Elon Musk

By: Walter Isaacson

Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb, Walter Isaacson

Length: 20 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

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?

©2023 Walter Isaacson (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio

Critic reviews

"One of the greatest biographers in America has written a massive book about the richest man in the world. This fast-paced biography, based on more than a hundred interviews ... [is] a head-spinning tale about a vain, brilliant, sometimes cruel figure whose ambitions are actively shaping the future of human life." (Ron Charles on CBS Sunday Morning)

Gripping

Powerful insight on Elon Musk, the trail blazing entrepreneur. I’m excited to see what comes next…

Brilliant

Wonderfull insight into the greatest contributor to human development and progress in centuries Elon Musk

The story

10/10, a must listen. Deep dive in the mind of the miraculous human being.

Very inspiring, very humanising.

This book makes no attempt to cast musk as a perfect hero figure. It’s a neutral recollection of the events that made musk who he is - which is of course a massively inspiring story. Worth the read.

Many amazing insights.

The first part doesn’t have much new compared to Ashlee Vance’s biography of Musk, and seemed less exciting this time. That more recent insights from roughly 2016 though are very good. It makes it seem that is really when Musk hits his stride.

Overall a great read. Thank you Walter Isaacson.

Very interesting and current

Got a very thorough in site into Elon’s left and a good explanation to how he is wired and the reasons and events that has shaped/made this most extraordinary man.
Five stars from me.

an excellent writer with an extremely compelling story to tell

an excellent writer with an extremely compelling story to tell. I recommendes it to everyone I know