Elon Musk

by Walter Isaacson

He had conceived by then a life vision that he would repeat like a mantra. “I thought about the things that will truly affect humanity,” he says. “I came up with three: the internet, sustainable energy, and space travel.”

This led him to develop what he called an “idiot index,” which calculated how much more costly a finished product was than the cost of its basic materials.

Move fast, blow things up, repeat. “It’s not how well you avoid problems,” Mueller says. “It’s how fast you figure out what the problem is and fix it.”

Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers.”

“He can be very cold, but he feels things in a very pure way, with a depth that most people don’t get.”

The only rules are the ones dictated by the laws of physics. Everything else is a recommendation.

“One of Elon’s rules is ‘Go as close to the source as possible for information,’ ” Riley

“To anyone I’ve offended, I just want to say, I reinvented electric cars and I’m sending people to Mars in a rocket ship. Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?”

Do not fear losing. “You will lose,” Musk says. “It will hurt the first fifty times. When you get used to losing, you will play each game with less emotion.” You will be more fearless, take more risks.

“Kanye’s belief in himself and his incredible tenacity got him to where he is today,” Musk said in Time in 2015. “He fought for his place in the cultural pantheon with a purpose. He’s not afraid of being judged or ridiculed in the process.” Musk could have been describing himself.

Depending on your outlook, there were three ways to view this: (1) as a laudable effort to prevent the spread of false information that was medically dangerous, undermined democracy, provoked violence, stirred up hate, or perpetrated scams; (2) as an effort that was originally well-intentioned but had now gone too far in repressing opinions that dissented from the medical and political orthodoxy or offended the hair-trigger sensitivities of Twitter’s progressive and woke staff; or (3) as a dark collusion between Deep State actors conspiring with Big Tech and legacy media to preserve their power.

“You’re an idiot,” Kimbal said. “Stop falling for weird shit.”