Elon Musk’s Approach to Problem-Solving

Elon approaches problem-solving in this order. He talked about this in a recent Lex Fridman episode and I thought it was quite insightful.

1. Reduce the number of requirements
   • Try to make the question the least wrong possible.
2. Delete the thing entirely.
   • If you’re not forced to put back at least 10% of what you delete, you’re not deleting enough.
3. Try to optimize it or simplify it.
   • The most common mistake of smart people is to optimize a thing that should not exist.
4. Try to speed it up.
   • However fast you think it can be done, whatever the speed it’s being done, it can be done faster. You shouldn’t speed things up until you’ve tried to delete it and optimize. Speeding up something that shouldn’t exist is absurd.
5. Automate it.