Elon Musk
by Walter Isaacson
Published By: Simon & Schuster, September 2023
Genre: Nonfiction | Biography & Memoir, Business & Economics, Science and Technology
Page Count: 688 (Hardcover)
Audiobook Length: 20 hours and 27 minutes
Audiobook Narrator: Jeremy Bobb
ISBN: 9781982181284
Publisher’s 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?
About the Author
Walter Seff Isaacson (born May 20, 1952) is an accomplished American author, journalist, and professor. He has held prominent roles as President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair and CEO of CNN, and editor of Time. A Harvard and Oxford graduate, he is renowned for his influential works, including biographies of notable figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Steve Jobs, and Leonardo da Vinci, among others. Additionally, he serves as a professor at Tulane University and as an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg Partners, a New York-based financial firm. Isaacson has also played vital roles in post-Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts and government boards related to innovation and communication.
Our full bio and bibliography for Walter Isaacson can be found here.
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