Author: Walter Isaacson
Published: September 12, 2023 by Simon & Schuster
Format: Hardcover, 688 pages
Genre: Biography
First Sentence: Prologue: As a kid growing up in South Africa, Elon Musk knew pain and learned how to survive it.
Blurb: When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.
His father’s impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive.
At the beginning of 2022—after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth—Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. “I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,” he said.
It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground.
For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?
My Opinion: A crazy manchild, who can, and most certainly will, change the future. That is paraphrasing the ending of the book, and I couldn’t agree more.
Stepping back to the beginning, you feel for the child that was Elon. His home life was awful, and this school life was torment, so it is not surprising that he was determined to show the world, and his father, that he was underestimated. Watching the maniacal narcissist in his taking over of companies that he didn’t quite start but sued his way to the top, to his deleting anything and anyone in his way, was a slippery slide into the take-no-prisoners person he has become. Yet, people, mostly the women in his life, and some family members, stick by him no matter the abuse he puts them through.
Somehow, he makes his impetuous decisions work. He will rebuild the decimated Twitter after laying off approximately 75% of its workforce. He will continue to make Tesla a premiere car company even though he deleted all the parts that he thought were unnecessary, and no one will be surprised when SpaceX makes it to Mars before NASA.
After finishing the book, I don’t know what I would say about Musk. Other than I know that I would never work for him, and I don’t think I would ever buy one of his cars. He is a man who desperately loves his family, but his mind doesn’t understand empathy and deep love. The man is a trainwreck that I can’t look away from. And yes, Elon, invest in Kevlar boots since you will always be your own worst enemy.
Walter Isaacson, though repetitive, introduces the reader to the life and bipolar mind of one of this generation’s greatest thinkers. I’m not going to say that Elon is a genius -- it is the people around him who have created the mind-blowing technology -- Elon was just the person who said, “I have an idea, make it work, or I’ll fire you.”
Blurb: When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.
His father’s impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive.
At the beginning of 2022—after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth—Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. “I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,” he said.
It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground.
For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?
My Opinion: A crazy manchild, who can, and most certainly will, change the future. That is paraphrasing the ending of the book, and I couldn’t agree more.
Stepping back to the beginning, you feel for the child that was Elon. His home life was awful, and this school life was torment, so it is not surprising that he was determined to show the world, and his father, that he was underestimated. Watching the maniacal narcissist in his taking over of companies that he didn’t quite start but sued his way to the top, to his deleting anything and anyone in his way, was a slippery slide into the take-no-prisoners person he has become. Yet, people, mostly the women in his life, and some family members, stick by him no matter the abuse he puts them through.
Somehow, he makes his impetuous decisions work. He will rebuild the decimated Twitter after laying off approximately 75% of its workforce. He will continue to make Tesla a premiere car company even though he deleted all the parts that he thought were unnecessary, and no one will be surprised when SpaceX makes it to Mars before NASA.
After finishing the book, I don’t know what I would say about Musk. Other than I know that I would never work for him, and I don’t think I would ever buy one of his cars. He is a man who desperately loves his family, but his mind doesn’t understand empathy and deep love. The man is a trainwreck that I can’t look away from. And yes, Elon, invest in Kevlar boots since you will always be your own worst enemy.
Walter Isaacson, though repetitive, introduces the reader to the life and bipolar mind of one of this generation’s greatest thinkers. I’m not going to say that Elon is a genius -- it is the people around him who have created the mind-blowing technology -- Elon was just the person who said, “I have an idea, make it work, or I’ll fire you.”
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