Summary
This is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter.
Key Takeaways
It’s a major theme of his life to not let fear guide his decisions
It’s about building the machine behind the machine
Every part, process, flow, design, regulation, and decision needs a name attached
Don’t be afraid to try new things and blow things up
He did not like to share power
Designers always had to sit next to and work hand in hand with the engineers. Continuous discussions and avoiding silos was meh to doing innovative work
If conventional thinking makes your mission impossible, you must use unconventional thinking.
What I got out of it
An inspiring and also cautionary story. Isaacson got unprecedented access to Elon and his style made you feel like you were part of many of these accomplishments, meetings, and decisions.
