By Dennis Sale
ELON Musk has launched himself into a position of international stardom, while also being one of the richest (over $400+ billion) and most successful business entrepreneurs on the planet. Furthermore, he is increasingly figuring in the global media coverage on wider political and social issues beyond those of technological innovation – including education.
Musk seems to be able to create successful companies in a wide range of fields. Most noticeable is Tesla, his electric vehicle company that aims to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy, and SpaceX, focused on reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonisation of Mars. Other notable ventures include Neuralink, which is developing brain-machine interfaces, aiming to restore autonomy for people with neurological conditions through devices which potentially may restore sight, movement, and communication.
In this column, I unpack what may be key aspects of Musk’s amazing success and learning capability through modelling, analysing, and making inferences and interpretations based on his podcasts and media appearances – and there are many of these. As Musk is very forthright and explicit about his aims and purpose, it’s a reasonable interpretation to take at face value much of what he says is what he means. Of course he may have other motivations, and there are diverse opinions on his work and involvement in political and social issues, but it’s not the arena I focus on.
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Elon Musk on education and how we should learn
For context, Musk has university degrees in physics and economics, so he has gone through the school and university academic system. However, he often refers to traditional college education as being overrated and not necessary for success. Musk has stated a preference for employing people who can display high-level capability in real world problem-solving, as he views this as the most important attribute for high creative capability. He works incredibly long hours, estimated at over 100 hours a week, and often sleeps at the factory, apparently sometimes on the floor to set an example to employees and save time in meeting production goals. Hence, we can assume that Musk is highly motivated and “puts in a massive shift” – so to speak. He also emphasises the importance of avoiding distractions when there is work to be done.
From my perspective, I am most interested in his approach to learning, and what we can learn from such a successful entrepreneur that can help shape a better educational landscape – especially on how to learn in effective, efficient, and creative ways. Musk has been critical of the cost and structure of traditional education, even arguing that many degrees do not provide sufficient practical skill training or preparing students for real-world jobs.
He argues that educational practices should be reframed to enhance student engagement in learning to solve real world problems. For example, in learning how a machine works (e.g., a car or rocket), students should be involved in taking the engine apart, learning what the parts are, what their functions are, and how they work as a system. Essential factual knowledge, such as what materials and tools are needed, should be introduced and explained in the real-world practical contexts – rather than in separate de-contextualised classroom settings.
Musk argues that in this rapidly emerging era of artificial intelligence (AI), we now have almost unlimited subject content knowledge and learning resources at our fingertips. I follow AI development daily and it’s amazing to see how quickly new AI agents are emerging that are pushing the field towards artificial general intelligence (AGI). This is where the machines not only provide massive knowledge bases but are increasingly applying reasoning and decision-making skills like us humans. In this context, he suggests that there may now be a limited need for teachers employing traditional content delivery teaching methods. In contrast, what becomes more important is how we use subject content knowledge to develop creative capability and innovation.
From my analysis of Musk’s media projections, perhaps of most significance to actual pedagogic practice, is that we should start learning from what he refers to as “First Principles”. This involves high expertise in the consistent application of critical thinking skills (e.g., analysis, comparison & contrast, making inferences and interpretations, and evaluation) to break down complex problems and systems into their fundamental parts to build deep understanding. From this base, it then because more authentically possible to build solutions from the ground up. This involves detailed questioning (e.g., what, how, and why) of assumptions about what one is working on and relying on basic proven facts, rather than analogies or conventional wisdom. For Musk, this results in sustained focused thinking and the generation of creative ideas that can lead to unique solutions. He often uses SpaceX as an example in which he firstly determined the raw materials and key practices involved in rocket production and their costs, leading eventually to devising a way to build rockets that are both more effective and affordable.
Other significant aspects of Musk’s approach involve his meticulous planning of work activities and sticking to the scheduling. He also emphasises tackling the most critical work at the start of the day and using ‘feedback loops’ as a systematic process for continual improvement. Highly focused and honest feedback, even if its of a critical nature, is a core principle of effective learning. While this is established knowledge in cognitive psychology, it often lacks application in many real-life/work situations with interacting humans – and there are reasons for this!
Musk’s approach is consistent with current research on how the brain and mind works, especially in developing critical and creative thinking skills, which are key components of what I have framed as Metacognitive Capability (Sale, 2020). This is the ability to plan, monitor, and evaluate one’s thinking, emotions, beliefs, and behaviour in the most productive ways. This is fundamental to mastering the learning process and achieving high levels of success in complex problem-solving. He also refers to the importance of creating and communicating to employee’s clear work goals, especially stretch goals. Stretch goals are ambitious targets set beyond what may seem as ‘standard expectations’ that aim to push individuals or teams to achieve exceptional high outcomes. Such goals are seen as a keyway to promote both critical and creative thinking as well as motivating and challenging people to exceed their previous expectations and limits, which can lead to significant improvements in performance and productivity.
In summary, Elon Musk is presently a major influencer in the global landscape, especially as he is now playing a significant advisory role in Donald Trump’s newly formed government team. There will be much to chew over in terms of political issues and technological outcomes in these coming times. I will follow the technological developments with critical interest, especially those that are likely to affect the educational landscape. Hence, this discussion in ongoing.
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Dennis Sale worked in the Singapore education system for 25 years as Advisor, Researcher, and Examiner. He coached over 15,000 teaching professionals and provided 100+ consultancies in the Asian region. Dennis is author of the books Creative Teachers: Self-directed Learners (Springer 2020) and Creative Teaching: An Evidence-Based Approach (Springer, 2015). To contact Dennis, visit dennissale.com.
