How does Elon Musk learn and work 1,000 times faster than others?Here is a smart learning strategy that Elon Musk applies that not everyone knows.

Billionaire Elon Musk once declared to work 80-100 hours/week. Elon Musk’s ability to learn in many fields is recognized worldwide. Even the world media said that Elon Musk learns everything 1,000 times faster than others.

Inspiring goals

Elon Musk once answered an interview that “I want to die when humanity has a bright future”. Since he was a university student, he has been determined to find the answer to the question of what will create a great impact on the future of the world.

The young student has identified 5 important issues including the internet, sustainable energy, space exploration to expand life beyond Earth, artificial intelligence and reprogramming the human genetic code.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in physics and economics, Elon Musk continued to study for a doctorate in energy. However, he stopped studying these three majors to pursue the internet field and start a business with Zip2, Paypal.

With resources from successful startups, Elon Musk entered the space field with SpaceX, electric cars with Tesla, solar energy with Solar City, co-created OpenAI and many other companies. Although he is very passionate about video games, Elon Musk said that this field does not change the world.

Read a lot of books

Elon Musk reads a lot of books in different fields. Since his teens, Elon Musk has read 10 hours a day and can read 2 books on weekends. The fields he reads include science fiction, philosophy, religion, programming, physics, biographies of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs.

Elon Musk read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in the fourth grade. Reading helped him gain extensive knowledge in many fields from rockets, space, physics to business.

View knowledge as a giant tree

Elon Musk views knowledge as a big tree. First, he will start to learn from the basic principles (corresponding to the trunk and large branches) before going into details (corresponding to the leaves and small branches). He realized that without the trunk and branches, the leaves would have nothing to cling to. Elon Musk calls this original thinking.

He uses original thinking to solve problems by reducing everything to the most basic truth, seeing what is definitely true of the basics instead of accepting existing conventions.

For example, when wanting to build a rocket, Elon Musk learns about the components, raw materials, and the price of raw materials on the market. He realized that building rockets was too expensive because people didn’t think in original ways. So he started a company, bought cheap materials, and built rockets himself. In a few years, SpaceX reduced the cost of building rockets by nearly 10 times compared to the previous price.

Connecting Knowledge

Elon Musk believes that you can’t remember what you can’t connect. He doesn’t just remember information, he connects it together and uses it. This billionaire starts with basic knowledge to form the foundation for the roots and trunk of the tree of knowledge, then enhances and connects them to create new ideas.

In this way, Elon Musk can apply and expand knowledge from many different fields. He uses connected knowledge to create new products and services that solve big problems for humanity.