When Musk tweets, “Take the red pill,” in 2020, Isaacson notes that it’s a reference to The Matrix but does not add that The Matrix is a movie made by two people who later came out as trans. In fact,
The Matrix itself is a trans story — in the ’90s, prescription estrogen was literally a red pill. Isaacson includes Ivanka Trump’s reply (“Taken!”) but not that of Matrix creator Lilly Wachowski: “Fuck both of you.” If you know these details, Musk looks like a dolt — sort of a problem for a biographer trying to write a Great Man book.
Three_Froggy_Problem on
I haven’t read the book, but the thing I found really damning from some of the reviews I read is the way Isaacson treats the women in Musk’s life.
UniqueTadpole on
I’ve had my share of the “flawed genius” mythos trying to get through “American Prometheus” earlier this year. I think you have to be American not to feel nauseous reading these hagiographic and aggrandizing accounts of “great men”, often with a side of misogyny and that peculiar naivite endemic to the country.
Bob_Chris on
I don’t have time to post my own thoughts about how much of an idiot Musk is – I had hoped this book would be more exposing him for the fraud he is, rather than lionizing him as some great man.
suppreme on
Very confused and confusing article. Does it charge Isaacson for bad research and fact checking, or does it blame Musk for not being the pure hero that the author wanted?
> The problem is the man is Elon Musk, a guy who in 2011 promised to get us to space in just three years. In reality, the first SpaceX crew launched into orbit almost a decade later.
What a stupid sentence to write.
Tych-0 on
Isaacson has a ton of integrity, so I think people need to face the facts. Musk may be a huge asshole, a bad father, and a shitty partner to the women in his life among other things, but he’s an incredible entrepreneur. Tesla and SpaceX aren’t flukes, they are what they are in very large part due to Musk.
It’s not only Isaacson’s book. “Lift Off” by Eric Berger whom followed Musk around in the early years of SpaceX has largely the same sort of experience, long before Musk was idolized and hated to the degree he is now.
rossjarvis on
Has anyone actually read the book? He mentions throughout the book the awful things Elon musk has done and how he has failed many times. Do you hate him that much that if he also speaks about the good he has done it makes him a biased writer?
> There was a way to find out what’s true here, and it would have been to interview more sources, both Ukrainian and US military ones. Isaacson chose not to. Musk’s word was good enough for him — and so, when Musk contested the characterization, Isaacson rolled over.
phillythompson on
“There wasn’t 100% negative info on musk, so I am upset”
MaxTennyson88 on
Well, Isaacson is another idiot, who could have seen it coming? Well, making a book a out of Musk’s life and not portraying how deranged and hypocrite he actually is, should have been the last sign
BigDaddyCoolDeisel on
I’m just happy the book sales were so meh. The Steve Jobs book sold 4x as many in its first week. Of course Steve Jobs was a legit visionary. musk tweets ePiC mEmEs.
keenly_disinterested on
Meh. Is there a hint of jealousy in this article? Isaacson details Musk’s shortcomings, but not the way the way Ms. Lopatto likes. Isaacson is as human as Musk. Anyone who reads a biography understands they’re reading the perceptions and opinions of another person. Clearly Isaacson’s are different from Lopatto’s; who would’ve thunk it?
cdg2m4nrsvp on
I read Isaacson’s book on Benjamin Franklin and while it was an overall interesting and excellent read, he went out of his way to reference over and over that Franklin didn’t like welfare. It was done so many times that it stuck out as if he was trying to make a point.
kentsor on
The person writing the article claims they cound find no source with evidence of subs losing connectivity or washing ashore. Well, here is one from Sep 22 2022 -“https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2022/09/22/mystery-vessel-may-be-new-ukrainian-attack-drone”
AXLPendergast on
I’m so on the fence about reading this book. I enjoyed the Steve Jobs bio – but as an ex-South African, I find Elon to be the mother-of-all ‘dooses’ (SA slang for dickhead) 🙁
tommagnum11 on
Isaacson is another fawning writer desperate for access to celebrities. I don’t know if he was always that way but it’s quite sad to see. I really enjoyed the Steve Jobs book because Apple was really important to me.
bookmantea on
Walter Isaacson is sort of a Big Business Shill. He’ll pump out hagiographies of anyone rich enough
DestinyOfADreamer on
Did a CTRL+F for hyperloop and found no matches. A lot of time and money was spent on this idea and at this point is deserving of study. If Issacson didn’t cover it at all then yeah, his book is very softball.
SutttonTacoma on
I enjoyed Isaacson’s book very much. He witnessed (in person for two years) and described Musk’s dark as well as brilliant sides. Per Isaacson, Musk is most tortured when everything is going well. I would not want to be Musk (not that I could).
Chipots on
Regardless of the actually content of the book I found his writing style/prose basic and watered down. It’s like reading North Korean style propaganda on the great leader (replace Kim with Musky). 6/10 would not recommend
Haigro on
My entire perspective changed when I learned Isaacson was the former chair and CEO of CNN. Everything made sense after that. There’s clear angle and perspective that definitely would permeate from that type of person.
metaphorm on
Is this another thing that’s going to just be a lot of people fighting on social media about culture war politics using a celebrity as a proxy for something else? How much of the discussion is going to actually be about the subject of the book instead of various culture war conflicts he’s tweeted about?
“At one point, Isaacson asks why Musk is so offended by anything he deems politically correct, and Musk, as usual, has to dial it up to 11. “Unless the woke-mind virus, which is fundamentally anti-science, anti-merit and anti-human in general, is stopped,” he declares, “civilization will never become multiplanetary.” There are a number of curious assertions in that sentence, but it would have been nice if Isaacson had pushed him to answer a basic question: What on earth does any of it even mean?”
So I do read Isaacson’s works and despite the drama from his books sometimes, I still leave being pretty impressed by his time invested in writing and researching them
RyuBZ0 on
Isaacson says Elon is addicted to drama. Apparently so is everyone who talks about him.
wrongshirt on
Walter Isaacson is a shit writer.
darkestparagon on
Anybody who read Isaacson’s biography of Jobs would know Elon hired him to write a puff piece.
IceMac911 on
I remember a lot of people at Apple, including Tim Cook and Jony Ive, were critical of Isaacsons biography on Jobs. So I’m not surprised by this.
NumPadNut on
Isaacson is a paid puff piece author
godofspinoza on
I can’t believe people genuinely think Elon Musk is a dumb person
donchan789 on
Good article. Isaacson definitely puts innovation at the forefront of his writings and tends to sweep the cost under the rug. I would have liked more balanced biography on Musk’s sociopathic tendency to hype beyond reality, treatment of ex-partners, and less apologist tone throughout the book as pointed out by the article.
Some of the criticisms are quite a stretch though. For example, Elon’s maternal grandfather being racist in an era where people are openly racist and trying to tie that up with racist incidents inside a large corporation is meh. These things happen in any large corporations and as much as Elon is a politically unhinged moron with insatiable desire for attention I don’t think he’s racist.
32 Comments
When Musk tweets, “Take the red pill,” in 2020, Isaacson notes that it’s a reference to The Matrix but does not add that The Matrix is a movie made by two people who later came out as trans. In fact,
The Matrix itself is a trans story — in the ’90s, prescription estrogen was literally a red pill. Isaacson includes Ivanka Trump’s reply (“Taken!”) but not that of Matrix creator Lilly Wachowski: “Fuck both of you.” If you know these details, Musk looks like a dolt — sort of a problem for a biographer trying to write a Great Man book.
I haven’t read the book, but the thing I found really damning from some of the reviews I read is the way Isaacson treats the women in Musk’s life.
I’ve had my share of the “flawed genius” mythos trying to get through “American Prometheus” earlier this year. I think you have to be American not to feel nauseous reading these hagiographic and aggrandizing accounts of “great men”, often with a side of misogyny and that peculiar naivite endemic to the country.
I don’t have time to post my own thoughts about how much of an idiot Musk is – I had hoped this book would be more exposing him for the fraud he is, rather than lionizing him as some great man.
Very confused and confusing article. Does it charge Isaacson for bad research and fact checking, or does it blame Musk for not being the pure hero that the author wanted?
> The problem is the man is Elon Musk, a guy who in 2011 promised to get us to space in just three years. In reality, the first SpaceX crew launched into orbit almost a decade later.
What a stupid sentence to write.
Isaacson has a ton of integrity, so I think people need to face the facts. Musk may be a huge asshole, a bad father, and a shitty partner to the women in his life among other things, but he’s an incredible entrepreneur. Tesla and SpaceX aren’t flukes, they are what they are in very large part due to Musk.
It’s not only Isaacson’s book. “Lift Off” by Eric Berger whom followed Musk around in the early years of SpaceX has largely the same sort of experience, long before Musk was idolized and hated to the degree he is now.
Has anyone actually read the book? He mentions throughout the book the awful things Elon musk has done and how he has failed many times. Do you hate him that much that if he also speaks about the good he has done it makes him a biased writer?
Yeah, and then you have stories such as [Elon Musk biographer moves to ‘clarify’ details about Ukraine and Starlink after backlash](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/09/elon-musk-biographer-moves-to-clarify-details-on-ukraine-starlink.html). ‘Clarify’ indeed.
edit: from the article, in a nutshell
> There was a way to find out what’s true here, and it would have been to interview more sources, both Ukrainian and US military ones. Isaacson chose not to. Musk’s word was good enough for him — and so, when Musk contested the characterization, Isaacson rolled over.
“There wasn’t 100% negative info on musk, so I am upset”
Well, Isaacson is another idiot, who could have seen it coming? Well, making a book a out of Musk’s life and not portraying how deranged and hypocrite he actually is, should have been the last sign
I’m just happy the book sales were so meh. The Steve Jobs book sold 4x as many in its first week. Of course Steve Jobs was a legit visionary. musk tweets ePiC mEmEs.
Meh. Is there a hint of jealousy in this article? Isaacson details Musk’s shortcomings, but not the way the way Ms. Lopatto likes. Isaacson is as human as Musk. Anyone who reads a biography understands they’re reading the perceptions and opinions of another person. Clearly Isaacson’s are different from Lopatto’s; who would’ve thunk it?
I read Isaacson’s book on Benjamin Franklin and while it was an overall interesting and excellent read, he went out of his way to reference over and over that Franklin didn’t like welfare. It was done so many times that it stuck out as if he was trying to make a point.
The person writing the article claims they cound find no source with evidence of subs losing connectivity or washing ashore. Well, here is one from Sep 22 2022 -“https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2022/09/22/mystery-vessel-may-be-new-ukrainian-attack-drone”
I’m so on the fence about reading this book. I enjoyed the Steve Jobs bio – but as an ex-South African, I find Elon to be the mother-of-all ‘dooses’ (SA slang for dickhead) 🙁
Isaacson is another fawning writer desperate for access to celebrities. I don’t know if he was always that way but it’s quite sad to see. I really enjoyed the Steve Jobs book because Apple was really important to me.
Walter Isaacson is sort of a Big Business Shill. He’ll pump out hagiographies of anyone rich enough
Did a CTRL+F for hyperloop and found no matches. A lot of time and money was spent on this idea and at this point is deserving of study. If Issacson didn’t cover it at all then yeah, his book is very softball.
I enjoyed Isaacson’s book very much. He witnessed (in person for two years) and described Musk’s dark as well as brilliant sides. Per Isaacson, Musk is most tortured when everything is going well. I would not want to be Musk (not that I could).
Regardless of the actually content of the book I found his writing style/prose basic and watered down. It’s like reading North Korean style propaganda on the great leader (replace Kim with Musky). 6/10 would not recommend
My entire perspective changed when I learned Isaacson was the former chair and CEO of CNN. Everything made sense after that. There’s clear angle and perspective that definitely would permeate from that type of person.
Is this another thing that’s going to just be a lot of people fighting on social media about culture war politics using a celebrity as a proxy for something else? How much of the discussion is going to actually be about the subject of the book instead of various culture war conflicts he’s tweeted about?
Love this paragraph from Jennifer Szalai’s of the New York Times take on both Isaacson and Musk (paywall article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/09/books/review/elon-musk-walter-isaacson.htm
“At one point, Isaacson asks why Musk is so offended by anything he deems politically correct, and Musk, as usual, has to dial it up to 11. “Unless the woke-mind virus, which is fundamentally anti-science, anti-merit and anti-human in general, is stopped,” he declares, “civilization will never become multiplanetary.” There are a number of curious assertions in that sentence, but it would have been nice if Isaacson had pushed him to answer a basic question: What on earth does any of it even mean?”
LOL
Historian Jill Lepore gives an interesting perspective on Musk and “muskism” in her great podcast [**”The Evening Rocket”**](https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/elon-musk-the-evening-rocket)**.**
So I do read Isaacson’s works and despite the drama from his books sometimes, I still leave being pretty impressed by his time invested in writing and researching them
Isaacson says Elon is addicted to drama. Apparently so is everyone who talks about him.
Walter Isaacson is a shit writer.
Anybody who read Isaacson’s biography of Jobs would know Elon hired him to write a puff piece.
I remember a lot of people at Apple, including Tim Cook and Jony Ive, were critical of Isaacsons biography on Jobs. So I’m not surprised by this.
Isaacson is a paid puff piece author
I can’t believe people genuinely think Elon Musk is a dumb person
Good article. Isaacson definitely puts innovation at the forefront of his writings and tends to sweep the cost under the rug. I would have liked more balanced biography on Musk’s sociopathic tendency to hype beyond reality, treatment of ex-partners, and less apologist tone throughout the book as pointed out by the article.
Some of the criticisms are quite a stretch though. For example, Elon’s maternal grandfather being racist in an era where people are openly racist and trying to tie that up with racist incidents inside a large corporation is meh. These things happen in any large corporations and as much as Elon is a politically unhinged moron with insatiable desire for attention I don’t think he’s racist.