Elon Musk says

“Being an entrepreneur is like eating glass and staring into the abyss of death.”

More from Elon Musk

“I think it’s important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it’s like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths… and then reason up from there.”

“Hope we’re not just the biological boot loader for digital superintelligence. Unfortunately, that is increasingly probable.”

“OpenAI seems to be going really well. We have a really talented team that are working hard. OpenAI is structured as a non-profit, but many non-profits do not have a sense of urgency… but OpenAI does. I think people really believe in the mission, I think it’s important. It’s about minimizing the risk of existential harm in the future…”

“When I was a little kid, I was really scared of the dark. But then I came to understand, dark just means the absence of photons in the visible wavelength--400 to 700 nanometers. Then I thought, well, it's really silly to be afraid of a lack of photons. Then I wasn't afraid of the dark anymore after that.”

“Constantly seek criticism. A well thought out critique of whatever you’re doing is as valuable as gold.”

“They were building a Ferrari for every launch, when it was possible that a Honda Accord might do the trick.”

“In terms of the Internet, it's like humanity acquiring a collective nervous system. Whereas previously we were more like a [?], like a collection of cells that communicated by diffusion. With the advent of the Internet, it was suddenly like we got a nervous system. It's a hugely impactful thing.”

“Never chase the next hot thing. Stop trying to chase the wave. You will never catch it. You always for the most part find out about that stuff too late. Instead, do what you are really passionate about, what you really love. That will position you before the wave even hits, and you will find out about whatever it is before the wave starts, before it gets hot, and that is how you take advantage.”

“It's OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.”

“I think A.I. is probably the single biggest item in the near term that’s likely to affect humanity. So it’s very important that we have the advent of A.I. in a good way, that it’s something that if you could look into a crystal ball and see the future, you would like that outcome. Because it is something that could go wrong… So we really need to make sure it goes right.”