Ian's Reviews > Elon Musk

Originally I thought I would start this review by saying I wasn’t a huge fan of Elon Musk - not that he’ll lose any sleep over that of course - but that I was interested in reading a biography of one of the most influential people in the world. I was about a third of the way through the book when Musk publicly endorsed a tweet promoting a horrible antisemitic conspiracy theory. He later apologised and said that it was “the dumbest thing he ever posted”. The incident was however typical of Musk’s tendency to blurt out whatever thoughts happen to cross his mind at a particular moment.

One of my reasons for choosing this book was that I had read the author’s biography of Steve Jobs, and had been hugely impressed. The earlier book was though written at the end of Jobs’ life. Musk is aged 52 and shows no signs of slowing down. This book takes us to April 2023, but the subsequent seven months have already provided plenty more material.

Musk’s business achievements have been extraordinary, almost incredible really, especially in respect of Tesla and Space X. Both companies were initially derided as impossible pipe-dreams by “experts”. The book also covers Musk’s takeover of Twitter, and there’s an interesting aside on his provision of Starlink to Ukraine in the early months of the war with Russia, something described as having been of vital importance. He initially refused however, to provide Starlink cover for the Ukrainians to use on offensive operations in Crimea, because he worries that a reconquest of Crimea might trigger a worldwide nuclear conflict.

That fear is characteristic of Musk, who seems to have a preoccupation with threats to the future of humanity. Tesla was created in response to climate change, and as is well-known, his ultimate aim with Space X is to get humanity to Mars, which he sees as a future refuge from an apocalypse on Earth. He has expressed fears about a future demographic crash, and of course about what he sees as the threat from AI. As Isaacson points out, he has “a tendency to want to ride to the rescue”. I’m not knocking that though. Musk has probably done more than any living individual to promote both energy conservation and space travel.

Musk is multi-faceted character. I suppose we all are, but with him everything seems exaggerated. He has incredible vision, self-belief, energy and resilience, and he’s an extreme risk-taker - one might say he is reckless. He also behaves with total callousness to most of those around him, especially in the workplace. It’s typical of him to give his senior executives insane targets and then to fire anyone who doesn’t meet them, or indeed to fire anyone who disagrees with him. He doesn’t care about intimidating or bullying others as long as he drives them to achieve the goals he has set. He argues that a small team of maniacally driven people can achieve more than a much larger number of moderately committed staff. To some extent his arguments have been vindicated by what his companies have achieved, but don’t work for Musk if you value work-life balance.

One of the questions posed in the book is whether it’s possible to have alpha-achievers like Musk (or Steve Jobs) without the unpleasant aspects to their personalities. As Musk famously said of himself “I reinvented electric cars and I’m sending people to Mars in a rocket ship. Did you also think I was going to be a chill, normal dude?”

The last part of the book covers the changes in Musk’s political views, from being a Democrat voter concerned about climate change to now having a much more right wing viewpoint. Isaacson highlights that in our hyper-polarised world, views of Musk vary from fanboyish adoration to fevered hostility. Presenting a balanced assessment of such a divisive character is a difficult assignment. I think Isaacson has succeeded.