Elon Musk - Walter Isaacson

Elon Musk

By Walter Isaacson

  • Release Date: 2023-09-12
  • Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Score: 4
4
From 336 Ratings

Description

From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter.

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 question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?

Reviews

  • Another Masterpiece

    5
    By Zerith19
    Another masterpiece about the Nikola Tesla of 21 century, about the childhood of Elon Musk and his dream for the future of Humanity.
  • Isaacson’s worst work so far

    2
    By Light9-dev
    If you’re a fan of Isaacson’s biographies, skip this one. It hardly feels like his usual standard of quality for research nor for writing style. If someone gave me this book and didn’t tell me who wrote it, I would have never guessed it was him.
  • The good, the bad and the ugly

    5
    By non-fiction reader
    Walter Isaacson is the best biographer I have ever read. And once again, he proves it as he unravels the quixotic, and remarkably successful life of Elon Musk. Write on Walter.
  • Musk is great

    5
    By Dan Vermilion
    An enjoy full and interesting book.
  • not meat riding what y'all on?💀

    5
    By LED llama
    Elon is fine the writing was kinda robotic but it is still a story worth telling a story which is true is a story worth telling
  • Russian Pawn

    1
    By stucknmove
    This man is a real piece of garbage.
  • Great perspective

    5
    By SSSpaced.out
    The book is well written and describe genuinely what Ellon is about. If only we could analyze something these days with an truly open mind and unbiased perspective . It is unfortunate that some reviewers are so political. I am sure they did not read the book.
  • Elon Musk

    5
    By Nicholas2687
    It’s worth every penny and it was a great read
  • Why??????

    1
    By Epona@11111
    i cannot fathom how anyone would want to purchase or read this book, about a narcissistic, egotistical, sociopathic man-child.. truly pathetic...
  • NAH

    1
    By pleased lifter
    give us an update when walter’s done with retractions and done sucking off elon. extreme lack of credibility