Table of Contents

NOTES ON THIS BOOK

FOREWORD

ERIC'S WELCOME TO THIS BOOK

PART I: PURSUE PURPOSE

LIVING A PURPOSEFUL LIFE

Be Useful

Fight for the Future

Obsess for Success

Start Before the World Is Ready

Create More than You Consume

Work like Hell

Feel the Fear; Do It Anyway

Seek the Nature of the Universe

THINK LIKE A PHYSICIST

Obsess over Truth

First-Principles Thinking

Thinking in Limits

Aspire to Be Less Wrong

THE VALUE OF ENGINEERING

Engineering Is Magic

Engineering Wins Wars

Engineering Creates Value

PART II: ULTRA HARDCORE WORK

WHAT IT TAKES

Take Responsibility

Earn Deep Understanding

Sleep on the Factory Floor

Frontline Leadership

Adversity Forges Strength

Eat Glass and Stare into the Abyss

BUILDING EXCEPTIONAL TEAMS

A Group with a Goal

Create a Culture of Builders

Recruit for Exceptional Ability

Retain Only Special Forces

Feedback over Feelings

DESIGNING THE ORGANIZATION

Remove Organizational Boundaries

Simple Communication

Innovation Needs Permission to Fail

Simplicity Wins

The Algorithm

MANIACAL URGENCY

Don’t Waste Time

Speed Is Both Offense and Defense 

Do Things in Parallel 

Break Down the “Impossible” 

Set Aggressive Timelines 

WE MUST MAKE STUFF 

The Real Work 

The Factory Is the Product 

Attack the Constraint 

Manufacturing Is the Moat 

PART III: BUILDING COMPANIES

BECOMING A FOUNDER

Starting Zip2

Going All In, Again (Zip2 Earnings into PayPal)

Listen Well, Correct Fast

Unite and Conquer

From Exile to Exit

BUILDING TESLA

The Mission to Protect the Planet

Going All In, Again (PayPal Earnings into Tesla)

Building the First Prototype

Becoming Tesla's CEO

Sequenced Strategy of Tesla

Keeping Tesla Alive

The Edge of Sanity

A Whole New Kind of Car Company

Give People More for Less

The Battle of Public Perception

Founding SolarCity

BUILDING SPACEX

The Only One Crazy Enough for Space

I Expected to Lose Everything

Rockets from First Principles

Keeping SpaceX Alive

Landing NASA Contracts

You Have to Blow Things Up

Building the Just Barely Possible

Optimizing for Mass to Mars

PART IV: ON BEHALF OF HUMANITY

BUILDING OUR FUTURE

Companies Are Philanthropy

Companies Create Wealth for All

Companies to Start

Companies Drive Progress

THE AGE OF ABUNDANCE 

The End of Scarcity 

Exponential Intelligence 

Upgrading the Human Mind 

The Last Human Drivers 

Sustainable Abundance 

OUR EXISTENTIAL RISKS 

This Is the Best Time to Be Alive 

World War III 

Regulation Accumulation 

Unsustainable Energy 

Misaligned Artificial Superintelligence 

Population Collapse 

Asteroids and Comets 

BECOMING MULTIPLANETARY 

Becoming Multiplanetary Is an Evolutionary-Scale Event 

If You Love Life, Protect It 

The Gateway to Mars 

Building the New World 

Colonizing the Galaxy

BONUS

The 69 Core Musk Methods

Timeline of Elon Musk

Elon's Recommended Reading

Want More?

Appreciation

About the Author

Sources