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.
[?lk] = 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.
相似表達(dá): 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絲
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.
我個(gè)人不太贊同這種做法婆瓜。我屬于那種比較急性子的人禁添，比如下周末要交的東西從這周末起就開始整個(gè)人緊張起來项钮，一直到做完為止才能神經(jīng)放松下來。如果計(jì)劃這個(gè)月讀完一本書，經(jīng)常上半個(gè)月就讀完了傅是。但這種做法往往并不是給自己帶來更多的時(shí)間和效益团驱，反而會(huì)降低效率，因?yàn)榇颐χ泻茈y真正地去吸收知識(shí)丛塌，也很難有有創(chuàng)意的想法较解，最主要的是畜疾，自己仿佛總是被時(shí)刻表驅(qū)趕著，甚至有點(diǎn)為了完成計(jì)劃而完成計(jì)劃哨坪，忽略了計(jì)劃的初衷也很難享受過程庸疾。近半年來有意地讓自己放慢節(jié)奏，按照外界的時(shí)間表給自己分配每天的任務(wù)而不是急于去抵達(dá)目的地当编。比如這個(gè)月的讀書活動(dòng)届慈，每天只讀Eric布置的量，即使有多余的時(shí)間也不往后讀忿偷。我更喜歡現(xiàn)在的這種狀態(tài)金顿，每天雖然看似進(jìn)度小，但是學(xué)習(xí)的東西印象更深刻鲤桥，更重要的是揍拆，那種不慌不忙的心態(tài)能讓人更懂得享受生活本身。
