Elon Musk#1 New York Times non-fiction bestseller #2 Sunday Times non-fiction bestseller SHORTLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY APPLE, AMAZON, THE TIMES AND FINANCIAL TIMES Epic feats. Epic failures. An epic story. Walter Isaacson charts Elon Musk’s journey from humble beginnings to one of the wealthiest people on the planet – but is Musk a genius or a jerk? � From the author of�Steve Jobs�and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of Elon Musk, 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 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, Walter Isaacson had unprecedented access. He 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? The book includes over 100 integrated black and white images. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Amber Heard Antonio Gracias Author's interviews Autopilot battery became began Bezos Boca Chica booster build Buzza called cofounder conference room Courtesy Eberhard electric Elon Musk Elon's employees engineers Errol factory Falcon 9 Farooq father Franz von Holzhausen Fremont fucking going Grimes Holzhausen human idea interviews with Elon James Jared Birchall Justine kids Kimbal Musk Kimbal says Koenigsmann Kwaj later launch Levchin looked Luke Nosek Mars Martin Eberhard Max Levchin Maye Musk meeting million move Mueller Musk asked Musk decided Musk replied Musk says Musk's NASA Neuralink night Omead Afshar OpenAI Optimus orbit PayPal percent person Peter Thiel problem production pushed Riley Roadster robot Robotaxi rocket Roth self-driving SpaceX Starlink Starship Steve Jobs Straubel talk Talulah Talulah Riley Tesla Thiel things thought trying tweet Twitter walked week X.com Zilis Zip2 وو