PART 1 Expressions
1. Both his employees and the public have found this to be one of the more jarring aspects of Musk’s character.
It is jarring for both parties when the SpaceX culture rubs against more bureaucratic bodies like NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and the Federal Aviation Administration.
jarring: annoying or shocking
jar: (v.) to make sb feel annoyed or shocked
His words jarred Harriet.
The screaming was starting to jar on my nerves.
2. Being late is par for the course in the aerospace industry.
be par for the course: to be what you would normally expect to happen, used to show disapproval
Long hours and tough working conditions are often par for the course in catering.
3. The Dragon capsule took SpaceX four years to design. It’s likely the fastest project of its ilk done in the history of the aerospace industry.
[ɪlk] = kind, type
of that/ his/ its/ their etc ilk
sb and that/ his/ their tec ilk
Ms Taylor and her ilk talk absolute rubbish.
4. The project started with Musk and a handful of engineers, most of them under thirty years old, and peaked at one hundred people.
peak at: to reach the highest point or level
Wind speeds peaked at 105 mph yesterday.
5. The result was a fully redundant avionics platform that used a mix of off-the-shelf computing gear and products built in-house by SpaceX.
already made and available in shops rather than being designed especially for a customer
off-the-shelf database software
6. If something went wrong with the shuttle, everyone was just resigned to waiting three weeks before they could try and launch again.
be resigned to (doing) sth/ resign oneself to (doing) sth: to calmly accept a situation that is bad, but cannot be changed
She's resigned to spending Christmas on her own.
At sixteen, I resigned myself to the fact that I'd never be a dancer.
a resigned look, voice etc
“We'll have to leave,” she said with a resigned sigh.
相似表达: take one's lumps
7. It obsesses over something that other people might find trivial and yet he has a definite point.
be obsessing about/ over sth/ sb: informal, to think about sth or sb much more than is necessary or sensible
Stop obsessing about your hair. It's fine.
be obsessed with/ by sth/ sb: to think or worry about them all the time, used to show disapproval
A lot of young girls are obsessed by their weight.
8. Musk laid into an FAA official while on a conference call with members of the SpaceX team and NASA.
lay into sb/ sth: to attack or criticize sb or sth
Outside the club, two men were laying into each other.
9. Bowersox ended up smack in the middle of the constant pull and push at SpaceX between doing things efficiently and agonizing over traditional procedures.
agonize over/ about sth: to think about a difficult decision very carefully and with a lot of effort
All the way home she agonized about what she should do.
10. Musk has been known to let even high-ranking officials have it when he thinks they’re off base and is not apologetic about this.
be off base: informal, to be completely wrong
His estimate for painting the kitchen seems way off base.
11. One former official felt that Musk would need to temper himself better in the years to come if SpaceX was to keep currying favor with the military and government agencies in its bid to defeat the incumbent contractors.
the incumbent president/ priest/ government etc: the president etc at the present time
it is incumbent upon/ on sb to do sth: it is sb's duty or responsibility to do it
It is incumbent upon parents to control what their children watch on TV.
the incumbent (n.) someone who has been elected to an official position and who is doing the job at the present time
In the June elections, Morris easily defeated the incumbent, Tom Smith.
12. The work kept Shotwell interested, but the environment started to grate on her.
1. 用菜擦子把食物擦成丝
2. grate on sb: to annoy sb
Mr Fen had a load voice that grated on her ears.
PART 2 Thoughts
But in order to achieve the external promised schedule, you've got to have an internal schedule that's more aggressive than that. Sometimes you still miss the external schedule.
我个人不太赞同这种做法。我属于那种比较急性子的人，比如下周末要交的东西从这周末起就开始整个人紧张起来，一直到做完为止才能神经放松下来。如果计划这个月读完一本书，经常上半个月就读完了。但这种做法往往并不是给自己带来更多的时间和效益，反而会降低效率，因为匆忙之中很难真正地去吸收知识，也很难有有创意的想法，最主要的是，自己仿佛总是被时刻表驱赶着，甚至有点为了完成计划而完成计划，忽略了计划的初衷也很难享受过程。近半年来有意地让自己放慢节奏，按照外界的时间表给自己分配每天的任务而不是急于去抵达目的地。比如这个月的读书活动，每天只读Eric布置的量，即使有多余的时间也不往后读。我更喜欢现在的这种状态，每天虽然看似进度小，但是学习的东西印象更深刻，更重要的是，那种不慌不忙的心态能让人更懂得享受生活本身。
