Breaking Twitter

Elon Musk and the Most Controversial Corporate Takeover in History

By: Ben Mezrich

Narrated by: Will Collyer

From New York Times bestselling author Ben Mezrich: the book Elon Musk doesn’t want you to read.

Breaking Twitter takes readers inside the darkly comic battle between one of the most intriguing, polarizing, influential men of our time—Elon Musk—and the company that represents our culture’s dearest hope for a shared global conversation. From employee accounts within Twitter headquarters to the mission-driven team Musk surrounded himself with, this is the full story from all sides. Can Musk miraculously succeed or will he spectacularly fail? What will that mean to the global town hall that is Twitter? What, really, is Elon’s end goal? The whole world is watching.

Breaking Twitter will provide ringside seats. Elon Musk didn't break Twitter. Twitter broke Elon Musk.

Critic reviews

"Mezrich mans the conveyor belt at the factory that turns raw reality into its eventual slick cinematic depiction." —New York Times

"Mezrich can conjure a scene so vivid that you not only feel like you know the people on the page, but feel as if you’re in the room with
them."—Porchlight

Gripping story; Excellent narration

I couldn’t stop listening. Nearly listened to it in one go. I don’t use Twitter, nor do I intend do, but it’s impact cannot be understated. It is now a dangerous tool in the hands on an impulsive and immature owner who seems to have practically no one telling him the truth.

A sad end to a platform

It’s about what I expected. It was a complete cluster of a takeover without any real planning. Twitter was a great app I’ve used for years and invested a lot in my follower’s knowledge, engagement, and growth. Now it’s a vast wasteland of tweets “I dumped sugar and starting working out for 43 minutes a day and used AI to 150x my site and made $2M in 5 minutes. Details in thread!” Thanks Elon.

A bit theatrical

The book mostly covers the story we saw in the news but in greater detail, but also includes a number of perspectives that I hadn't read. It gets a bit over the top envisioning what is going through Elon's head. It's entertaining but feels off in a non-fiction book.

Overall it covers the takeover and total shift of the company pretty well. It misses a number of details though, such as how Elon tried to basically turn the offices into a hotel for employees so they could be at work full time.

Riveting!

I couldn’t stop listening! The narration was top notch. I can’t wait until the movie comes out!

Not So Juicy

I wouldn’t want to be an author writing about a multi-billionaire, paranoid, sociopathic, impulsive, ego-maniacal, self professed super-genius.

I would be careful with my choice of words. I would lay out some facts, and keep my opinions to myself.

Walter Isaacson did.
Ben Mezrich did.

I wouldn’t say I ever liked Elon, but I respected his accomplishments and the big-thinking, almost mission-driven things he pushed forward.

But the more I hear from him lately, the more I think he is an uncaring, hard-hearted ego-maniac, who uses “big-thinking mission-driven things” as air cover to get impossibly rich and behave with total disregard to those affected by his antics.

No one seems to be quite brave enough to say that in print yet.