Bill Simon

Science, Technology, Art

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

For all we know, we are alone, the only place in the entire universe with advanced technological life. That makes us infinitely precious, and we should act accordingly.

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

@ElonogyX Work faster...

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

@onlyskypace 9

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

They made past ignition, which is when it was expected to blow up.

While a gap had opened in the SRB, it may have been survivable except that it created a "cutting torch" aimed directly at the lower strut connecting the SRB to the central tank. That's what eventually let go.

This allowed the SRB, supported now only by the top strut, to swing out at the bottom and inward at the top, therby crushing the central tank's LOX tank.

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

@TheDataHubX @cb_doge Boring Company (2017)
X (2023)

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

@teslaownersSV What five things did you do last week?

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

@Beno10_MFC X x Y = 28

[桃子 🕊️ @taozi0929]

这两天推上刷爆的那位SpaceX控制室精神小妹——27岁的郭璨，直接把我干沉默了。

你看她，吊带背心、黄头发、花臂纹身，耳朵上挂着通讯耳麦，棒球帽一扣，坐在那儿跟旁边白人大叔聊数据。

第一眼你以为这是哪个潮流博主在拍vlog吧？

再一看她面前的屏幕：实时发动机压力、温度、燃料流量、几十亿美金的星舰命脉，全在她手里捏着。 她说��就飞，说不飞就不飞。

这反差感，直接把人干懵。

更离谱的是，她20多岁写的代码，现在还在SpaceX发射流程里狂跑。一个人把整个控制流程干提速一大截，那堆代码跑了好几年还稳得一批。

工资呢？年薪现金13万美元。
硅谷应届生码农都不止这个数，对吧？

但她手里有8万到15万股SpaceX股票。
按现在161刀一股算，身价直接奔着两千万美金去了——一亿多人民币。

旁边那个焊工大哥，时薪28刀，拿6500股，上市直接变百万富翁。
她是工程师，是焊工的十倍。
股权这东西，从来不看你多努力，只看你坐在什么位置。

但我最服的，真不是钱。

我看纪录片的时候脑子里就一个问题：
一个27岁的女孩，是怎么坐到这个位置上的？

答案就一句话：
她选了一条所有人都觉得“女孩子不该走”的路，然后一路干到别人够不着的地方。

别人在卷内卷、拍短视频、考公考编的时候，她在焊代码、扛压力、跟火箭死磕。

现在呢？
花臂纹身照样露外面，火箭照样听她的。
这才是最硬的简历。
坐那儿，火箭就归她管。

致敬所有敢走别人觉得不该走的路的人。
尤其是那些一边被质疑一边把不可能干成可能的姑娘。

郭璨，牛逼。
SpaceX因为有你这样的人，才他妈越来越离谱。🚀

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

@compliantvc Sacasm detected. (I hope.)

[Jaynit @jaynitx]

Elon Musk explains his 5-step algorithm for solving any problem:

"The most common mistake of smart engineers is to optimize a thing that should not exist."

"I have this very basic first principles algorithm that I run as a mantra."

Elon breaks it down:

Step 1: Question the requirements.

"Make the requirements less dumb. The requirements are always dumb to some degree, no matter how smart the person who gave you those requirements. You have to start there, because otherwise you could get the perfect answer to the wrong question."

Step 2: Try to delete it.

"Try to delete the part or the process step entirely. If you're not forced to put back at least 10% of what you delete, you're not deleting enough. Most people feel like they've succeeded if they haven't been forced to put things back in. But actually they haven't, they've been overly conservative and left things in that shouldn't be there."

Step 3: Optimize or simplify.

"The most common mistake of smart engineers is to optimize a thing that should not exist. So you don't optimize until after you've tried to delete."

Step 4: Speed it up.

"Any given thing can be done faster than you think. But you shouldn't speed things up until you've tried to delete it and optimize it otherwise, you're speeding up something that shouldn't exist."

Step 5: Automate.

"And then the fifth thing is to automate it."

Elon explains why the order matters:

"I've gone backwards so many times where I've automated something, sped it up, simplified it, and then deleted it. I got tired of doing that. So that's why I have this mantra."

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

Kyoto Tachibana High School Band

[🌸🎵 Beautiful Melody 🎶💖 @Ducnghia16]

Kyoto Tachibana, a band made up almost entirely of girls, shines as one of the finest musical ensembles to have visited the United States—celebrated not just for their outstanding performances but also for their impressive discipline.

[Race @multiplanet1]

Elon Musk got rejected by Netscape. He walked into the lobby, was too shy to talk to anyone, and walked out. Never got the job.

At his first company Zip2, the board demoted him. Twice. They refused to let him be CEO.

He got fired from PayPal as CEO while flying to his own honeymoon. The board voted him out mid air.

He almost died of malaria in 2000. Ten days in intensive care. Lost 45 pounds. A day from death.

His first child died at 10 weeks old.

His first rocket exploded. Falcon 1, flight one. Burned on the pad.

His second rocket exploded.

His third rocket exploded. The last of his money was nearly gone.

Tesla nearly went bankrupt in 2008. The closest he ever came to a nervous breakdown.

Both companies almost died on the same Christmas Eve.

He was sued by investors. Mocked by the people who built cars before him.

His childhood heroes, the astronauts who inspired him, testified against his company to Congress.

The Cybertruck window shattered on live stage in front of the world.

He overpaid for Twitter by his own admission and watched its value collapse.

He was beaten unconscious as a child and thrown down a flight of stairs.

He has said he goes to sleep alone and it kills him.

He failed in public, over and over, for thirty years.

He is the richest man in the history of the world.

The difference was never the absence of failure. It was the refusal to stop after it.

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

Scientists tend to minimize our uniqueness and therby, miss the profound:

It's not that we are "just an advanced breed of monkeys." What's operative is that we are the only species that can not only dream of traveling to the Moon, but can figure out what it takes to do it, and then build the tech to do it, and then actually do it.

It's not that Earth is a "minor planet." What's operative is that Earth's gravity is strong enough to hold an atmosphere and water in the liquid state, which allows life, yet is weak enough to allow spaceflight.

It's not that our sun is an "average star."
What's operative is that being the type of star it is means it has a long enough lifespan necessary for complex life to evolve.

[Physics In History @PhysInHistory]

“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.”

-Stephen Hawking

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

@PhysInHistory The first and third sentences are mutually exclusive due to the word "just" in the first sentence.

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

@zone_astronomy Fixed it: The size of Jupiter compared to Earth reminds us not of how small Earth is, rather how big Jupiter is.

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

@Scivf4 Engineering says you get close enough for all practical purposes.

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

@PhysInHistory You both understand and don't understand quantum physics at the same time.

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

@CuriosityonX The off center bullet hole triggers (pun intended) my OCD.

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

@SpillTheMemes Probably because common words can't be trademarked unless there is some unique art to it. So, "ELEVEN" can t be trademarked, but "ELEVEn" can be.

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

@SpillTheMemes Fart Fashion

[Bill Simon @ThirdPlanettt]

@ElmoMac_ @mattvanswol @RoKhanna Leftists get to feel good about themselves for their virtue of looking out for the "needy" by stealing someone elses wealth.

Robinhood syndrome.