Question the requirements

Finding the perfect answer to the wrong question helps nobody

Author

Enda Mac Nally
November 13, 2024 • Read it in: 5 minutes

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Question the requirements

I like to track down insights from wherever I can, and they’re certainly not endorsements. Caution advised… this is one of those.

Back before Elon Musk was applying his considerable wealth to help elect a vain idiot and convicted felon to the highest office in the land, he was putting his thumb on the scales of other, more explicable efforts.

Lex Fridman recently released a podcast episode featuring Musk and members of the Neuralink team, on the incredible things they’re managing to do via brain implant.

At one point, he’s asked how his engineering team simplify certain processes. He talks about the basic first principles framework he uses when approaching any problem:

“First, question the requirements.

Make the requirements less dumb.

The requirements are always dumb to some degree.

[...] No matter how smart the person is who gave you those requirements, they’re still dumb to some degree.

You have to start there because otherwise you could get the perfect answer to the wrong question,”

- Elon Musk

Wealth is discretionary time

I'm currently reading Million Dollar Consulting, and came across a nice encapsulation of what more money (should) actually buy you:

"Wealth is discretionary time; money is simply the means to obtain wealth.

(Hence, some people pursue money so rabidly that they decrease their wealth)"

[...] "...while building revenue is important, reducing labor intensity is just as important. The reason is that too many people are racing around generating money while eroding their wealth.

They are making money but losing time,"

Prove it to yourself

Sylvester Stallone on the pressure that created Rocky:

“I had to prove to myself that I wasn’t a liar.

That I wasn’t living a life of disillusionment. [...] I thought of myself as a creative person and I told myself that I was a great actor, but I had never had an opportunity to go figure out am I any good or not? [...] I had to get that answer.

Because if not, it would have eaten at me for the rest of my life.

🕵🏼‍♂️ ‘The Third Man’ (1949) [FILM]
75th anniversary of Carol Reeds’ classic, and my first time seeing it.

☁️ Memories, Dreams, Reflections [AUTOBIOGRAPHY]
Deep dive into Carl Jung’s life and ideas, in his own words.

🎤 Mm..Food [ALBUM]
20 years on, and still sounds fresh.

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