** Disclaimer: This review was written before Elon went crazy **

This book is a very interesting read, but definitely too long for what it is. Walter Isaacson does a decent job of telling Elon's story in a chronological order which becomes mundane as you get closer to present day. He builds Elon's image from his childhood struggles and demons that forms the foundation of his entrepreneurial no-bullshit "hardcore" principles.

The main thing I struggled with was that it seemed Isaacson was in awe of Elon, almost over the top, thus would often underplay and sometime gloss over abusive behaviour Elon displayed towards his employees. This bias resonates throughout the book with Walter often giving reason that resembles "mean smart people get stuff done".

As with Elon, there are pros and cons, I think there's a lot you can learn from his experience and his beliefs, including what not to do. The admiration I had for his business acumen, engineering mindset and risk-driven decision making is quickly diminished by his abusive behaviour, tendency to dehumanise his employees, overreact to small mistakes and inability to have emotional connection. He's success can be somewhat attributed to his robotic personality and emotional detachment - which is great for productivity.

He is definitely an interesting character who rose from a very traumatic childhood, this makes him interesting, sporadic and unpredictable. However, you realise that after his success with Tesla and Spacex, those qualities lead him to a Mad King state, as evidenced by Twitter and amongst his "yes" men posse - where his filters are dialed to zero.

Regardless, he achieves a lot of success due to his relentless pursuit, and natural attraction towards risk and danger, as well as his innate belief that each and every one of his company is critical for the survival of humanity. I think he's able justify his negative actions with the logic that in the grand scheme of things he is bettering humanity.

The positive takeaways from Elon: (1) don't be afraid to challenge authority and the norm, infact you should actively do this at every turn, (2) urgency can be created by setting absurd deadlines it may seem ruthless but it works, most people react to urgency over priority. (3) you have to constantly take risks, calculated risks, it makes life more interesting even if you fail. (4) attack problems with first principle approach, and make sure you know you're stuff (5) change doesn't come about by itself, technology doesn't advance by itself, it's driven people who push for it. (6) be hands-on, understand the engineering behind your product and most importantly build fast, break things and learn fast.

The negative takeaways are more difficult to pinpoint, it's weaved into his actions and personality. For example, with power, fame and success, naturally he is surrounded by a group of "yes men" and people that look up to his brilliance and wealth - this inflated Elon's ego and made him feel everything he touches will be successful - his belief that he's invincible led him to make reckless choices (buying twitter, offensive tweets, shutting down servers, etc.). It showed a lack of strategy and reasoning, something he championed amongst his engineers. More damagingly it revealed his hypocrisy in his own beliefs, a prime example was his advocacy of free speech, until it was against him and his company, resulting in banning journalists and activists on Twitter.

Depending where you see him from, Elon can be classed as both maniacally delusional and unequivocally brilliant. Yes, I think humans should be multi-planetary and climate change is an imminent problem, but I definitely do think this can be done by treating humans with humanity.

For someone who is a specist, afraid of the rise of an AI overlord - he sometimes acts like one.

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