MA

True currency is steadfast friendship

“But the curse of every ancient civilization was that its men in the end became unable to fight. Materialism, luxury, safety, even sometimes an almost modern sentimentality, weakened the fibre of each civilized race in turn; each became in the end a nation of pacifists, and then each was trodden under foot by some ruder people that had kept that virile fighting power the lack of which makes all other virtues useless and sometimes even harmful.” -Teddy Roosevelt

In this 2015 interview, the host — a Tsinghua University professor — expressed genuine curiosity about how Elon Musk was able to found SpaceX without prior experience and knowledge in aerospace, especially given that rocket science is one of the most demanding hard sciences — and that Musk was serving as both CEO and CTO. Musk explained that deep expertise can be built outside formal academic programs — by reading extensively, conducting experiments, and speaking directly with experts in the field.