Elon Musk

An insight into the life of one of the most influential people we have on Earth.
Since I've bought this book I've had many opportunities to acknowledge his personality through the news, but nothing compares to the accuracy of what's said in this book about him other than knowing Elon Musk by person. Hope to read someday a second part.

It's weird to read so much science fiction, then read a biography that sounds like it would work there as well. Somehow Elon Musk has stayed off my radar – I don't how. His past and present have intersected with many interests of mine, from Paypal, SpaceX, Solar City and Tesla, yet I've never looked into the man himself.

Reading this was like reading the backstory of Tony Stark (Iron Man) – even to the point where Robert Downey Jr met with Musk to help flush out the character. His rise with Paypal, his management style and lack of personal empathy over action show how he's put productivity and his goals ahead of any kind of personal relationships. With the recent successes of Tesla and SpaceX, I'm looking forward to see what he does next.

Each page of the biography of Elon Musk has a lot of motivation. By reading this book, you can not only learn about the unknown facts of the Elon and his family but also learn how to live uncompromisingly to make your dreams come true. How to run several companies at once and make them all successful. How to be a real Tony Stark and change the history of humanity.
The book is very inspiring and recommended to everyone who wants more from life.

I listened to the audiobook of this and I can't decide if I actually hate the author or just the guy who read the book.

Either way, that's a minor issue. This was a fascinating read.

Musk is a smart, complicated guy who is doing some really cool and interesting things. Whether these things are as groundbreaking as he says remains yet to be seen.

If you read this book, the drinking game involves taking a shot every time Steve Jobs or Tony Stark is mentioned. Spoiler alert: the Stark references will have you in liver failure in the last couple chapters.

Ashlee Vance paints the picture of a man who is driven by an unshakable need to change this world for the betterment of humanity. Elon Musk's determination and pragmatism are obvious to anyone that has been following tesla, solar city, or spacex. I used to wonder if Musk had professed idealistic goals as a management or marketing tactic, now I'm pretty sure he won't stop working until we have a Mars colony.

The book covers Elon Musk's biography and the forces that led him to become the man he is today, somewhere between Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller. “When Elon gets into something, he develops just this different level of interest in it than other people. That is what differentiates Elon from the rest of humanity”. His accomplishments in sustainable technology have led to astonishing new levels - along with a complex personality and enormous ego. “For Elon, the word ‘No' does not exist, and he expects that attitude from everyone around him.” He's being notorious for setting unrealistic goals, assigning incredible workloads, and verbally abusing his employees. “The longer you wait to fire someone, the longer it has been since you should have fired them,” once said. Yet, Musk is rightly considered today's leader in the aerospace, automotive, and solar industries.

Executive Summary: This book was pretty enjoyable, but there were parts I found slow. Overall it felt like a pretty balanced biography offering both pro and anti Musk opinions on his success and failures.

Audiobook: Fred Sanders does a good job here. Unlike a fiction book, my main thing from the narrator I want is clearly spoken and good inflection. It can be very easy for the narrator to get in the way of a nonfiction book, and thankfully Mr. Sanders doesn't do that here. Audio is definitely a decent option for this book.

Full Review
I've always been interesting in knowing more about Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX. This book proved to be a good resource for that. It's grown a little dated now, especially on the SpaceX front as things are getting very interesting for SpaceX since its publication. I'd love to see an update on both companies in another 3-5 years time.

The similarities of Musk and Steve Jobs are quite startling to me. The author discusses it, and outlines why he feels they are quite different, but I'm not sure I agree.

Musk seems a bit more likeable, but it could simply be that he cares more about his public image than Jobs did. Both seems to be polarizing in that some love them and many hate them. The amount of credit they get also seems to be higher than each deserved too. However I feel that you can't argue that their respective companies wouldn't have been nearly as successful without them.

Even if you don't think Musk offered anything on the technical side of things, his belief in both companies and his willingness to stake so much of his own money on both pushed them through the time periods where either company would have easily failed if owned by someone else.

I was less interested in Mr. Musk's personal life and upbringing, so I found those parts a bit slow. However I think their inclusion is important to the book to get a better understanding of who Elon Musk is, and what drives him.

Overall I thought this was a pretty good book. I've been following both Tesla and SpaceX for a few years, and I'll continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I hope both companies continue to be successful, because I feel like science has always been one of the strengths of America, and it's been something we seem to be taking for granted lately.

It's weird to read so much science fiction, then read a biography that sounds like it would work there as well. Somehow Elon Musk has stayed off my radar – I don't how. His past and present have intersected with many interests of mine, from Paypal, SpaceX, Solar City and Tesla, yet I've never looked into the man himself.

Reading this was like reading the backstory of Tony Stark (Iron Man) – even to the point where Robert Downey Jr met with Musk to help flush out the character. His rise with Paypal, his management style and lack of personal empathy over action show how he's put productivity and his goals ahead of any kind of personal relationships. With the recent successes of Tesla and SpaceX, I'm looking forward to see what he does next.

Certainly wouldn't want to work for Elon, but you can't say the man is not a visionary. This is a great overview of who Musk is and what his achievements were, circa 2015. The problem with doing a biography about someone of Musk's stature and vision is that even six years later, this is pretty out of date. But it is perhaps his “origin story”.

The book got very repetitive in the last third, which is basically “Elon tells people to do something by X date, they dont get it done fast enough, Elon gets mad and tells them to do it faster, they do it faster, world is amazed” over and over again.

An inside look at one of the worlds most fascinating innovators. I didn't realize just how forward thinking Musk is, of course, as the book reveals he can be ‘awkward' and downright mean. I liked the way the author told the story and look forward to seeing what Musk's next big idea is. It also reinforces the idea to Dream Big.

Decent biography of an egomaniac visionary (aren't they all?). Hearing all about Musk's projects is fascinating, especially since his drive comes from a quest for a better future (on earth or elsewhere). Hearing about how he runs his big companies as if they are fresh startups (when it comes to work hours, benefits, attitude) is first entertaining and then a bit scary and disappointing. On one hand he seems amazing at discovering talent, on the other hand he burns through that talent at an exhausting rate.

Some of the economical examples didn't quite hit home. As the text seems to praise Musk for pushing his engineers to develop products at half the price of off-the-shelf products, but then fails to consider the extra development time in the actual value equation. I imagine if you're building 1 of each for every rocket, your total count won't be high enough to make up for development time.