No. It's not. It's it. There's no need even to have a college degree at all or even high schools the I mean if somebody graduated from a great university that maybe an you know if you look at Say people like Bill Gates for Larry Ellison Steve Jobs These guys didn't graduate from college, but if you had a chance to hire them of course. That would be a good idea so you know just really looking just for evidence of exceptional ability, and if there's a track record of exceptional achievement Then it's likely that that will continue into the future how I describe myself Well I mean I seem to have a high innate drive And that's been true even since I was a little kid you know really? Had a very strong Drive did all sorts of risky things for his kid that I like why did I do those things are crazy? I care a lot about the truth of things and trying to understand the truth of things I think so I think that's important If you're going to come up with some solution then the truth is really really important, I think I Try to think of I mean, it's it's difficult obviously come up with like things that are praise for oneself You know or like it. There's and there's bad and good here, but? I think like sometimes they're just like the things that seem quite clear and obvious to me and I I I don't understand why they aren't so obvious to everyone So how would you educate your five boys? Actually, I created a little school hahaha Yeah, what kind of school could you describe sure it's I mean it's small It's only got 14 kids now, and it'll have 20 kids and in September It's called ad astra which means to the stars. That's maybe a bit different from From most of the schools is that there aren't any grades? There's no there's no like look grade 1 grade 2 grade 3 type of thing I'm making all the children go and that in the same grade at the same time like an assembly line I know you know cuz some people love English or languages some people love math some people love music and And different abilities different times it makes more sense to to cater the education to match their aptitudes and abilities It's like that's one principle Another is that it's important to teach? Teach problem solving or teach to the problem not to the tools so this would be like Let's say You're trying to teach people about How engines work before you know you could start by the more traditional approach would be to say we're going to teach you all about screwdrivers and wrenches and and you even have a course on screwdrivers a course on wrenches and all these things and it's This is a very difficult way to do it a much better way would be like here's the engine now Let's take it apart. How are we going to take it apart? Oh you need a screwdriver? That's what the screwdrivers for you need a wrench. That's what the wrench is for And then a very important thing happens Which is that the relevance of the tools becomes apparent so all five boys are in that school? Yes until when this is from? When you're old, haha They like it they like it yeah, and you want to keep them away from regular schools No, I just didn't see that the regular schools Just they weren't doing the things that I thought should be done like you know those two principals. They weren't adhering to those principles, so I thought well, let's see what we can do maybe creating a school will be better and Actually hired a teacher from the school they were at You also agreed with me that there was a better way to do it have they surprised you in a way of their innovative thinking Yeah, it seems to be going pretty. Well. I mean I the kids really love going to school I think that's a good sign. You know I mean I hated going to school when I was a kid it was torture So the fact that they like they actually think occasions are too long, mmm. They want to go back to school Yeah, exactly I know What is it? Well I mean those are pretty different personalities in it between gates and jobs and Alison's at success Well, I think you know all All three of those were technologists, but with different types of skills and their jobs was obviously very good with aesthetics and You know against the technology of course and you really insert where people wanted even when they didn't know themselves and He was not afraid to break boundaries, but say like gates would probably be better at You know sort of raw engineering and technology than jobs, but not as good on aesthetics But I mean for these guys of the obviously very driven and they're very talented and Yeah, and they're able to attract great people to hold a company But I needed that like the the ability to attract and motivate great people is critical to the success of a company because the company is just that's a group of people that are assembled to create a product or service That's the purpose of a company if you all some of us forget this elementary truth and so if You know if you're able to get great people to join the company and work together towards a common goal and and you sort of have a relentless sense of perfection about that goal, then you will end up with a great product and Have a great product. Let's if you will buy it and then we kind of know we'll be successful. Yeah really It's pretty straightforward really yeah, I mean yeah, that's the reason for it I wouldn't say I'm fearless in fact. I I think I fear I feel fear quite strongly but I am if the if what we're doing isn't you know what I'm doing is I think it's important enough then I just override the fear So, but it's not as that I don't feel I feel a little like more stronger than I would like Well it really depends on the stakes if the stakes are high if it's really important then one should then I you know will overcome the fear and just do it anyway I Essentially I mean I just Drive over rights fear, but I feel the fear. It's kind of annoying. I wish isn't oh, Sh. I felt it less So Yeah these all these introspective questions are interesting. I don't get the ask these very often And then like I try to think like what is like an evident an accurate reply And somebody said it's like I know it's hard to evaluate yourself on these things yeah Well probably SpaceX I thought it had the lowest chance of success I Mean I thought both Tesla and SpaceX would fail at the beginning You saw it yeah really of course, but nevertheless you put all your money in that Expected to lose it well technically what I thought was well I'll take half the money from PayPal, and if I lose half of it. That's okay But then of course the companies encounter difficulties and then have a choice of that you like let the company die Or put you know you know all the money into the companies and so I Really didn't want the companies to die so I put all the money in the companies Yeah, and then I had to borrow money for friends should pay living expenses yes What was your best idea ever my best idea ever yeah? This is tricky I suppose coming to North America was my best idea okay, because I think these things would not have been accomplished Anyway, you know almost anywhere else. It's really hard to start a company but You know in particularly? California Silicon Valley is very conducive to startup companies and Yeah, and so yeah You know whenever I read books in South Africa it would seem like the cutting edge of technology was In Silicon Valley and so that that's what I wanted to come and I wanted to move move to this mythical place Well there's there's lots of things, but you know when life is short, and there's lots of things that Could be done that one can't necessarily do And these really are introspective questions I think it no I mean I'm overall I think I'm pretty pretty happy with what wait you know where things are it's hard not to be honestly I'd be Yeah If things are in a good place right now and I Mean I'd like to at looking ahead I'd like to see Humanity go beyond Earth and have People on Mars that would be really great and to see widespread adoption of electric vehicles and renewable energy these were great things and Yeah, thought I thought would be really really cool
This comes up every few months. Firstly:
Bill Gates
Larry Ellison
Steve Jobs
All are successful for founding companies, they weren't interviewing at companies. All of them studied at College before leaving for reasons not related to their ability to finish the course (spoiler alert Jobs and Gates were both born 1955, if they'd chosen to continue their degrees they likely would've been late to the party with their companies).
Secondly, you obviously don't need a degree to be good at something, but you do need a degree for an interviewing manager to be confident that your level of education is the right standard. It's difficult to work with people who don't have an appropriate grasp on the theoretical side of a field in most technical jobs.
It's nice for Elon Musk to say you don't need a degree, but he's not interviewing entry level candidates. He's hiring VPs, C level staff and architects. Sure, if you have 20 years of experience a 20 year old degree doesn't matter. Tesla's middle management aren't in that position, they'll be getting 100 CVs per position and why would they look at yours when you don't have the degree that 90% of them do?
Sure, you don't need a degree, but if you don't get one you need to be phenomenal.
You don't need a degree, but you do need to be highly skilled, and have a way to prove it.
Guarantee the Tesla and Space X human resources departments do.
I guess I'll go practice my missile building skills so I can get a job at Spacex. Anyone got some spare rocket fuel, rocket engine, and an arduino?
I'll work you to the bone no matter who you are.
This must be why when SpaceX was recruiting at my university they immediately turned away anyone below a 3.7 GPA...
Take a look at the SpaceX or Tesla career site and tell me if he's putting his money where his mouth is.
Lol be real, you need a degree. Study engineering (and be good at it).
Can we cool it with the boring, shitty, and overdone Elon Musk circlejerking.