oil is that the world sooner or later will run out of oil because oil is a finite resource. Most books written on the subject arewithinthedoomsdaycategory.ThebookIreadargued thatwhenthere’snomoreoilwewouldbeforcedtoreturn toa19thcenturysociety.Horseswouldbethemainmode of transportation because the alternatives, such as electric cars,wouldn’tmakeadifferencebecausetheyweren’tgood enough. Peak oil terrified me. The first night I had nightmares abouthowtheworldwouldlooklikewithoutanyvehicles. Howwouldwedeliverfood?Howwouldwebuildhouses? Howwouldwetransportinjuredpeople?Iwatchedevery dayhowthepriceofoilclimbedtorecordlevels.Butwhen the2008creditcrisishittheworld,thepriceofoildecreased from $150 per barrel, and nightmares about derivatives replacedmynightmaresaboutpeakoil. Fast forward to late 2012. One dark autumn night I watchedavideoonYouTubewheretheentrepreneurKevin RoseinterviewedaguycalledElonMusk.Ihadneverheard ofhimorhiscompaniesbefore.Attheendoftheinterview, Elon mentioned that he worked with the Hyperloop - a fifth mode of transportation, where the other modes are Preface 2 train, boat, road, and aircraft. This sounded interesting to theengineerinme,soIneededtolearnmoreabouthim. After reading a few articles, I realized that Elon was wellawareofpeakoil.Hehadevendesignedanelectriccar thatcouldreplaceagasolinecar.ThebookIhadreadabout peak oil was wrong! To learn more about Elon, I searched for if someone had written a biography. The only books I foundwerethosebiographieswheretheauthorhascopied onlywhat’savailableonWikipedia.Ibeganreadingmore articlesandwatchingmorevideos,andIrealizeditexisted somuchinformationImightaswellwritearealbiography. But this is not just a book about Elon as it has several other purposes. Elon himself said, “I think you have to enjoy what you are doing. Otherwise, it is hard to do it. There are three things you look for. You have to look forwardinthemorningtodoingyourwork.Youdowantto haveasignificantfinancialreward.Andyouwanttohave apossibleeffectontheworld.Ifyoucanfindallthree,you havesomethingyoucantellyourchildren.” I believe this book may have a positive effect on the world.Thefirstpurposewiththebookistomotivateyoung people to become engineers. It has been estimated that Europe will lack 500 000 engineers by 2020, and I believe thesolutionisinspiration. During my first year in engineering school, each stu- denthadtoreadabookontheNobelPrize.Idon’trecallthe purpose;maybesomeonethoughtwewouldbecomemore motivated?Butthebookhadalmosttheoppositeeffect-we becamelessmotivated.Thecharactersinthebookwereno Preface 3 role models we could find any inspiration from. Elon, on the other hand, is a true role model. Will Elon ever get a NobelPrize?Ifhedoesn’tgetit,willhebesadaboutit?He might, but then he jumps into his Tesla Roadster, drives to the airport, boards his private jet, flies to the nearest spaceport where he enters a rocket on its way to a new civilizationonMars.That’sinspiring. The second purpose with this book is to motivate engineers to become entrepreneurs and tackle the larger, moreexpensive,anddifficultproblems.Ibelievethereare professionalengineerswhohavegreatideas,buttheydon’t know they can build a company from those ideas. If Elon canbuildtwoInternetcompanies,arocketcompany,acar company,andasolarcompany-whycan’tyou? Another purpose is to explain the why of things. The problem is that not everyone understands Elon and his companies. How can you convince someone to buy an electriccarifheorsheatthesametimebelievesthesupply of oil is infinite? Elon himself said, “If you could explain the why of things then that makes a huge difference to people’smotivation.”353Sosomeonehastoexplainwhywe needtomoveawayfromasocietydependentonoil.Why do we need to build rockets and colonize Mars? Elon has triedtoexplaineverythingbygivingcountlessinterviews, butit’sdifficulttounderstandthebigpicturefromarticles and videos. I hope that you who read this book will soon understandthebigpicturebehindElon. I also believe the author of a biography on Elon has to be an engineer. I’ve read articles by non-engineers (I Preface 4 suspect) that confuses different topics. One example is thatseveralarticlesarguedthatElonbecameinterestedin electric cars to save the environment. But that’s not true. Elon became interested in electric cars because the world isrunningoutofoil.Duringoneinterview,hehadtohang up the phone because the journalist couldn’t understand thedifficulttopics.Butdon’tworry-youdon’tneedtobe anengineertoreadthisbook. I’veused457sourcestowritethisbiography.Thegoal is that everything in the book is as truthful as it can be in an unofficial biography. But since it’s after all rocket science,somefactualerrorsmayexist.Ifyoufindanerror, I’mhappytocorrectitassoonaspossible. SeveralconflictshavehappenedthroughoutElon’slife, includingdivorcesandangryemployees.Whendescribing these conflicts, I’ve tried to be as neutral as possible by includingtheviewsfrombothsides. I’m not sponsored by and have no financial interest in neither Tesla Motors or SolarCity. This book is for informational, educational, and discussion purposes only. Even though topics may be discussed in this book that involve legal or investment issues, nothing in this book shall be deemed to constitute the practice of law, legal advice, or investment advice. If any reader takes action ormakesdecisionsbasedsolelyontheinformationinthis book,thereaderdoessoathisorherownrisk. ErikNordeus,M.Sc. [email protected] Preface 5 Stockholm,Sweden August2014 Introduction “Ithinkwe’regoingtotheMoonbecauseit’sinthenature ofthehumanbeingtofacechallenges.It’sbythenatureof hisdeepinnersoul.Yes,wearerequiredtodothesethings justassalmonswimupstream.” NeilArmstrong “Allourdreamscancometrue,ifwehavethecourageto pursuethem.” WaltDisney Adictionarydefinesanengineer:“Aprofessionalprac- titionerofengineering,concernedwithapplyingscientific knowledge, mathematics, and ingenuity to develop solu- tions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality, regulation, safety, and cost. The wordengineerisderivedfromtheLatinrootsingeniare[to contrive,devise]andingenium[cleverness].”391 This is a book about the beginning of a journey. Elon Musk is the main person in the journey through a roller- coasterlife.HisjourneyincludeseverythingfromWinston