Musk’s way of learning is the basis for his continuous innovation, and the application and reconstruction of knowledge is the reason why he can innovate continuously. This article is compiled from Medium, originally entitled “Want To Innovate Like Elon Musk? Know How To Learn Like Him First,” by Kunal Shandilya.
Years ago, I had developed an app in the Google Play Store, and I was able to develop products that led the way in the same category of apps, but bleak compared to products that Musk had developed.
Compared to Musk’s development process at that time, I took him a completely opposite development path. The fact also proves that how my development is unscientific. However, there are still a lot of developers like me, and they are not aware of the disadvantages of their own way of doing things because they are too busy learning to notice the inherent nature of learning and do not realize there is a better alternative The program is next to it.
When I was learning product development, I used a lazy learning method that requires learning from generic learning, an Android-specific library to learn before learning JAVA common library. Before I learned how to implement basic functions, I first learned how to call complex part.
Accompanied by functional innovation, the realization of more and more difficult, the difficulty of developing gradually increased, and sometimes I have to go to Google to search some of the basics and common sense I should have known, and thus wasting a lot of time. Reflecting deeply on this learning process, I also come to understand why the behind-the-scenes employers of several large corporations world-renowned for innovation are opposed to such learning.
As I prepare to explore a new way of learning, seeing what Musk suggests to everyone, he always suggests that learning should start from the ground up. The system of knowledge is like a tree with leaves, fruits, trunks and roots . Musk that learning should follow the law of natural growth of the tree, the first to grow roots and then grow the trunk and then extract the sprouts.
Reflect on my learning process, I was based on the needs of the application to learn, which is equivalent to I grow branches before the buds have been drawn, according to the needs of learning, learning content is narrower, it will result in basic learning is not deep enough , You will naturally need to constantly rework to learn more basics to enrich the trunk of the tree of knowledge.
According to Musk’s learning suggestions, I am in the development of APP should:
1. Learning system composition and working principle;
2. Understand the system’s hardware and software features
3. Understand the nature of programming
4 understand that there are those programming languages and programming system
5. Learning algorithms, language specifications, libraries and other basic language content, such as learning JAVA language specifications, JAVA algorithms and libraries, etc.
6. Understand what kind of Android system, how to run
7. Learn JAVA based on the Android library-specific functions and components
If you look at this way of learning, do you understand why Musk will be different? It is because of his tireless continuous mining study of the essence, until he touched the bottom of the knowledge, he will give up.
This way of learning is not a simple matter. It takes a lot of time and patience to learn. Just as you need to understand the importance of Tesla, you need to know all the history of traffic development.
However, such a learning method is a one-time investment way of learning. Just as a sharpener does not mistakenly cut a woodworker, it is necessary to make its due contribution in advance. Building a knowledge tree, there must be a thick trunk to support its dense trunk, only to lay a solid foundation, the back of the study will be handy.
Innovative like Musk
This way of learning is the basis for Musk‘s continuous innovation. The application and reconstruction of knowledge are the reasons why he can innovate continuously.
I wonder if you have been asked to redesign a product. In Musk’s opinion, developing a new product is as much about learning as it needs to be from the ground up. Remember that 2007 Steve Jobs insisted that you want to re-design that iPhone it? Before this one iPhone comes out, everybody does not like the physical key on the mobile phone very much, precisely because Steve Jobs insisted to redesign, so let the iPhone’s first mobile phone is so influential.
With the birth of the Tesla Semi truck, Musk announced the redesign of a new truck. This is like learning, once again from the bottom, a little accumulation, and gradually enrich the product design ideas.
Not all manufacturers have the courage and daring to do such a challenge, and it is just such a rigid inertia that leads to many of the same drawbacks of the same types of goods on the market.
It is because of Musk and Steve Jobs and others dare to empty the artboard, the courage to re-design, only now has a cool iPhone and God’s Tesla car. It is precisely this made their extraordinary.
If we also want to innovate, perhaps “to wipe the original design, restart design” is not a bad idea!