Musk the messiah (or a very naughty boy?)

Elon Musk, as is widely acknowledged, is not a very nice man. But I’m not quite sure which of the experiences mesmerisingly portrayed in Walter Isaacson’s superb biography is worse: working for Elon Musk; being related to, or in a relationship with Musk; or actually being Musk, who makes being the richest person in the world much less fun than it might be. It’s not an “authorised” biography – at least, not in the worst sense of the term – and given Musk’s tendency to control, it is remarkable Musk didn’t even read the manuscript pre-publication. open image in gallery There is no sense that Elon Musk seeks sympathy for any of his psychological flaws or emotional traumas, nor that he needs it The way Musk sees the world, there’s no room for hurt feelings in the world of physics or business, and empathy gets in the way of success. To say Musk is anti-woke is an understatement and, for such a logical mind, his revulsion is fairly irrational: “Unless the woke-mind virus, which is fundamentally antiscience, antimerit, and antihuman in general, is stopped, civilisation will never become multiplanetary.” There is no sense that Elon Musk seeks sympathy for any of his psychological flaws or emotional traumas, nor that he needs it.