Why Elon Musk Has an "Idiot Index"

Elon Musk has always operated  with an extreme sense of urgency. I would like to not be dead by the time  we go to Mars, that’s my aspiration here. This urgency to get to Mars in his lifetime is the reason he is intensely committed to  reducing the cost of space travel. At the heart of Elon’s strategy is a unique  metric he devised known as the “idiot index”. This approach emerged from his early  attempts to buy refurbished ICBMs from the Russians but found their asking  price of $8 million for

one too much. Since then, he’s scrutinized every  aspect of production - from the build to the assembly to the launch of the rocket. The term “idiot index” compares the cost of a  rocket component to the cost of its raw materials. If an engine part costs $1,000  but the raw material costs $100, the idiot index would be  10:1, indicating inefficiency. Elon captured the essence of the index this  way in a conversation with Walter Isaacson: “If the ratio is high, you’re an idiot.” This concept was

put to the test in a  memorable encounter with Lucas Hughes, the financial analyst in charge of overseeing the  costs of the Raptor engine that powers Starship, the vehicle SpaceX is relying  on for its mission to Mars. As recounted in Isaacson’s book, Elon asked Lucas: “What are the best parts in Raptor  as judged by the idiot index?” Lucas responded, “I’m not sure.” Elon chewed him out: “You better be eff ing sure in the future  you know these things off the top of your head. If you ever come

into a meeting  and do not know what are the idiot parts, then your resignation will  be accepted immediately.” “How can you eff ing not know what  the best and worst parts are?” Lucas replied: “I know the cost chart down to the smallest part. I just don’t know the cost of the  raw materials of those parts.” Elon then asked, “What are the worst five parts?” When Lucas looked at his computer to see  if he could calculate an answer, Elon said: “NO! Don’t look at your screen. Just name  one. You sh

ould know the problematic parts.” Lucas said: “There’s the half nozzle jacket.  I think it costs $13,000.” Elon responded: “It’s made of a single piece  of steel. How much does that material cost?” Lucas replied: “I think a few thousand dollars?” Elon knew the right answer and said: “No. It’s just steel. It’s about two hundred  bucks. You have very badly failed. If you don’t improve, your resignation will be  accepted. This meeting is over. Done.” Elon didn’t know it at the time, but Lucas  had

lost his first child seven weeks before. His baby was born with complications  and never left the hospital. Lucas later recalled to Isaacson  that when Elon was reaming him out, “I was just trying to hold it  together and not collapse.” His training as a gymnast taught him to  remain calm in high-pressure situations. The following day, Lucas was back,  and this time he was prepared. He presented the 20 worst  “idiot index” parts for Elon. And noticed there was a theme: the worst  parts were thos

e that required a lot of high-precision machining,  like pumps and fairings. When Lucas concluded, “We need to cut out as  much of the machining as possible,” Elon smiled. He was impressed. The meeting ended with an ambitious plan to get the cost of the Raptor engine from $2  million down to $200,000 in one year. When Isaacson later asked Elon if he felt  he had been too harsh on Lucas, without mentioning the loss of Lucas’ baby as that was  confidential information at the time, Elon said: “I tr

y to criticize the action, not the person.  We all make mistakes. What matters is whether a person has a good feedback loop, can seek  criticism from others, and can improve. Physics does not care about hurt feelings. It  cares about whether you got the rocket right.” Elon felt the feedback wasn’t a personal attack,  although it could definitely feel that way. Lucas said he was made to feel like a tool  being used to achieve a greater objective. If the tool didn’t work for  Elon, he’d just get a

nother one. Lucas told Isaacson: “Elon  cares a lot about humanity, but humanity in more of a very macro sense.” Elon has thrown his entire life  force into getting to Mars. And he expects those he hires to put in the blood,  sweat, and tears, to make the mission a reality. In May 2022, after more than eight years of  working for Elon, Lucas decided to leave SpaceX. He said: “If Raptor becomes the most  affordable engine ever created and gets us to Mars, then it may be  worth the collateral dama

ge.” Another employee who endured Musk’s uncompromising  expectations was an engineer named Andy Krebs, who was in charge of building  the infrastructure at Starbase. One Friday night in July 2021, as Elon was  walking with a group of his top managers to the launchpad site and didn’t see anyone  around, Elon asked, “Why is no one working?” This happened to be the first time in weeks that  Andy didn’t have a full night shift on duty. Elon then said, “What is the eff ing  problem? I want to see ac

tivity.” That’s when he ordered a surge in productivity: He wanted Starship’s booster and  second stage stacked within 10 days. He felt seeing the rocket ready on the launchpad might get the FAA to fast-track approval  for Starship’s first orbital flight test. He sent an email after 1 am to  all SpaceX employees, writing: “Anyone who is not working on other  obviously critical path projects at SpaceX should shift immediately to work  on the first Starship orbit. Please fly, drive, or get here by

any means possible.” Elon ordered 500 workers from all over  SpaceX to make their way to Boca Chica, Texas, to get things moving. He said: “This is not a volunteer organization. We are not selling Girl Scout  cookies. Get them here now.” Elon’s assistant scrambled to find  accommodation for the employees, but the hotels in nearby Brownsville  were booked up for a convention. So she bought a lot of air mattresses. The workers would have to sleep on the floor. When Elon got back to the  main buil

ding of Starbase, the video monitor had been reprogrammed to: “Ship+Rocket Stacked T-196h 44m 23s” Elon does not let them round off into hours. Every second counts. In the end, stacking Starship didn’t help  get the FAA to rush its approval process. The first Starship flight wouldn’t happen  until nearly two years later, in April 2023. While Elon Musk is known to be a tough manager,  he has a remarkable ability to inspire his team. This was evident after SpaceX’s  first rocket, the Falcon 1, fai

led to reach orbit for the third time,  and the company nearly ran out of money. Facing the real possibility of SpaceX’s demise,  Elon rallied his workforce to never give up. SpaceX’s then-head of talent acquisition, Dolly Singh, shared a powerful anecdote  on Quora about this critical moment. In front of over 300 employees, Elon said: “...we  need to pick ourselves up, and dust ourselves off, because we have a lot of work to do. Then he  said, with as much fortitude and ferocity as he could mus

ter after having been awake for like  20+ hours by this point that, “"For my part, I will never give up and I mean never,” and  that if we stick with him, we will win.” Dolly described how the transformation  in the room was palpable: “I think most of us would have followed him  into the gates of hell carrying suntan oil after that. It was the most impressive  display of leadership that I have ever witnessed. Within moments the energy of the  building went from despair and defeat to a massive bu

zz of determination as people began to  focus on moving forward instead of looking back.” Stage separation confirmed The SpaceX team has never looked back. Starship’s third flight test  reached orbit for the first time. Although the upper stage didn't belly-flop in the  Indian Ocean as planned and instead disintegrated on its return to Earth, it did not diminish  the monumental achievement this represents, and it likely would not have been possible if  it were not for Elon Musk’s relentless driv

e. Behind every leap in technology lies a foundation  of deep knowledge and relentless curiosity. If you’re curious about the science  and technology that makes rockets fly, I can’t recommend Brilliant enough. Brilliant is a website and app  where you can learn math, science, data analysis, programming, and AI interactively. And it's FREE for you to try out. One of my favorite lessons is  How Large Language Models work. These powerful AI systems have the fascinating ability to generate text that

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