By Walter Isaacson
I’ve been meaning to start reading more biographies. I think this was an impulse purchase while I was shopping at Changing Hands. It was an easy read. I appreciate that Isaacson seemed to provide a balanced view of Elon. He acknowledged his genius and also his ridiculous, self defeating behavior. At the end, I feel that Elon definitely deserves credit for accomplishing things that nobody else could’ve done. He created not just the most popular electric cars but the whole market for electric cars. He reinvigorated space travel, surpassing capabilities of nations and other space enthused billionaires. Still, he missed other opportunities, cost himself money, hurt person and professional relationships and made errors that plenty of non-geniuses could’ve easily avoided. Near the end, Isaacson ponders the same as I did: would it even be possible to have the good side without the bad stuff? Sometimes his reckless, all-or-nothing approach accomplished the impossible, sometimes it broke things. If the rough edges were to be smoothed out, would that also remove the risk taking that drove the big achievements? Overall, it’s not a life I envy. He’s trying to be the savior of humanity by pushing his technological solutions at an extreme pace. The electric cars seem to be an overall win. Having read Weinersmith’s book about space colonies, I am not convinced of the value of Occupy Mars. There are much more Earthly challenges that should be priority over becoming an interplanetary species.
I don’t think my perception of Musk changed too much from the book. I had a general sense of his accomplishments and offenses. It was still worth the ride through the details.