Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Book Review: Elon Musk

By Leonard David

November 25th, 2023

Book Review: Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson; Simon & Schuster (2023); 688 pages, Hardcover: $35.00

I can’t help but start this book review without making note of this recording:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMDrTMnm1IE

Walter Isaacson has done us all a favor by exploring a work in progress, the persona of Elon Musk.

In story sleuthing fashion, the author followed Musk for two years, interviewing not only the subject matter at hand and up-close, but family members, coworkers, friends – and “foe-fighters” too.

As explained on the book jacket, this volume ponders a key question: “are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?”

Musk has previously characterized himself as not a “chill, normal dude.”

Isaacson paints that picture too, but also spotlights the Jekyll-and-Hyde-like temper and other atmospherics that drives the ambitious hunger of Musk to not only challenge and change our world but also eye renovation of the Red Planet.

Starship
Image credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX

This volume is comprised of 95 segments, well-written slices of Musk’s past, be it PayPal, Tesla, artificial intelligence, Twitter, underground boring, ex-wives to the sky-high Starlink constellation and his risk-taking reach for escape velocity via the SpaceX’s Falcon booster series and Starship.

Isaacson is a masterful writer. This book, like the author’s portraits of Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin and Einstein, is absolutely first-rate.

In the book’s acknowledgments, Isaacson reports that Musk “did not ask to, nor did he, read this book before it was published, and he exercised no control over it.” Thank God and/or Musk’s lawyers.

So enough said…and start reading this book knowing full-well Elon Musk is a work in progress, arguably a person wearing a customized sandwich board: “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”

Image credit: Columbia Records