Table Of Content
The Engineer
Follow Elon Musk on a journey from
South Africa to Mars
Erik Nordeus
Thisbookisforsaleathttp://leanpub.com/theengineer
Thisversionwaspublishedon2014-08-19
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©2013-2014ErikNordeus
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
SandHillRoad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
LostCities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
BoredomLeadstoGreatThings . . . . . . . . . . 35
WhatDoIDoNow? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
TheMeaningofLife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
TheOutsider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
JoiningtheMafia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
IDon’tNeedTheseRussians . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
LaunchingaTruckIntoSpace . . . . . . . . . . . 136
TheElectricStars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
CONTENTS
YouCan’tSellaCarThatLooksLikeCrap . . . . 170
Tesla’sMacintosh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
TroubleinParadise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Iceberg,RightAhead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
AnotherIceberg,RightAhead . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Revenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
HalfwaytoAnywhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
TheLeaningFactories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
ABurningMan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
JoiningtheThrillionaires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
IdeaOverload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
EndoftheBeginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
ElonMusk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
TeslaMotors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
SpaceX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Preface
The history of The Engineer - Follow Elon Musk on a
journey from South Africa to Mars began in 2006 when I
read a book about peak oil. The idea behind peak oil is
that the world sooner or later will run out of oil because
oil is a finite resource. Most books written on the subject
arewithinthedoomsdaycategory.ThebookIreadargued
thatwhenthere’snomoreoilwewouldbeforcedtoreturn
toa19thcenturysociety.Horseswouldbethemainmode
of transportation because the alternatives, such as electric
cars,wouldn’tmakeadifferencebecausetheyweren’tgood
enough.
Peak oil terrified me. The first night I had nightmares
abouthowtheworldwouldlooklikewithoutanyvehicles.
Howwouldwedeliverfood?Howwouldwebuildhouses?
Howwouldwetransportinjuredpeople?Iwatchedevery
dayhowthepriceofoilclimbedtorecordlevels.Butwhen
the2008creditcrisishittheworld,thepriceofoildecreased
from $150 per barrel, and nightmares about derivatives
replacedmynightmaresaboutpeakoil.
Fast forward to late 2012. One dark autumn night I
watchedavideoonYouTubewheretheentrepreneurKevin
RoseinterviewedaguycalledElonMusk.Ihadneverheard
ofhimorhiscompaniesbefore.Attheendoftheinterview,
Elon mentioned that he worked with the Hyperloop - a
fifth mode of transportation, where the other modes are
Preface 2
train, boat, road, and aircraft. This sounded interesting to
theengineerinme,soIneededtolearnmoreabouthim.
After reading a few articles, I realized that Elon was
wellawareofpeakoil.Hehadevendesignedanelectriccar
thatcouldreplaceagasolinecar.ThebookIhadreadabout
peak oil was wrong! To learn more about Elon, I searched
for if someone had written a biography. The only books I
foundwerethosebiographieswheretheauthorhascopied
onlywhat’savailableonWikipedia.Ibeganreadingmore
articlesandwatchingmorevideos,andIrealizeditexisted
somuchinformationImightaswellwritearealbiography.
But this is not just a book about Elon as it has several
other purposes. Elon himself said, “I think you have to
enjoy what you are doing. Otherwise, it is hard to do
it. There are three things you look for. You have to look
forwardinthemorningtodoingyourwork.Youdowantto
haveasignificantfinancialreward.Andyouwanttohave
apossibleeffectontheworld.Ifyoucanfindallthree,you
havesomethingyoucantellyourchildren.”
I believe this book may have a positive effect on the
world.Thefirstpurposewiththebookistomotivateyoung
people to become engineers. It has been estimated that
Europe will lack 500 000 engineers by 2020, and I believe
thesolutionisinspiration.
During my first year in engineering school, each stu-
denthadtoreadabookontheNobelPrize.Idon’trecallthe
purpose;maybesomeonethoughtwewouldbecomemore
motivated?Butthebookhadalmosttheoppositeeffect-we
becamelessmotivated.Thecharactersinthebookwereno
Preface 3
role models we could find any inspiration from. Elon, on
the other hand, is a true role model. Will Elon ever get a
NobelPrize?Ifhedoesn’tgetit,willhebesadaboutit?He
might, but then he jumps into his Tesla Roadster, drives
to the airport, boards his private jet, flies to the nearest
spaceport where he enters a rocket on its way to a new
civilizationonMars.That’sinspiring.
The second purpose with this book is to motivate
engineers to become entrepreneurs and tackle the larger,
moreexpensive,anddifficultproblems.Ibelievethereare
professionalengineerswhohavegreatideas,buttheydon’t
know they can build a company from those ideas. If Elon
canbuildtwoInternetcompanies,arocketcompany,acar
company,andasolarcompany-whycan’tyou?
Another purpose is to explain the why of things. The
problem is that not everyone understands Elon and his
companies. How can you convince someone to buy an
electriccarifheorsheatthesametimebelievesthesupply
of oil is infinite? Elon himself said, “If you could explain
the why of things then that makes a huge difference to
people’smotivation.”353Sosomeonehastoexplainwhywe
needtomoveawayfromasocietydependentonoil.Why
do we need to build rockets and colonize Mars? Elon has
triedtoexplaineverythingbygivingcountlessinterviews,
butit’sdifficulttounderstandthebigpicturefromarticles
and videos. I hope that you who read this book will soon
understandthebigpicturebehindElon.
I also believe the author of a biography on Elon has
to be an engineer. I’ve read articles by non-engineers (I
Preface 4
suspect) that confuses different topics. One example is
thatseveralarticlesarguedthatElonbecameinterestedin
electric cars to save the environment. But that’s not true.
Elon became interested in electric cars because the world
isrunningoutofoil.Duringoneinterview,hehadtohang
up the phone because the journalist couldn’t understand
thedifficulttopics.Butdon’tworry-youdon’tneedtobe
anengineertoreadthisbook.
I’veused457sourcestowritethisbiography.Thegoal
is that everything in the book is as truthful as it can be
in an unofficial biography. But since it’s after all rocket
science,somefactualerrorsmayexist.Ifyoufindanerror,
I’mhappytocorrectitassoonaspossible.
SeveralconflictshavehappenedthroughoutElon’slife,
includingdivorcesandangryemployees.Whendescribing
these conflicts, I’ve tried to be as neutral as possible by
includingtheviewsfrombothsides.
I’m not sponsored by and have no financial interest
in neither Tesla Motors or SolarCity. This book is for
informational, educational, and discussion purposes only.
Even though topics may be discussed in this book that
involve legal or investment issues, nothing in this book
shall be deemed to constitute the practice of law, legal
advice, or investment advice. If any reader takes action
ormakesdecisionsbasedsolelyontheinformationinthis
book,thereaderdoessoathisorherownrisk.
ErikNordeus,M.Sc.
[email protected]
Preface 5
Stockholm,Sweden
August2014
Introduction
“Ithinkwe’regoingtotheMoonbecauseit’sinthenature
ofthehumanbeingtofacechallenges.It’sbythenatureof
hisdeepinnersoul.Yes,wearerequiredtodothesethings
justassalmonswimupstream.”
NeilArmstrong
“Allourdreamscancometrue,ifwehavethecourageto
pursuethem.”
WaltDisney
Adictionarydefinesanengineer:“Aprofessionalprac-
titionerofengineering,concernedwithapplyingscientific
knowledge, mathematics, and ingenuity to develop solu-
tions for technical problems. Engineers design materials,
structures, and systems while considering the limitations
imposed by practicality, regulation, safety, and cost. The
wordengineerisderivedfromtheLatinrootsingeniare[to
contrive,devise]andingenium[cleverness].”391
This is a book about the beginning of a journey. Elon
Musk is the main person in the journey through a roller-
coasterlife.HisjourneyincludeseverythingfromWinston
