Takeaways From a New Elon Musk Biography: Ukraine, Trump and More - The New York Times

Like millions of others I've purchased this book because I've read many of Isaacson's biographies and I’m curious to read more on Elon Musk. I read Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future in 2016 and liked it a lot. This list of pull-quotes is not that interesting, except this one that I thought was very interesting.

Production sprints and struggles at Tesla and the space exploration company SpaceX also sharpened Mr. Musk’s philosophy, which he distilled into a five-step approach that he called “the algorithm” and which he repeatedly invoked to employees. It involved, in order: questioning requirements, deleting parts or processes, simplifying and optimizing, accelerating processes, and, finally, automating. “I became a broken record on the algorithm,” Mr. Musk told Mr. Isaacson.

This loop is super interesting to me as it hits on something that most engineers struggle with, scope and solution expansion. Some quick perspective.

Questioning Requirements: Requirements are too often assumed to be valid. If you start with a broad and wide set of requirements the solution becomes geometrically more complicated.
Deleting Parts or Processes: Explicitly remove things. What is the simplest set of solutions to meet the requirements.
Simplifying and Optimizing: Simplify. Engineers are driven to complexity like a moth to a flame. It invigorates the mind. It is a fun puzzle.
Accelerating Processes: Speed matters. Specifically identify where you can go faster.
Automating: Now that the solution is clear, how can it be automated to make it more efficient.

This is an interesting loop, and a great set of questions to ask.