Elon Musk, according to Walter Isaacson, whose explosive biography Elon Musk was released today, is prone to “demon-like” outbursts and has “multiple personalities.” The biography discusses Mr. Musk’s messy and impulsive takeover of Twitter (now renamed X) and his relationship with his father Errol on MSNBC. Advance orders on Amazon have made the book dubbed ‘Elon Musk’ the site’s best-selling book in the United States just hours before its release. Some US media sites received early access to the 600-page book ahead of its official global release, and various snippets have been released in recent days.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough questioned Mr. Isaacson on the various faces of the 52-year-old entrepreneur, claiming that his book depicts “two, three, four types of Elon.”
“You know, that’s a great question because he has so many personalities, almost like multiple personalities, and a bit like his father, whom he doesn’t speak to now – but his father is a Jekyll and Hyde and sometimes goes very dark,” the biographer replied.
“And it happened to Elon too. He’ll go from being very giddy or being in engineering mode, where he can figure out the valve of a raptor engine, and suddenly the clouds come,” Mr Isaacson added.
“And the amazing thing is, after he’s gone dark and been demon-like and tough on people, he’ll snap out of it. And then I’ll ask him, ‘What was that about?’ and he hardly remembers it,” he said.
Process of penning Elon Musk’s biography
Elon Musk‘s biography took the biographer three years to finish. When asked about the journey, Mr. Isaacson told the source that he was captivated by all of Mr. Musk’s technology discourse, such as electric automobiles and sending manned expeditions to space.
“And then on the way, about a year into my reporting, he’s secretly buying up Twitter and then going to Hawaii in a two- or three-night binge and deciding to take it over. So it became a hell of a lot more of a roller coaster ride then,” a former editor-in-chief of Time magazine added.
More about Elon Musk’s biography
Many of the story’s unknown gems came from a more recent period when Isaacson followed his subject with fly-on-the-wall access to his daily life. According to one widely circulated text, Musk personally thwarted a Ukrainian military plan to conduct a major operation in Crimea by blocking Starlink internet connectivity, prompting an angry response from Kyiv.
However, Isaacson was compelled to retract his account of the incident as Musk tweeted that the Starlink access was not yet operational in Crimea at the time of his decision.
Musk’s tumultuous and impulsive acquisition of Twitter (now renamed X) has also received a lot of attention, with the billionaire regarded as failing to accept that technology and pure willpower would not produce miracles.