Book

Elon Musk / Walter Isaacson.

Summary:

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. 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?

Record details

ISBN: 9781982181284
ISBN: 1982181281
Physical Description: xiii, 670 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Edition: First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
Publisher: New York : Simon & Schuster, 2023.
Copyright: ©2023

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index (pages 637-665).

Formatted Contents Note:

Adventurers -- A mind of his own: Pretoria, the 1970s -- Life with father: Pretoria, the 1980s -- The seeker: Pretoria, the 1980s -- Escape velocity: Leaving South Africa, 1989 -- Canada: 1989 -- Queen's: Kingston, Ontario, 1990-1991 -- Penn: Philadelphia, 1992-1994 -- Go west: Silicon Valley, 1994-1995 -- Zip2: Palo Alto, 1995-1999 -- Justine: Palo Alto, the 1990s -- X.com: Palo Alto, 1999-2000 -- The Coup: PayPal, September 2000 -- Mars: SpaceX, 2001 -- Rocket man: SpaceX, 2002 -- Fathers and sons: Los Angeles, 2002 -- Revving up: SpaceX, 2002 -- Musk's rules for rocket-building: SpaceX, 2002-2003 -- Mr. Musk goes to Washington: SpaceX, 2002-2003 -- Founders: Tesla, 2003-2004 -- The roadster: Tesla, 2004-2006 -- Kwaj: SpaceX, 2005-2006 -- Two strikes: Kwaj, 2006-2007 -- The SWAT team: Tesla, 2006-2008 -- Taking the wheel: Tesla, 2007-2008 -- Divorce: 2008 -- Talulah: 2008 -- Strike three: Kwaj, August 3, 2008 -- On the brink: Tesla and SpaceX, 2008 -- The fourth launch: Kwaj, August-September 2008 -- Saving Tesla: December 2008 -- The Model S: Tesla, 2009 -- Private space: SpaceX, 2009-2010 -- Falcon 9 liftoff: Cape Canaveral, 2010 -- Marrying Talulah: September 2010 -- Manufacturing: Tesla, 2010-2013 -- Musk and BezosL SpaceX, 2013-2014 -- The falcon hears the falconer: SpaceX, 2014-2015 -- The Talulah roller coaster: 2012-2015 -- Artificial intelligence: OpenAI, 2012-2015 -- The launch of autopilot: Tesla, 2014-2016 -- SolarL Tesla Energy, 2004-2016 -- The boring company: 2016 -- Rocking relationships: 2016-2017 -- Descent into the dark: 2017 -- Fremont factory hell: Tesla, 2018 -- Open-loop warning: 2018 -- Fallout: 2018 -- Grimes: 2018 -- Shanghai: Tesla, 2015-2019 -- Cybertruck: Tesla, 2018-2019 -- Starlink: SpaceX, 2015-2018 -- Starship: SpaceX, 2018-2019 -- Autonomy day: Tesla, April 2019 -- Giga TexasL Tesla, 2020-2021 -- Family life: 2020 -- Full throttle: SpaceX, 2020 -- Bezos vs. Musk, round 2: SpaceX, 2021 -- Starship surge: SpaceX, July 2021 -- Solar surge: Summer 2021 -- Nights out: Summer 2021 -- Inspiration4: SpaceX, September 2021 -- Raptor shake-up: SpaceX, 2021 -- Optimus is born: Tesla, August 2021 -- Neuralink: 2017-2020 -- Vision only: Tesla, January 2021 -- Money: 2021-2022 -- Father of the year: 2021 -- Politics: 2020-2022 -- Ukraine: 2022 -- Bill Gates: 2022 -- Active investor: Twitter, January-April 2022 -- "I made an offer": Twitter, April 2022 -- Hot and cold: Twitter, April-June 2022 -- Father's Day: June 2022 -- Starbase shake-up: SpaceX, 2022 -- Optimus Prime: Tesla, 2021-2022 -- Uncertainty: Twitter, July-September 2022 -- Optimus unveiled: Tesla, September 2022 -- Robotaxi: Tesla, 2022 -- "Let that sink in": Twitter, October 26-27, 2022 -- The takeover: Twitter, Thursday, October 27, 2022 -- The three musketeers: Twitter, October 26-30, 2022 -- Content moderation: Twitter, October 27-30, 2022 -- Halloween: Twitter, October 2022 -- Blue checks: Twitter, November 2-10, 2022 -- All in: Twitter, November 10-18, 2022 -- Hardcore: Twitter, November 18-30, 2022 -- Miracles: Neuralink, November 2022 -- The Twitter files: Twitter, December 2022 -- Rabbit holes: Twitter, December 2022 -- Christmas capers: December 2022 -- AI for cars: Tesla, 2022-2023 -- AI for Humans: X.AI, 2023 -- The Starship launch: SpaceX, April 2023.