Elon Musk
by Walter Isaacson · first published 2023
19mentions
6recommended by
19HN commenters
2016–2026first – last mentioned
32% recommend58% neutral11% critical
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…(highly recommended) Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson (recommended) Modern Romance - Aziz Ansari (audiobook recommended) Boomerang - Michael Lewis (great if you have a light interest in macroeconomics) Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (recommended) Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell (recommended) Joyland - Stephen King (great, short read) Creativity, Inc. - Ed Catmull (Parts on the history…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2016?” ↗I finished reading the Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson, and, for all his faults, Musk really knows how to get shit done. I was constantly amazed by his ability to strip a process to its essentials before embarking on its construction.…
on “11/17/23 starship test 2” ↗“Elon Musk” by Walter Isaacson. It’s a balanced account of the most important industrialist of our generation. Refutes some of the “Elon Bad” groupthink myths too.
on “Ask HN: What are you reading these days?” ↗Read the biography Elon Musk from Walter Isaacson. The engineers likely learned of this news via the tweet.
on “This week, xAI will open source Grok” ↗I just finished Elon Musk’s biography by Walter Isaacson and I was struck by how often this actually works. Whether you’re actually sending humans to the ISS, or building cars removing requirements and complexity is a surprisingly…
on “Removing stuff is never obvious yet often better” ↗…credit. In most organizations I have been a part of, they succeed in spite of the leadership, not because of it. In the case of SpaceX though, I am less sure. Reading the Walter Isaacson biography on Elon Musk was quite fascinating and illuminating about his leadership style. I would never work for him myself, but he does have some really fascinating philosophies.
on “SpaceX launches mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck on the ISS” ↗…wasn't so bad. "I realized by then that if someone bullied me, I could punch them very hard in the nose, and then they wouldn't bully me again..." The story was revealed in the recently released book: "Elon Musk" by Walter Isaacson
on “TIL at 12yo Elon Musk Was Forced to Battle for Food and Water at a Survival Camp” ↗In the book about Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson, design engineers have their offices next to the manufacturing line. So they see and hear everything going on. It probably wasn't just "someone on the production line".
on “Tesla recalls all cybertrucks for faulty accelerator pedals” ↗…14 September 2023 to add an update to the subheading. As the Guardian reported on 12 September 2023, following the publication of this article, Walter Isaacson retracted the claim in his biography of Elon Musk that the SpaceX CEO had secretly told engineers to switch off Starlink coverage of the Crimean coast. So maybe Starlink did turn it off or maybe it was just jammed in some way or maybe, well... anything…
on “Iran Goes Into IPv6 Blackout” ↗I heard Walter Isaacson is writing a book about Elon Musk. Working Title: "Now I Am Become Musk, the Destroyer of Brands"
on “Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints” ↗That's fair, according to the Walter Isaacson biography, that just came out, Elon Musk left home with very little money, and made everything on his own. He didn't really receive any material support from his family. When his mother and brother joined him, she had to work three jobs to support…
on “Mark, Bezos, Gates. Behind Every Self-Made Millionaire Is a Father with Money” ↗> turn off Ukraine starlink service at strategig moments This makes absolutely no sense, yet people keep repeating it TWZ: Do you trust Elon Musk? KB: (Laughs) In what sense? TWZ: There was the discussion over Walter Isaacson’s book excerpt and whether Musk shut off Starlink to prevent a Ukrainian attack on Sevastopol last year, or whether as…
on “SpaceX Starship Super Heavy Project at the Boca Chica Launch Site” ↗…in annual savings. In total, we freed up 48 MW of capacity and tore down 60k lbs. of network ladder rack before re-provisioning it to other data centers. The story of how they did this is in the new Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson. It's a pretty cool story.
on “"1 year" updates from X/Twitter Engineering” ↗- An Indispensable Truth: How Fusion Power Can Save the Planet - Chen, Francis F. - Elon Musk - Isaacson, Walter
on “Ask HN: What are you reading these days?” ↗…kinda agree with this, especially when it comes to people who are not just still alive but also actively involved in the writing of the book and dictating what can and cannot go in it (like it was with Elon Musk and Walter Isaacson). At that point you aren't reading a biography but a PR puff piece. On the other hand well-researched biographies of historical figures who have been out of the public limelight are…
on “Book Review: Elon Musk” ↗