#2223 - Elon Musk

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

Joe Rogan Podcast, checking out The Joe Rogan Experience. Shrink by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.

Elon Musk (0:12)

But if you want to sort of see a vision of the future, it's like basically the top 20, and even the top 100 is totally dominated by China.

Joe Rogan (0:22)

Really?

Elon Musk (0:23)

Yeah, this is like China and a little bit of Korea and Taiwan.

Joe Rogan (0:26)

So are you in the top 20 in the world? The top 20? Wow, in Diablo?

Elon Musk (0:30)

Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan (0:31)

Do you want to tell everybody your handle? No. No, don't tell them. Don't tell them. It's not worth it.

Elon Musk (0:36)

Well, they actually listed me with my actual name in the list.

Joe Rogan (0:40)

Oh, did they really? Oh, interesting.

Elon Musk (0:44)

But yeah, there's only two Americans in the top 20 The rest, almost everyone is from Asia, otherwise.

Joe Rogan (0:51)

We were talking about something that I think is a really good, because people always think that video games are frivolous. But what you were saying, I think, that's really important is it's so difficult that it requires you to only think about that, and it can like relieve stress. Yeah. It can take out the rest of the world, because it's so hard.

Elon Musk (1:08)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (1:08)

You can only think about that.

Elon Musk (1:10)

Yeah. I mean, finally, if I play a video game on extreme difficulty, then I have to concentrate fully on the game, and it has a calming effect. Yeah. It sort of chills down. And I mean, you mentioned, I think, and many people are like, if you play martial arts or you play pool, like something that forces you, it's like I think anything that forces you to concentrate fully, actually has a calming effect. I find it just sort of like a restoring effect. Yeah. It's like it's good.

Joe Rogan (1:43)

Jiu-Jitsu is like that. Archery is like that as well. Like when you're shooting a bow, you have to, there's so many moving things, and you have to think only of it, and it cleans the mind.

Elon Musk (1:54)

It cleans the mind, yeah, exactly.

Joe Rogan (1:56)

I was reading a study about surgeons, where they found that surgeons who regularly play video games make less errors.

Elon Musk (2:03)

Well, video games require manual dexterity, so it makes sense.

Joe Rogan (2:08)

Completely makes sense.

Elon Musk (2:08)

Actually, if somebody was like, ever good at video games, I'd say like their surgical skills can be very good, because in order to be good at video games, any kind of fast reaction video games.

Joe Rogan (2:18)

Look at this, 32 percent fewer errors, 24 percent faster and score 26 percent better overall than their non-player colleagues.

Elon Musk (2:27)

Oh, I believe that for sure.

Joe Rogan (2:28)

That's incredible. You should be required in medical school to play video games. Don't you think?

Elon Musk (2:34)

If somebody is like a top ranked video game player and they say they're a surgeon, I'd be like, plus one, plus two type of thing.

Joe Rogan (2:39)

Oh, top ranked for sure. But this isn't even top ranked. This is just people who play.

Elon Musk (2:44)

Well, your manual dexterity has to be extremely high. So you're looking at things on a screen, and you're reacting, and sometimes you've got like 10 milliseconds to react.

Joe Rogan (2:51)

Yes.

Elon Musk (2:54)

And so if somebody's got incredible reaction times and manual dexterity, they're obviously going to be a good surgeon.

Joe Rogan (3:00)

Imagine if there was a course that you could take. That course would promote, you would be 26 percent better.

Elon Musk (3:05)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (3:06)

Everyone would have to take that course.

Elon Musk (3:08)

Sure.

Joe Rogan (3:08)

Why would you want a surgeon that's less prepared? You would say, hey, Bob, did you take this course? You didn't take this course. Don't you understand this course makes you 26 percent better?

Elon Musk (3:16)

Sure.

Joe Rogan (3:17)

You would have to take it. Everyone should have to play video games.

Elon Musk (3:19)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (3:19)

If you want to be a surgeon.

Elon Musk (3:21)

Well, I think it certainly would be a very good test to see if somebody can't play video game as well. That means, because you got to move both hands simultaneously. You got to react to something very fast on the screen.

If your keystrokes or your mouse clicks or whatever are wrong, then you lose the game. Right. If somebody has a good rank in video games, I would say that necessarily their manual dexterity must be extremely good.