Will I love Elon Musk?

It has become fashionable to bash Elon Musk as an inhuman, dictatorial control freak. But what is at the source of who the co-founder of PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla, and currently the world’s richest man, is? Why does (almost) anything he touches turn to gold?

It all became clear to me when I read the shocking revelations of how he grew up under a dictatorial father, a suspected con-man who created an alternate reality for Elon and his siblings; how he had to spend summers in the South African Veld and beat up other kids so they wouldn’t beat him… show more.

Elon Musk didn’t emerge out of a vacuum; this book shows how what we now know of as Musk actually happened. Walter Isaacson writes the best tech biographies.

I was actually going to put his book on Apple founder Steve Jobs here but switched to Musk at the last minute because something about this book drew me in even more. Instead of dwelling on the philosophies of capitalism and libertarianism, Isaacson told the story of this poor nerd who got beaten up as a kid and never quite felt at home.

This is part of the tech bro story. It’s… show more.

I love the new book Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson because it delves deep into the life of one of the most altruistic figures of our time.

Elon Musk's unwavering commitment to bettering humanity and ensuring its survival in the vast universe resonated deeply with me. Isaacson's meticulous research and firsthand interactions with Musk provided an unparalleled insight into his life, making it hard for me to put the book down.

The narrative not only educated me about Musk's monumental contributions but also inspired me with his vision and determination. It was a journey that left me in awe, reflecting… show more.

Isaacson’s balanced and compelling portrait of one of the richest people on earth reveals a man on a self-described quest to save human consciousness from annihilation.

His corporate ventures, from Tesla to SpaceX to OpenAI, are all infused with this monomaniacal design, and Isaacson convincingly depicts Musk’s engineering brilliance as key to the success of each of them (though the jury is still out on Twitter, an impulse purchase for which he seems to have serious buyer’s remorse).

At the same time, self-anointed messiahs seldom make good managers, friends, or spouses, and Musk leaves a broad swath of emotional destruction… show more.