Elon Musk

By: Walter Isaacson

Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb, Walter Isaacson

Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

#1 New York Times bestseller

From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of 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, 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. “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, 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?

©2023 Walter Isaacson (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio

The man his demons and why he’s a role-model

Walter Isaacson has once again provided a deep unapologetic yet empathetic and unbiased view of an iconic person. The audio book is very well read and the book flows in a very matter of fact way similar to the Steve Jobs biography. Highly recommended.

I still think he’s an asshole! (But what a ride!)

For better or worse, Elon Musk is a simultaneously a really shitty person and an amazing human being, desperately striving to push the human race forward at any cost.

Great information

Easy to listen to. So informative and real compared to all most information on news channels. I hope Elon continues to move our world forward to save it.

Top Notch

Really good. Enjoyed it tremendously. Highly reccomend
Might need to think about a part two in the years to come

Excellent listen!!

Interesting life, and an excellent narrator. It reads like an exciting novel. The piece was just right.

Wow…

A great book…Elon is a great thinker and inventor.

“Never underestimate a man that overestimates himself” Charlie Munger

Loved it

It's much better than the last biography I read about Elon Musk. Has a lot of details and goes deep into how Elon thanks... the author really knows how to tell a story

If you’re trying to understand the future

Read the part where Elon smokes marijuana.

now I have 15 hours of information on Space X, electric vehicles, and Billionaire PTSD.

I know someone who works for Space X, they seem distant, overworked and disconnected. 👽👽👽

Thank you for your vulnerability

We only know what we know, everything else is just another perspective. This book has so much vulnerability in it.

Eye opening

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Offers lots of insight into the mind of a genius and his personal battles.