Everyone wants a piece of Elon Musk

I pretend that I know how to write autobiographies of famous, rich, successful people. Hopefully this is more amusing than what you'll find on Wikipedia. 

Elon Musk was was born in Africa (we already share so many similarities), and showed signs of Einsteinian genius as a child. He would read 10 hours a day and have his head constantly buried in science fiction novels (plus some non-fiction too). In the TED talk I watched, he thinks of humans as computers, which, in their most literal sense, they are. A human’s hardware is his physical body and brain. His software is the way he learns to think, his value system, his habits, his personality. And learning, for Musk, is simply the process of “downloading data and algorithms into your brain." Among his many frustrations with formal classroom learning is the “ridiculously slow download speed” of sitting in a classroom while a teacher explains something, and to this day, most of what he knows he’s learned through reading. In fact he recently claimed that we are all living in a computer simulations. We ARE the real life sims and some alien out there is laughing at how messed up this society is.

Musk moved to America and history began. He saw Silicon Valley as the Promised Land, and at the age of 17, he left South Africa forever. He started out in Canada, which was an easier place to immigrate to because his mom is a Canadian citizen, and a few years later, used a college transfer to the University of Pennsylvania as a way into the US.

In college, he thought about what he wanted to do with his life, using as his starting point the question, “What will most affect the future of humanity?” The answer he came up with was a list of five things: “the internet; sustainable energy; space exploration, in particular the permanent extension of life beyond Earth; artificial intelligence; and reprogramming the human genetic code.” In a recent interview right after the Mission to Mars video was released, he was asked whether he thinks more people should have PhDs or not? And surprisingly (at least to me) he answered no. But his explanation put things into perspective. Rather than being high-functioning intellects withering away, we should all strive to add a little something to the society. Be it an app or a cat video (okay i made that up, but I would be thankful), or volunteering or making a toy, all these would benefit someone or the other. *mind blown*

His first move was to go try to get a job at the monster of the 1995 internet, Netscape. The tactic he came up with was to walk into the lobby, uninvited, stand there awkwardly, be too shy to talk to anyone, and walk out. We have so many similarities guysssss.

Musk would get into something and as soon as something more revolutionary came by, he would catapult himself right into the middle of it. He started an online mapping directory with his brother, Kimbal, called Zip2. He was already ahead of the game because he was one of the few people that realized the power of the internet. Many told him that advertising on the internet sounded like “the dumbest thing they had ever heard of”, which seriously is the dumbest thing to say.

Then musk started X.com. This was an online banking system and he was trying to make traditional banks convert to setting up their services online. Another internet-based company just like his called Confinity was doing the same thing-- enabling customers to have a simple way to transfer money-- and both experienced large demands for their service. So they merged and thus arose PayPal from the ashes (jk it wasn't that intense).

to be continued......