Musk's advice to teenagers: "Be a useful person to the world." " I didn't expect it to be very, very difficult!

Musk landed on a podcast on the 28th, when the host asked, what advice do you have for teenagers who want to make a positive impact on the world? Musk's answer completely subverts everyone's perception of cultivating talents.

1. Reject a zero-sum mentality and make a positive net contribution to society

First of all, to be a person who is useful to the world and to humanity. It's very hard to be a useful person! Very, very difficult! Do you contribute more than you consume? Strive to make a positive net contribution to the world, that should be the goal of your efforts!

Don't be a leader for the sake of being a leader.

If your life is useful to the world, your life will become very valuable.

As I said, you should advertise in your life the models of thinking in physics, such as first principles, which are the best tools for thinking.

You need to develop a "non-zero-sum mindset," or "a mindset that makes the pie bigger." I've met a lot of extremely smart people who don't realize their "zero-sum mentality": the only way they can progress is to "plunder" from others. If the pie is so big, you have more, and there are fewer others. In fact, this is not the case, and the pie of the world is growing at an alarming rate.

The mentality of the vast majority of young people today is a "zero-sum mentality", which is very bad and the root of all vicious competition. The "non-zero-sum mentality" of "making the pie bigger" is much broader!

2. Read more and learn more from people of different majors

I encourage everyone to read more, absorb as much knowledge as possible, and build a broad body of knowledge as much as possible. This way you can have a holistic view of the structure of knowledge in the world. Every kind of knowledge is learned a little, how do you know that you are interested in it without trying? Various "marginal explorations" can greatly expand the boundaries of knowledge.

Reach out to people in a variety of different professions and backgrounds and try to learn from them. Isn't it all about finding the meaning of life? What is the meaning of life?

3. Find the intersection of interests and talents

You may be good at doing one thing, but you don't like it. So you're looking for something that you're naturally good at and at the same time a particularly fond of. Reading is actually a super shortcut: it helps you quickly find the intersection of interests and talents.

Musk's first suggestion is the worldview that the child wants to establish, and the second and third is the path to realization.

As PeterTil said in "From Zero to One," most people think that competition is very good. The same is true of our upbringing, learning, and sports encourage competition. However, these competitions are "zero-sum games", and your admission to a prestigious school means that many competitors have lost this valuable opportunity. The fierce competition led to a sharp decline in "marginal gains", and everyone worked hard to brush up on the problems, doing the unique work of "carving on diamonds", and as a result, personal skills did not improve substantially.

What is really valuable is the "monopoly business", which creates great value because there is no competition. How to create a monopoly business? First of all, we must jump out of the "Red Sea competition" and think from the perspective of creating value for the world. This is true for entrepreneurs, and it is even more true for students. Because this "non-zero-sum mentality" is definitely cultivated from an early age.

Musk, the contemporary "superhero" is a good example, he was inspired to become a "superhero who saved the world" at the age of 11, and his life is meaningless! Once you've established the "non-zero-sum" values, you can now implement them in accordance with Musk's Rules 2 and 3.

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