Impulsive and self-destructive: Elon Musk as depicted in a new book
The billionaire has a lofty vision for humanityāand is unusually determined to see it through
What exactly is going on with Elon Musk? This question once preoccupied only techie types. But Mr Muskās prominence in space-launch services, satellite-internet access, electric cars and social media means that the unpredictable behaviour of the worldās richest man now has global consequences. He controls Donald Trumpās access to Twitter, internet connectivity for Ukraineās armed forces and Americaās ability to send people into space. He has altered the course of multiple industries. And he has a knack for spotting what will be important in the future (so his side bets on brain chips and humanoid robots are probably worth watching). It is no surprise so many people now want to know what makes Mr Musk tick.
Walter Isaacson sets out to answer that question in this intimate biography. Previously a biographer of Steve Jobs, he shadowed Mr Musk for two years, gaining access to his family and closest confidants, to produce a detailed psychological portrait.
Born in 1971, Mr Musk had a tumultuous childhood in South Africa. He was brought up partly by a struggling single mother and partly by an abusive father. Violently bullied at school, Mr Musk escaped into daydreams and science-fiction novels. As a young man he emigrated, first to Canada, then America. He made his first millions during the dotcom fever of the late 1990s, co-founding an online business directory and then an online bank that, after a merger, became PayPal. He then set himself the modest goal of turning Homo sapiens into a āmulti-planetary speciesā that could survive extinction on Earth.
It is hard to think of anyone else who has wrought such astounding change in so many different fields of endeavour, notably with SpaceX, his rocket company, and Tesla, a maker of electric cars. Yet Mr Musk is as widely loathed as he is admired, thanks to his pronouncements on politics, his crusade against the āwoke mind virusā and his rocky stewardship of Twitter (which for some reason he has renamed X). Mr Isaacson describes a man with a lofty vision for humankind, but who is impulsive, pugnacious and self-destructive.
In Mr Isaacsonās view, Mr Musk is propelled by a conviction that humanity is hurtling towards calamity. Hence his superhuman work ethic (the man barely sleeps) and his tolerance for risk (he has endangered his fortune a number of times and often pushes his engineers to take calculated gambles). Hence, too, his habit of furiously reprimanding or even summarily firing employees whom he deems incompetent or insufficiently committed.
Mr Musk has faith in his own wisdom. When it comes to artificial intelligence, he believes no one but he can be trusted to protect humans from malevolent machines. He is being drawn into geopolitics, too. Mr Isaacson recounts how, as The Economist reported last October, Mr Musk refused to let Starlink, his satellite-internet service, be used by Ukraine to attack Russian forces occupying Crimea, for fear that an assault on the peninsula might provoke nuclear retaliation. (Ukraine attacked it later, triggering no such response.)
What transpires is a picture of a driven, talented entrepreneur who has become increasingly unstable and petty even as his influence over global affairs has grown. No doubt other business leaders are capable of unpredictable behaviourāJobs comes to mind (a comparison the author encourages)ābut they have not provided a live feed of their thoughts on Twitter. Lauded as Jobsās successor, Mr Musk now draws comparisons with a different mercurial billionaire who inspires cult-like loyalty while acting like an aggrieved toddler.
Has the true Mr Musk emerged, feeling increasingly unconstrained as his wealth and power have grown, or has this behaviour been exacerbated by his use of Twitter? It is probably a bit of both. Mr Isaacson concedes that his subject sometimes behaves foolishly. Mr Muskās addiction to social media has caused unnecessary spats. He accused a rescue diver in Thailand of being a āpedo guyā, provoking a defamation suit (which Mr Musk won). He declared he had āfunding securedā to take Tesla private, when he did not, and had to make a multimillion-dollar settlement with the us Securities and Exchange Commission. As Mr Musk admits: āIāve shot myself in the foot so often I ought to buy some Kevlar boots.ā
In recent years his tweets have lambasted left-wing positions on issues such as gender identity, and flirted with right-wing conspiracy theories. This rightward shift can be explained in part, Mr Isaacson says, by a falling-out between Mr Musk and his transgender daughter Jenna, whose Marxist worldview led her to sever ties with her father. Mr Muskās belief that Twitter had become infected with wokery and was censoring alternative viewpoints was a big factor in his decision to buy it. Mr Isaacson also speculates that the deal gave Mr Musk, scarred by his childhood bullying, a chance to āown the playgroundā.
All this now risks overshadowing Mr Muskās positive contributions. Some Tesla drivers tout bumper stickers that read āI bought this car before we all knew Elon was a jerkā. More worryingly, he seems out of his depth in geopolitics. This doorstep-sized book provides a gripping account of Mr Muskās extraordinary life. But it is hard to escape the feeling that the story of Elon Musk is still only half told.