Review: Elon Musk

Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hooter: An intimate inside look into the madly chaotic world called Elon Musk

The five ratings is for Walter Isaacson - having firmed up the art of writing biographies that don't become hagiographies. They celebrate the flaws and finesse of the individual in question and you can sense the amount of research that has gone in when there are moments - you feel you are sitting in the room when that monumental moment is playing out. I have been a fan since I read Leonardo Da Vinci by him - because there were no interviews just copious amounts of notes that he shaped into a beautiful biography.

Moving back to the protagonist of this book - Elon Musk. From a troubled childhood and its shadows playing into his adulting days , we move on to the numerous projects and initiatives he has run often bordering on the impossible. He is not in the race to win most popular manager award but as an innovator who dares to dream, he has helped pushed the envelop amongst everyone around him.

His approach to question everything man made (regulations as an example) and only believing in the law of physics, high calculated risk taking attitude and a vision for multi-planet species called the humans tie all his initiatives into that big picture. His penchant to court drama and attention is visible through his reach in Twitter and the drama around its acquisition.

You tend to believe between Tesla and Twitter - he has positioned himself with a massive data repository that sets him up well for the AI revolution happening around us. Without spelling it out, you know Walter leaves you hanging with the knowledge that a lot more rabbits are waiting in the magician's hat that Elon holds.

For a man who has proven his business acumen multiple times - he has led 5+ huge companies in a time where we celebrate doyens of one, he has matched business with science - generally considered two parallel swim lanes and changed the approach to working.

Concept of having designers, engineers, product working together is common place today but a rarity when he inculcated that culture back in Tesla and SpaceX. Solarcity was an interesting segue working with family before buying it and integrating into Tesla.

I had no clue the downtime we noticed on X right after Elon coming onboard around Christmas had to do with him actually switching off servers and porting them over to another location. Whilst I still am not a fan of Elon, I respect him more as a human having read his journey from Walter's perspective.

View all my reviews