In this 2015 interview, the host — a Tsinghua University professor — expressed genuine curiosity about how Elon Musk was able to found SpaceX without prior experience and knowledge in aerospace, especially given that rocket science is one of the most demanding hard sciences — and that Musk was serving as both CEO and CTO.
Musk explained that deep expertise can be built outside formal academic programs — by reading extensively, conducting experiments, and speaking directly with experts in the field.
Indeed, it was *because* I was not from the aerospace industry that SpaceX made such radical breakthroughs. Same for Tesla.
Those in the industry would have if they could have.