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Yep, kids on the way; had to sell his home and move in on the couch of another silicone valley investor to finish the first rocket launch that landed his first contracts. Said he was days away from being negative. This is an amazing read <EDIT harmless joke out> https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X
False. Read up on Elon. He may not be bending the metal to build the rockets, or assembling the batteries that go into Teslas (what CEO does?), but he knows a great deal about the engineering behind all their products.
If you haven't already, I highly recommend you read this.
Jobs, OTOH, had no background in computer science or engineering and never claimed to. His thing was design, which he (obviously) did really well.
The movie is okay as a movie, but as as far as historical value goes, it's more in the 'inspired by' category. They touch upon a few of the moments and ideas presented here, however.
For a more (and way more interestingly brought) in depth explanation, I can recommend 'The Code Book' by Simon Singh (amazon)
> Easy job for her.
Just finished https://www.amazon.com/Liftoff-Desperate-Early-Launched-SpaceX/dp/0062979973
Holy shit, NOT an easy job for the first decade+!
Strongly recommend that book by the way. It reads almost like a techno thriller.
> “Well they survived long enough to achieve space flight,” Forty-five Trills pointed out. “They can’t be too careless with explosions, can they?” ...
... said no-one familiar with the history of human rocketry.
On which subject, did you know that Ignition! is back in print? Now that book definitely shouldn't be taken as a challenge.
Love these guys. Downloaded.
PS Eric Berger also wrote a book about the early days of SpaceX called Liftoff. I'm in the middle of it and very interesting.
In the iconic book Ignition! every test fire where the test stand doesn't blow up, is considered a success ;-)
Yeah, Su's not just reading off a script. Her English has come really far; she's at the point of having enough vocabulary to feel like she can express what she wants to express once she picks the right words out of her dictionary. So she still has to do a translation of concepts into a smaller set of words (sort of like the book Thing Explainer) but she's got the confidence to do so.
Have a read.
It’s a fun read that takes you from prehistoric times to more modern inventions, with all of the discoveries along the way. Granted, it is rather superficial as it needs to be given the amount of material it covers. I found it fun and fascinating!
The premise is that it’s a handbook for a stranded time traveler and tells you what you need to do to rebuild civilization.
To add to your book comment, anytime I see this I always have to recommend the pocket ref its like google in a tiny ass book. I have a few of them.
The relevant passage from John Clark's "Ignition!":
>”It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that’s the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water-with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals-steel, copper, aluminium, etc.-because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminium keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.”
>He was in the right place at the right time
Incorrect, read the book on him written by Ashlee Vance and you will understand that it was not just so.
My overall view is that he's an increadible, but deeply flawed, person.
He's simultaneously transforming the transportation, space exploration, and energy sectors all at once. He's already accomplished multiple things in aeronautics and transportation areas that nobody else had done before. I honestly think he's possibly the most important person alive, and we're really lucky to have him.
But... he's probably a narcissist, and at least appears to be an asshole.
Like many people who are increadible workers, he demands incredible amounts from the people around him. Often enough that he hurts them. If you read his biography it's replete with stories of Elon hurting people close to him because he doesn't seem to understand how they see the world. His ex-wife, Justine, wrote a really sad article about their divorce back in 2010. This doesn't excuse anything, but his biography strongly suggests he was abused as a child by his father.
He seems to share a lot of traits, both positive and negative, with some of the most successful people in history. It's possible to be that driven that something inside of you needs to be broken, or that you demand so much of yourself that you despise mediocrity in others.
A similar book but a little more directly matching OP's scenario is How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler. It's kind of a fluffy book that doesn't take itself seriously, but does attempt an outline of key inventions that allow advancing civilization more rapidly at each point in time.
But the information in that book is easy to absorb and more or less memorize. I'd want to condense it down to key facts, like recipes for simple chemical processes, etc., and then I'd be tempted to say I'd want some math tables, if I don't have a calculator, but I'm not quite sure how soon I'd need that.
A map of mineral deposits would be pretty useful.
It's outlined in his biography (which is a good read on the details of all these events).
The job was really dangerous and required working in a boiler room and insane temperatures and squeezing between small spaces.
I'm curious about it and will probably still end up getting it as well as another one that always comes up in the other recommended list. How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler I'm suspecting what I've got in mind is just too big.
The Apollo rockets used kerosene and liquid oxygen for their first (and largest) stage. The later stages used hydrogen and oxygen, instead.
Collecting and compressing large amounts of hydrogen is unbelievably dangerous, and liquid oxygen isn't far behind - but neither is exactly rare. Kerosene is an article of commerce, and while you'd want to control purity fairly carefully for rocket fuel, which costs, it's more that you need a staggering amount of it than that the fuel itself is unusually expensive.
Interestingly, one of the best books ever written on this subject, Ignition!, is back in print. I highly recommend it if you have any interest in rocketry whatsoever: it covers fuel development, spanning most of the period from the late 19th century all the way up to the Cold War. Clark's style is also eminently quotable:
> [Chlorine trifluoride] is, of course, extremely toxic, but that’s the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water-with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals-steel, copper, aluminium, etc.-because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminium keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.
> How long would it take realistically for humanity to reach the industrial revolution if we knew everything we know now? I'm talking large scale.
Like if we landed on earth with all the knowledge but none of the stuff, with all of humanity (billions of people) able to help in the effort?
It's a supply chain problem then. You're not talking about how long would it take to get one email sent, you're talking about how long it would take to rebuild all the infrastructure necessary so that most of the world's population can send an email from their phone.
You might find this book interesting, btw. I haven't read it myself but did have it recommended once: How to Invent Everything
A Galileoscope and books. I currently like Thing Explainer, which seems really good for that age. Any space book will do though.
Update with Amazon link to book
>The few who make it out (it won’t be you or me) aren’t really going to be in a position to automate all labor and create a post-scarcity society, will they?
Won't they? Do you have any inkling of an idea of just how much waste this society produces? And we record everything in books. A pocket reference, a bag of tools and landfills full of scrap steel and various motors gives anyone that gets to the other side everything they need to rebuild.
But you're being alarmist. The center is already falling apart and the parts that are holding steady are actually doing their part to mitigate disaster. There are more people attempting alternative means than ever before. One more economic collapse and the biggest climate offenders will find it impossible to avoid nationalization. They already can't remain solvent without government funds.
Given, a few governments will have to fall before we're in the clear, but we're getting there.
r/ClimateOffensive
r/Permaculture
r/solarpunk
How similar is the insect population to earth? It’s labour intensive and alcohol in needed, but some of the first insulation for electronics was Shellac. Plus the other uses.
IMHO, the "Pocket Ref" is the best. They cost about $10, and are worth every penny. They are available at bookstores, hardware stores, Amazon, even McMaster.
Pocket Ref 4th Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1885071620/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_ZP3ZwbPVKT6MQ
Bull fucking shit it is. TM 31-210 is available on Amazon and is pretty much the improvised explosives bible.
https://www.amazon.com/U-S-Army-Improvised-Munitions-Handbook/dp/1684112737
Also, here is the free download since Fuck Bezos. https://archive.org/details/milmanual-tm-31-210-improvised-munitions-handbook
November 24. A few people seem to have early copies though.
Get him this book: Ignition!
It is an intimate history of liquid-fueled rocket engines. It is fantastic. Unless, of course, he already has it.
Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants (book)
I believe this is some edition of the book available for free online: ignition.pdf
According to the phenomenal book "Ignition!", that's pretty much how modern rocket propellant came about. They did some theoretical work, but most of it was just "This might make a good combination, or it might blow up. Let's try it!"
Read Lift Off by Eric Berger and hear the answer coming from SpaceX employees themselves. That book helped me a lot to understand what makes SpaceX an outlier. Spoilers: it's hard to exclude the upper management..
https://www.amazon.com/Liftoff-Desperate-Early-Launched-SpaceX/dp/0062979973