[kiba]

Elon Musk made himself into an expert.

I would consider him an authority on rocketry.

[arvinjoar]

Kind of proving my point? :) He did have to go aginst the grain though[1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P8UKBAOfGo

[sn9]

He's hardly a typical case.

People who get into graduate physics programs at Stanford rarely are.

And the amount of information one has to add to a solid undergrad education in physics to do rocketry is relatively minor compared to the amount most dilettantes need to add to become an expert.