genius – MickRed

This is a continuation of a new series I’m creating for “What To” that I’m calling the Extreme Nerd Series where books, film and audio highlighting science, innovators, inventors and tech startups will be covered.

A best seller on Audible Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future written by Ashlee Vance and narrated by Fred Sanders.

To call Elon Musk the real life Iron Man is an insult but for the sake of an analogy if Elon Musk were Iron Man he’d do it better. As far as science and making stuff happen there are some incredible people that have walked the face of this planet but I haven’t felt like there has been one closer to my age in my life time. Some are close but not quite and most of them are more of a catalyst.

There’s the driving force of corporate interest and then there’s Elon Musk wanting to accomplish anything. I’m not saying Elon Musk does not have corporate or financial interests but I do think they fade into the background and become mere enablers to see his ambitions bear fruit.

When building companies up Elon has sunk everything he has had into them. When Elon Musk believes in something stay out of his way because he will make it happen. Seriously he has taught himself almost everything there is to know about each company. I imagine from the details I can gleam that Elon Musk knows just as much if not more about every detail pertaining to products or the businesses in general than most of the staff to include engineers and specialist. He’s just that driven, curious and genius.

By the early age of 12 Elon created and sold a video game called Blastar for somewhere around $500. Elon made PayPal profitable and helped bring about an era of e-commerce when so many companies failed. Elon founded SpaceX and guided Tesla into his own vision making them not only awesome and functional but also profitable. In the midst of SpaceX and Tesla Elon also co-founded Solarcity which has become the leader in residential solar power. There are more and more achievements everyday. I could elaborate on these facts more but that’s what the book is for.

To say Mick & RedBeard are fans of Elon is putting it lightly but if you like SpaceX or Tesla at a minimum you will love this book.

The copy we listened to is from Audible.

This is the first of a new series I’m creating for “What To” that I’m calling the Extreme Nerd Series where books, film and audio highlighting science, innovators, inventors and tech startups will be covered.

The Boy Who Played with Fusion: Extreme Science, Extreme Parenting, and How to Make a Star written by Tom Clynes and narrated by P. J. Ochlan.

Taylor Wilson a young, strangely social given his level of intelligence, natural born leader, inquisitive genius of a boy from Texarkana, Arkansas.

Taylor hit many mile stones by the age of 17. By age 9 Taylor had, by most people’s standards, mastered the basics of rocket propulsion, by age 14 he successfully built a fusion reactor and with previous events shadowing this fact know that he gave a TED talk at the age of 17. Those facts are just tossed out there in order but seriously achieving fusion at the age of 14 is amazing. Just being able to gather the required components for a fusion reactor at that age is impressive let alone building one.

There are many people in this world like Taylor. A lot of them you wouldn’t know have that level of intelligence resides in them or that the potential lies there untapped. To be honest what sets Taylor apart from others is luck and enabling parents. Taylor did not come from wealth or a well connected family just caring parents, intelligence, circumstance and plan old luck.

With luck, I say luck because not enough of them exist in this world, brought caring teachers who could admit when they didn’t know something but helped find answers, adults willing to share knowledge and provide resources, parents willing to see it through that their children’s passions were nurtured, adults making time, saying yes and listening.

The copy we listened to is from Audible.