So, you want to know if Elon Musk Can Code? Well, the short answer is yes, Elon Musk can code. Not very surprising from an individual with an estimated IQ of 150-155 and the founder of a handful of tech companies such as Tesla and SpaceX. But exactly how well can Elon Musk code and how did he get started in the world of programming? Well, people seem to have a misconception that billionare tech entreprenuers lke Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk must be great coders. However, that is rarely the case. Let’s dive into why.
Elon had asked his father for the computer, and luckily for him, his father gifted it to him.
Soon after, Elon used the computer manual to learn the BASIC computer pogramming language. The training manual was estimated to take around 6 months to complete. However, Elon Musk was able to finish the manual in approximately 3 days.
The game required a total of 167 line of code to run and was written at a time when computers didn’t have proper GUI’s like they do today. Everything needed to be done on a terminal style interface.
Although a game like Blastar is nothing to gawk at, for a 12 year old in the early days of computing, it was something quite impressive.
This was Elon Musks first commercial success. It was also the starting point that paved the way for him to begin his career in tech.
Elon Musks Career In Code and Business
Although Elon Musk never had a 9-5 desk job as a programmer he did play a major role in coding his original start-up, Zip2. A company co-founded by Elon and his brother in 1995.
The software was used to provide a searchable business directory with maps of local businesses. Similar to an online yellow pages. Later, the software began to assist newspapers in designing online city guides. Partnering with a total of 160 newspapers before eventually being sold to Compaq Computerin 1999. Elon wrote the backend for this software in the C programming language.
According to the biography by Ashlee Vance, the software was eventually almost completely rewritten by its new hires. The computer science students that took over the project were able to re-write large chunks of code written by Musk in just a few lines of code. The codebase was also not very flexible originally. Meaning that if changes needed to be made in the future, it would be very difficult.
After his success with Zip2, Elon took the money he made from the company and re-invested it in his new startup, X.com. Another company where he played a large role in creating the original codebase.
X.com was an online bank co-founded by Elon Musk. In it’s later years, it was merged with their competitor, Confinity Inc. and became PayPal. In it’s merger a large part of it’s codebase had been re-written by more talented engineers.
From there, Elon went on to create Tesla and SpaceX. Although he did not play a large role in the development if these products. Marking his transition from part-time coder and into his focus on entrepreneurial endevours.
Summary
Elon Musk knows how to code. However, it is very obvious that he was never destined to become the best programmer in the world. If anything, Elon Musk was an above average self-taught coder that used his skills to propel his entrepreneurial career.
While Musk was a good enough coder to get his original projects off the ground, they later needed to be re-written by other engineers to properly scale the businesses.
So that’s about it! Now you know the answer as to whether or not Elon Musk can actually code. If you’re a self-taught developer yourself and are looking for ways to improve your skills, here and here are a great place to start.
Elon Musk is a self taught programmer. So, as any self taught programmer would attest (myself included), it's highly likely that at some point of your career you are writing code.
In fact, he was a prolific coder, producing large amounts of code by pulling all nighters at his office. But he was soon replaced by better, more efficient coder in his own company because of two reasons: Elon Musk is a self taught programmer.
Starting Out: In 6th grade, Mark showed natural coding talent; his dad hired private tutor David Newman, a software developer. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's co-founder, began as a young coding enthusiast. He crafted an early Spotify version, Synapse Media Player, in high school, catching AOL and Microsoft's attention.
Elon Musk is a cutting-edge, serial entrepreneur born and raised in South Africa. A lifelong technologist and entrepreneur, he bought his first computer at age 10 and taught himself how to program it. He sold his first software program, a space game called Blastar, for about $500 when he was 12 years old.
Elon Musk's iconic company, Tesla, operates on an operating system built on the Python programming language. Elon Musk continues to prefer it as his favourite programming language. Elon Musk is a brand in himself. He is one of the technological leaders who inspire people the most.
Contrary to popular belief, not all software developers possess exceptionally high IQs. In fact, the average IQ of a software developer hovers around 110, with a range extending from 93 to nearly 130.
But he was soon replaced by better, more efficient coder in his own company because of two reasons: Elon Musk is a self taught programmer. So, as any self taught programmer would attest (myself included), it's highly likely that at some point of your career you are writing code.
By the time he went off to Harvard—and dropped out after less than two years—Gates already had a wealth of programming experience. He'd founded a company, he'd created code for government agencies, and he'd taught himself numerous programming languages.
He still codes. Gates left his job as Microsoft CEO years ago to devote himself full-time to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but he still finds time to dabble in programming. When asked if he still codes, Gates said he doesn't as much as he'd like, but he occasionally dashes off some C, C# and BASIC.
He absorbed the knowledge by reading the manual, pretty much the same technique he used to teach himself how to build rockets almost 20 years later. At age 12, having mastered BASIC, Musk sold the code for his PC game Blastar to a PC magazine for approximately $500.
Jim Cantrell, who was an aerospace consultant at the time, became SpaceX's first VP of business development and Musk's industry mentor when the company launched in 2002. He says that Musk literally taught himself rocket science by reading textbooks and talking to industry heavyweights.
How did Elon Musk teach himself rocket science just by reading books? It is true, Elon learned a lot about the fundamentals of rocket design and astrodynamics from reading books. But he also learned an incredible amount from those he initially hired and worked with when he started SpaceX.
"I thought I could make my own." Video games are "incredibly engaging," Musk said. "They made me want to learn how to program computers. I thought I could make my own games." Musk managed to acquire an early Commodore computer which came with a manual that explained how to program in BASIC, an early computer language.
Elon Musk is one of the co-founders of PayPal but he wasn't the brains behind the code. Nope. Max Levchin, Steve Chen & Jawed Karim were some of the coders at PayPal.
Is Elon Musk a physicist, an engineer, or a computer scientist? Elon Musk is a businessman. He doesn't design electric cars or orbital rockets. He holds bachelor's degrees in physics and economics and spent literally two days in a physics PhD program.
Introduction: My name is Geoffrey Lueilwitz, I am a zealous, encouraging, sparkling, enchanting, graceful, faithful, nice person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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