“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.”

industrialist and technologist, former public official

Elon Reeve Musk is an industrialist and technologist, and a former public official. He is the chief executive officer and largest shareholder of Tesla and SpaceX, and has 186 quotes on the site. He has been the wealthiest person in the world since 2025. In June 2026, he became the only trillionaire, and Forbes estimated his net worth at $1.1 trillion as of October 2026.