Elon Musk – Tesla, Space X, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (5A12)

Date: 13/10/2022

Good morning, everyone. I’m ALAN LAM HO KA from Class 5A. I’d like to share a supercalifragilisticexpilaridocious book, Elon Musk – Tesla, Space X, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. What comes to mind when you hear the word “physics”? Endless equations to memorize? You have to do some debates towards what you are learning. What I mean is to question whether those theories are correct. 

Instead of rote memorization, which only benefits exams in Hong Kong, creativity is the driving force towards success. With passion, creativity and determination, Elon Musk became a public figure known by people all around the world. 

In his childhood, he was always a target of bullies because of his unusual names. Musk would often drift off into his own world and ignore the things around him. Some doctors think that he is hard of hearing and removed his adenoid glands. This makes people around him think he is always not paying attention, which is another reason why he was a target of bullies. This makes me learn that everyone has different personalities and unique features, and each individual characteristic of people shall be greatly respected. Even if sometimes those personalities seem bad and not accepted by society, we should not question a person’s ability just by having a look at their personalities. Look at Elon Musk. He is a very successful person. 

Elon Musk’s experience also teaches people why determination is important. He has many setbacks in life. After Elon Musk graduated from Physics and Economics in universities, he held two internships and later accepted to a Dphil (PhD) program in Materials Science at Stanford University. However, without his degree in computer science, Elon Musk was rejected by Netscape, a leading technological company at that time, known for its popular browser Netscape Navigator. Getting rejected by Netscape is similar to J.K. Rowling getting rejected by Oxford and the publisher. However, he still pursues his dreams towards his IT careers. 

Later on, he became famous for founding SpaceX. Elon Musk, who came first in physics at university, was curious about the outerspace. He wants to try to make space journeys available to the general public. He wants to revolutionize the aerospace industry and make affordable spaceflight a reality. He would like to achieve his missions using Space X, driven by his curiosities. After reading the book, I really admire his curiosity and determination, which reminds of me of some inspiring phrases from Disney. “To be safe, we lose our chance of ever knowing.” If Elon Musk chooses to be safe forever, he may not even start any business like SpaceX. He may lose the chance of every knowing and exploring the outerspace. 

There’s an interesting quote from Elon Musk. “I think physics gives you a mental framework for problem solving. It also teaches you to be willing to admit you're wrong.” This inspires me and reminds me of an important thing that I have long forgotten. Sometimes, you would never know whether something you learnt is important for your future career. Elon Musk’s experience from the book kind of reminds me of the importance of not having floccinaucinihilipilification, which means a habit of estimating something as worthless. Just like Apple founder Steve Jobs, he said that he got the idea of creating graphic computers because of the calligraphy classes. To put it simply, you would never know when you need to do public speaking in the future – maybe in some business environment? – So sometimes, you’ll never know how debate will help you in the future until you need to conduct public speaking.  hahaha 

This book describes the life of Elon Musk and gives me a lot of inspirations and reminds me of some important elements that drive people towards success. I would surely recommend this book to all of you. Thank you.

 

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