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Elon Musk on learning physics: What matters are not the formulas, but the thinking process that led to the discovery of those formulas. “I just recommend studying physics. What matters is not remembering a bunch of formulas. What matters is the thinking process that led to the discovery of... those formulas. It's sort of critical thinking, first principles analysis, trying to understand what is true at a most fundamental level and then reasoning up from there and testing your conclusions against the most fundamental truths in any given arena. This is how you can figure out whether something is more likely to be true or not. It's good to think in terms of probabilities. If you receive information about a subject, that should change the probability of your conclusion, but not the certainty of your conclusion. Physics teaches you that you should not be 100% certain about any given prediction. Now, there's some things that are highly likely, but physics teaches you you got to assign a probability to something being true. And then as you learn more information, your original conclusion may be wrong, then you should then change your mind based on the new information.” Town Hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, October 24, 2024show more

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Elon Musk explains why AI could be capable of discovering new physics. “You can think of intelligence like a compression problem. For any given field, it can be physics, or any field, you can distill things down to their most basic axiomatic elements, the things that are extremely likely to be true. And then, you can reason up from there to reach a cogent conclusion. I think if you apply that sort of first-principles compression to a field, and then you decompress it and contest the results against reality, then AI is capable of innovation and discovering new physics.” Town Hall in Philadelphia, October 18, 2024

Elon Musk explains why AI could be capable of discovering new physics. “You can think of intelligence like a compression problem. For any given field, it can be physics, or any field, you can distill things down to their most basic axiomatic elements, the things that are extremely likely to be true. And then, you can reason up from there to reach a cogent conclusion. I think if you apply that sort of first-principles compression to a field, and then you decompress it and contest the results against reality, then AI is capable of innovation and discovering new physics.” Town Hall in Philadelphia, October 18, 2024

ELON CLIPS

1,054,434 views • 1 year ago

Elon Musk on why physics is the only law you can't break "Physics is the law, and everything else is a recommendation. I've met a lot of people who can break the law, but I haven't met anyone who could break physics" "For any kind of technology problem, you have to make sure you're not violating physics. First-principles analysis can be applied to really any walk of life" "It's really just saying, let's boil something down to the most fundamental principles, the things we are most confident are true at a foundational level. That sets your axiomatic base, and then you reason up from there"

Elon Musk on why physics is the only law you can't break "Physics is the law, and everything else is a recommendation. I've met a lot of people who can break the law, but I haven't met anyone who could break physics" "For any kind of technology problem, you have to make sure you're not violating physics. First-principles analysis can be applied to really any walk of life" "It's really just saying, let's boil something down to the most fundamental principles, the things we are most confident are true at a foundational level. That sets your axiomatic base, and then you reason up from there"

Jaynit

87,926 views • 14 days ago

Elon Musk: Grok 3.5 uses the tools of physics to get to the truth with minimal error. “Grok, especially Grok 3.5, is trying to reason from first principles, so apply the tools of physics to thinking. If you're trying to get to fundamental truths, you boil things down to the axiomatic elements that are most likely to be correct, and then you reason up from there, and you can test your conclusions against those axiomatic elements. In physics, if you violate conservation of energy or momentum, then you're either going to get a Nobel Prize or you're wrong. And you're almost certainly wrong. That's really the focus of Grok 3.5: finding the fundamentals of physics and applying physics tools across all lines of reasoning and to aspire to truth with minimal error. There's always going to be some mistakes that are made, but we aim to get to the truth with acknowledged error, but minimize that error over time. And I think that's actually extremely important for AI safety. I've thought a lot for a long time about AI safety, and my ultimate conclusion is the old maxim that honesty is the best policy. It really is for safety.” Conversation with Satya Nadella, May 19, 2025

Elon Musk: Grok 3.5 uses the tools of physics to get to the truth with minimal error. “Grok, especially Grok 3.5, is trying to reason from first principles, so apply the tools of physics to thinking. If you're trying to get to fundamental truths, you boil things down to the axiomatic elements that are most likely to be correct, and then you reason up from there, and you can test your conclusions against those axiomatic elements. In physics, if you violate conservation of energy or momentum, then you're either going to get a Nobel Prize or you're wrong. And you're almost certainly wrong. That's really the focus of Grok 3.5: finding the fundamentals of physics and applying physics tools across all lines of reasoning and to aspire to truth with minimal error. There's always going to be some mistakes that are made, but we aim to get to the truth with acknowledged error, but minimize that error over time. And I think that's actually extremely important for AI safety. I've thought a lot for a long time about AI safety, and my ultimate conclusion is the old maxim that honesty is the best policy. It really is for safety.” Conversation with Satya Nadella, May 19, 2025

ELON CLIPS

21,462 views • 1 year ago

Elon Musk on the physics of truth: “Truth is not an easy thing But you can aspire to the truth. You can try to get as close to the truth as possible with minimum error while acknowledging that there will be some error in what you’re saying This is how physics works. You don’t say you’re absolutely certain about something, but a lot of things are extremely likely Aspiring to the truth is very important”

Elon Musk on the physics of truth: “Truth is not an easy thing But you can aspire to the truth. You can try to get as close to the truth as possible with minimum error while acknowledging that there will be some error in what you’re saying This is how physics works. You don’t say you’re absolutely certain about something, but a lot of things are extremely likely Aspiring to the truth is very important”

X Freeze

799,569 views • 2 months ago

Elon Musk about the meaning of life and the trap of wishful thinking : “When I was a kid, I was wondering what's the meaning of life? Like, why are we here? What's it all about? And I came to the conclusion that what really matters is trying to understand the right questions to ask. And the more that we can increase the scope and scale of human consciousness, the better we are able to ask these questions. And so I think that there are certain things that are necessary to ensure that the future is good. One of the biggest mistakes people generally make, and I'm guilty of it too, is wishful thinking. You know, like, you want something to be true even if it isn't true. And so you ignore the things that you ignore the real truth because of what you want to be true. This is a very difficult trap to avoid.”

Elon Musk about the meaning of life and the trap of wishful thinking : “When I was a kid, I was wondering what's the meaning of life? Like, why are we here? What's it all about? And I came to the conclusion that what really matters is trying to understand the right questions to ask. And the more that we can increase the scope and scale of human consciousness, the better we are able to ask these questions. And so I think that there are certain things that are necessary to ensure that the future is good. One of the biggest mistakes people generally make, and I'm guilty of it too, is wishful thinking. You know, like, you want something to be true even if it isn't true. And so you ignore the things that you ignore the real truth because of what you want to be true. This is a very difficult trap to avoid.”

Eva Fo𝕏 🦊 Claudius Nero's Legion

75,023 views • 9 months ago

Elon Musk: I try to change my mind if there is a reason to change my mind. “I think there's a natural instinct for people to want to be set in their ways and to be convinced that they're right, whereas I think we should actually just strive to be less wrong. That is how things operate in physics. You strive to be less wrong. It's not the most gung ho slogan, but if you want to be less wrong, then that's a good operating principle. Seek the truth and let the conclusions lead where the data takes you. It's very important to operate on this principle if you're building electric cars or space Internet or rockets. Because if you don't, if there's not a rigorous understanding of how reality works, the rockets blow up and the cars don't work and full self-driving wouldn't work.” Town Hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, October 24, 2024

Elon Musk: I try to change my mind if there is a reason to change my mind. “I think there's a natural instinct for people to want to be set in their ways and to be convinced that they're right, whereas I think we should actually just strive to be less wrong. That is how things operate in physics. You strive to be less wrong. It's not the most gung ho slogan, but if you want to be less wrong, then that's a good operating principle. Seek the truth and let the conclusions lead where the data takes you. It's very important to operate on this principle if you're building electric cars or space Internet or rockets. Because if you don't, if there's not a rigorous understanding of how reality works, the rockets blow up and the cars don't work and full self-driving wouldn't work.” Town Hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, October 24, 2024

ELON CLIPS

22,821 views • 11 months ago

"You can either produce excellence or you can avoid criticism. But you cannot do both of those. The reason that you don't have certain excellence that you want is because you are afraid of getting criticized. You are afraid of the judgment that comes with it. You are afraid of standing out. You are afraid of being alone. You are afraid of people looking at you. You are worried about what people think of you. There are 2 categories of things in this world: 1) Things that are up to you 2) Things that are not up to you Which category does your reputation sit in? Your reputation is not up to you. I'm the one who associates your reputation with something, not you. You just do things. What's up to you? How you act. Your decisions. Your actions. That is up to you. Your reputation is not up to you. Here's how I know that: You all have a reputation about me and it's not in my control. I get to say and do whatever I say and do up here. I am in control of saying it. I am in control of doing it. The moment words leave my lips, who has control over what is done with those words? You! You are in control of what you think of me. And there's no way everybody in this room is going to think the exact same thing about me. No way. When it comes to exceptional, what we've got to understand is you can spend your whole life trying to avoid criticism and earn reputation, and it still won't be in your control. We can waste a lot of time missing out on excellence we could have been producing if we were just simply LESS trying to engineer what we wanted other people to think about us."

"You can either produce excellence or you can avoid criticism. But you cannot do both of those. The reason that you don't have certain excellence that you want is because you are afraid of getting criticized. You are afraid of the judgment that comes with it. You are afraid of standing out. You are afraid of being alone. You are afraid of people looking at you. You are worried about what people think of you. There are 2 categories of things in this world: 1) Things that are up to you 2) Things that are not up to you Which category does your reputation sit in? Your reputation is not up to you. I'm the one who associates your reputation with something, not you. You just do things. What's up to you? How you act. Your decisions. Your actions. That is up to you. Your reputation is not up to you. Here's how I know that: You all have a reputation about me and it's not in my control. I get to say and do whatever I say and do up here. I am in control of saying it. I am in control of doing it. The moment words leave my lips, who has control over what is done with those words? You! You are in control of what you think of me. And there's no way everybody in this room is going to think the exact same thing about me. No way. When it comes to exceptional, what we've got to understand is you can spend your whole life trying to avoid criticism and earn reputation, and it still won't be in your control. We can waste a lot of time missing out on excellence we could have been producing if we were just simply LESS trying to engineer what we wanted other people to think about us."

Brian Kight

308,812 views • 1 year ago

Elon Musk clearly explains why Grok must be maximally truth-seeking: “I think you want Grok to say things that are true, even if they’re not politically correct” Focus on cogent reasoning - make sure axioms as close to true as possible, no contradictions, and conclusions that necessarily follow with the right probability. It’s just critical thinking 101 The proof is in the pudding: For any AI to discover new physics or build technology in reality that actually works... there is BS physics, you have to be extremely truth-seeking Physics is the law. Everything else is just a recommendation. If your rocket design is wrong, it blows up. Reality doesn’t lie

Elon Musk clearly explains why Grok must be maximally truth-seeking: “I think you want Grok to say things that are true, even if they’re not politically correct” Focus on cogent reasoning - make sure axioms as close to true as possible, no contradictions, and conclusions that necessarily follow with the right probability. It’s just critical thinking 101 The proof is in the pudding: For any AI to discover new physics or build technology in reality that actually works... there is BS physics, you have to be extremely truth-seeking Physics is the law. Everything else is just a recommendation. If your rocket design is wrong, it blows up. Reality doesn’t lie

X Freeze

20,551 views • 3 months ago

ELON: I STRONGLY RECOMMEND STUDYING PHYSICS “I studied physics and I certainly strongly recommend physics as a good grounding to understand the nature of reality. Physics is fundamentally just understanding how the universe actually works. And then that's a good foundation for then a variety of engineering disciplines. I think also the analytical principles, the sort of analytical constructs used in physics apply to basically anything. Physics developed all these ways of thinking, like first-principles thinking, thinking about things in the limit, high and low, testing your hypothesis. It's the scientific principle, essentially. These things are incredibly helpful in all arenas.” Source: Axel Springer Pioneer's Talk, December 2020

ELON: I STRONGLY RECOMMEND STUDYING PHYSICS “I studied physics and I certainly strongly recommend physics as a good grounding to understand the nature of reality. Physics is fundamentally just understanding how the universe actually works. And then that's a good foundation for then a variety of engineering disciplines. I think also the analytical principles, the sort of analytical constructs used in physics apply to basically anything. Physics developed all these ways of thinking, like first-principles thinking, thinking about things in the limit, high and low, testing your hypothesis. It's the scientific principle, essentially. These things are incredibly helpful in all arenas.” Source: Axel Springer Pioneer's Talk, December 2020

Mario Nawfal

336,374 views • 1 year ago

ELON: SEEK THE TRUTH, NOT WHAT YOU WISH TO BE TRUE "Mistakes people generally make, and I'm guilty of it too, is wishful thinking. You know, like you want something to be true even if it isn't true, and so you ignore the things that, you ignore the real truth because of what you want to be true. This is a very difficult trap to avoid, and like I said, it's certainly one that I find myself in having problems with. But if you just take that approach of you are always to some degree wrong and your goal is to be less wrong, and solicit critical feedback, particularly from friends. If somebody loves you, they want the best for you, they don't want to tell you the bad things." Source: Unlock Futurix YT

ELON: SEEK THE TRUTH, NOT WHAT YOU WISH TO BE TRUE "Mistakes people generally make, and I'm guilty of it too, is wishful thinking. You know, like you want something to be true even if it isn't true, and so you ignore the things that, you ignore the real truth because of what you want to be true. This is a very difficult trap to avoid, and like I said, it's certainly one that I find myself in having problems with. But if you just take that approach of you are always to some degree wrong and your goal is to be less wrong, and solicit critical feedback, particularly from friends. If somebody loves you, they want the best for you, they don't want to tell you the bad things." Source: Unlock Futurix YT

Mario Nawfal

34,926 views • 8 months ago

He's right. And I don't mean that sarcastically, or cruelly, or unkindly. Men, that is your purpose, perhaps above all others. It is the very definition of masculinity. It is to give, always, more than you receive. It is not fair. It is not just. But it is the truth. Importantly, just like Batman, you are under no requirement to save everyone. You should be VERY discerning in this regard... But think carefully about every man you think highly of. All of them, every single last one, in stark terms produces more than he consumes. That is what it is to *be* a man. "But what if I need help?" Then you should seek it. And you should understand that the cloudy voice in your head telling you it would be better to self destruct is an animalistic thing, slamming its hand down on the dopamine button, pumping your head full of fantasies of glorious self sacrifice because it feels good in a moment when you're suffering most. Get it? That's why you're fantasizing about it. Because it feels good, in your moments of most terrible suffering, to see yourself as a hero. The very embodiment of self sacrificing masculinity. It counteracts the pain. It's self medication, it keeps you going. And so you slam down that fantasy button as things get worse and worse and worse... until it's not enough, until the fantasy could not only never be enough, but in order to survive the fantasy simply must start to translating into action. And thus it feels good again. Because now there's hope. There's a goal. The fantasy of being a self sacrificial hero is finally being backed up by action, evidence. "I will die usefully." And the conclusion of all of this is exactly what you expect it would be. Don't let it be.

He's right. And I don't mean that sarcastically, or cruelly, or unkindly. Men, that is your purpose, perhaps above all others. It is the very definition of masculinity. It is to give, always, more than you receive. It is not fair. It is not just. But it is the truth. Importantly, just like Batman, you are under no requirement to save everyone. You should be VERY discerning in this regard... But think carefully about every man you think highly of. All of them, every single last one, in stark terms produces more than he consumes. That is what it is to be a man. "But what if I need help?" Then you should seek it. And you should understand that the cloudy voice in your head telling you it would be better to self destruct is an animalistic thing, slamming its hand down on the dopamine button, pumping your head full of fantasies of glorious self sacrifice because it feels good in a moment when you're suffering most. Get it? That's why you're fantasizing about it. Because it feels good, in your moments of most terrible suffering, to see yourself as a hero. The very embodiment of self sacrificing masculinity. It counteracts the pain. It's self medication, it keeps you going. And so you slam down that fantasy button as things get worse and worse and worse... until it's not enough, until the fantasy could not only never be enough, but in order to survive the fantasy simply must start to translating into action. And thus it feels good again. Because now there's hope. There's a goal. The fantasy of being a self sacrificial hero is finally being backed up by action, evidence. "I will die usefully." And the conclusion of all of this is exactly what you expect it would be. Don't let it be.

BLACK DUMPLING™

10,901 views • 6 days ago

🚨 Elon Musk on Grok 3.5: "With Grok 3.5, that is about to be released, it's trying to reason from first principles. The focus of Grok 3.5 is to find the fundamentals of physics and applying physics tools across all lines of reasoning and to aspire to truth with minimal error. So apply kind of the tools of physics to thinking, and you know physics, if you violate conservation of energy or momentum, then you're either going to get a Nobel Prize, or you're wrong. We aim to get to truth with acknowledged error, but minimize that error over time. And I think that's actually extremely important for AI safety. So I've put a lot for a long time about AI safety, and conclusion is the old maxim that honesty is the best policy."

🚨 Elon Musk on Grok 3.5: "With Grok 3.5, that is about to be released, it's trying to reason from first principles. The focus of Grok 3.5 is to find the fundamentals of physics and applying physics tools across all lines of reasoning and to aspire to truth with minimal error. So apply kind of the tools of physics to thinking, and you know physics, if you violate conservation of energy or momentum, then you're either going to get a Nobel Prize, or you're wrong. We aim to get to truth with acknowledged error, but minimize that error over time. And I think that's actually extremely important for AI safety. So I've put a lot for a long time about AI safety, and conclusion is the old maxim that honesty is the best policy."

DogeDesigner

199,274 views • 1 year ago

Elon Musk explains why being useful is the only career advice that matters "I generally think to try to be as useful as possible. It may sound trite, but it's so hard to be useful, especially to a lot of people" "The area under the curve of total utility is how useful have you been to your fellow human beings, times how many people. It's almost like the physics definition of true work. If you aspire to do true work, your probability of success is much higher" "Don't aspire to glory, aspire to work"

Elon Musk explains why being useful is the only career advice that matters "I generally think to try to be as useful as possible. It may sound trite, but it's so hard to be useful, especially to a lot of people" "The area under the curve of total utility is how useful have you been to your fellow human beings, times how many people. It's almost like the physics definition of true work. If you aspire to do true work, your probability of success is much higher" "Don't aspire to glory, aspire to work"

Jaynit

74,492 views • 17 days ago