Elon Musk discusses an electric jet

Elon's not superman. His insight and visionary ability to execute comes from something very simple: he reasons from first principles instead of by analogy, and he avoids cargo cult thinking.

If there is X amount of energy in a battery and it takes Y amount of energy to do Z, then Z ought to be able to be electrified... and so on.

It ain't rocket science. :) Unfortunately this is not how most people think or are taught to think. Most people look at what other people already do and reason by assuming superficial similarity as indicative of underlying similarity.