What makes Elon Musk tick?

What motivates Elon Musk?

Musk, the world’s richest man, has long been an object of fascination as the founder of electric car company Tesla and rocket maker SpaceX. But in recent weeks, as he flirted with buying Twitter and then offering around $44 billion for the covered media platform, all undercover, curiosity about what affected him grew. .

Several biographies explore his life and work thus far, including “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future”, by Ashlee Vance, which was published in 2015, and “Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the bet of the century”, by Tim Higgins, published last year.

Another book, which Musk announced last summer — on Twitter — is also in the works, this one from biographer Walter Isaacson, who has written bestsellers on Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin and Steve Jobs. Isaacson’s longtime publisher Simon & Schuster plans to publish the book, which does not yet have a scheduled release date.

“I’ve always been interested in innovators and people who push boundaries, and he pushes the most important and difficult ones,” Isaacson said.

This week, after Twitter accepted Musk’s offer, Isaacson geared up for a reporting trip that includes trips with Musk and visits to people from his past. He’s already interviewed about 200 people around Musk, Isaacson said, and spent days talking to and following him.

In a phone interview Wednesday, Isaacson spoke about the challenges of writing a biography about a character who is constantly evolving and expanding his empire: It’s like “trying to take notes while drinking from a fire hose,” he said. -he declares.

These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

When did you first approach Musk about a biography?

We started talking seven, eight months ago.

It wasn’t like I was chasing him or he was chasing me. We started talking about it, see if it would make sense. I didn’t agree with him, there’s no contract, it was just “Do you want to give me access?” And he said, “I’ll do it,” and I said, “Yeah, I think I’ll do it.

Ten minutes later, he tweeted it.

What do you think makes Musk such a fascinating and complex character, both to the audience and to you as a writer?

I’ve always been interested in innovators and people who push boundaries, and he pushes the most important and challenging ones, namely electric cars, solar boundaries, sustainable energy, space travel and robot and human-computer neural linkage interfaces.

Most of your previous books have focused on the lives of historical figures, and your biography of Jobs came out after his death, so the arc of their lives and the extent of their accomplishments are clear. But Musk is still in the daily news. How does this change your approach as a biographer?

Coping with your life is like trying to take notes while drinking from a fire hose. It keeps coming fast.

I don’t know exactly how the story unfolds yet. I will be guided by events. The good news is that I can let events drive the book, I don’t have to force an artificial deadline.

How do you shape the kind of mayhem Musk creates into a cohesive, long-running narrative?

It will definitely be a challenge. This thing really is a moving party. But the main thing is just to make it a clear story, from a troubled childhood in South Africa to becoming one of the most influential people on the planet.

What kind of access did you get to him? He hasn’t always been so cooperative with reporters in the past.

He was very, very open, not only to him and the people around him, but he was very good at letting me access people from his past. I’ve had talks with about 200 different people already, and I’ve spent, I would say, many days talking to him at length and following him; I have traveled where it goes.

What did you think of the news of his takeover of Twitter? Did it feel like a move that was consistent with your understanding of his character and ambitions?

He has always been fascinated by Twitter and has a deep understanding of how it can be used and perhaps how it can be improved. His fascination with Twitter does not surprise me.

If his purchase of Twitter goes through, it will greatly expand his business empire and sphere of influence. How does this news change the scope of your biography?

It adds a new subplot. The important thing is to tie it into a narrative and show how these missions fit together.

Musk is famous for trolling, off-the-cuff explosive remarks and reversing consequential statements. How do you deal with that in a long story, knowing that his positions could be very different after publication?

I don’t think it’s as random as it seems. I think it’s much more thoughtful.

Does the fact that he’s constantly in the news make it harder or easier to write a book about him?

The good thing about Elon Musk is that everyone wants to talk about him and everyone has thoughts about him.

What are the respective challenges and obstacles of writing about a living subject versus a dead subject?

Well, it’s a lot more exciting of a ride.