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Elon Musk
- Thread starter graham
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So I just got my copy of Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future: Ashlee Vance: 9780062301239: Amazon.com: Books (Ashlee Vance's book about Elon) and am reading it now. So far it promises to be a really good book. Just the right amount of humor and well written. You can tell the author is smart, which goes a long way in trying to understand Elon. 400 pages. I know what I'll be doing for the next while!
I had the pleasure of seeing Elon yesterday at Yale University's Commencement Ceremony, at which he was award the honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering and Technology. Unfortunately, neither he nor any of the other eight honorees provided any comments to the student. It was a close call whether Elon or Janet Yellen got a bigger cheer.
Here's the start of Elon's award: [video]https://youtu.be/iJEAACxm4F8?t=5308[/video]
Here's the entire presentation of honorary degrees: [video]https://youtu.be/iJEAACxm4F8?t=5073[/video]
Here's the start of Elon's award: [video]https://youtu.be/iJEAACxm4F8?t=5308[/video]
Here's the entire presentation of honorary degrees: [video]https://youtu.be/iJEAACxm4F8?t=5073[/video]
beeeerock
Active Member
I'm sure their backstage conversation would have been an interesting one to listen in on...! :smile:
Just finished reading Ashlee Vance's book. Oddly enough for a 400 page book, I sometimes wished he would go into more blow by blow detail - for instance there was no insight at all into any board meetings in any of the companies. There was a lot of boosterism about the companies, and a lot of unconnected vignettes. Having said all that, it is a very interesting book and very readable. Most people who have not been watching Musk's every move for the past 10 years will find lots of new information here, most of it highly entertaining.
Last night I read the first 4 chapters of the new Vance book and hope to find the time to finish it over the next several days. I think it's well written and seems reasonably objective, in that he relies on a large number of source interviews going back to people who knew Elon as a child, peers and adults. And I like the way the author resisted Elon's request to review the manuscript before publication and be able to add footnotes if he disagreed with anything that was written. No author could work that way.
So far the book is quite fascinating.
So far the book is quite fascinating.
I'm going to settle in and read the book tonight as well. In the meantime, here's another article on the book popping up on social media:
The Odd Empathy of Elon Musk | Motherboard
Maybe people will finally start to understand a bit more what we here have known for years about the mission of Elon and Tesla. Like Neil Patrick Harris said in Starship Troopers, "we're in this for the species, boys and girls."
The Odd Empathy of Elon Musk | Motherboard
Maybe people will finally start to understand a bit more what we here have known for years about the mission of Elon and Tesla. Like Neil Patrick Harris said in Starship Troopers, "we're in this for the species, boys and girls."
NannerAirCraft
Member
Just got the book in hardcover. Very fast shipping as I ordered standard shipping and it said expected by Saturday 
cdub
OG 2011 Leaf / 2023 Model Y LR
gjunky
Trifecta: Solar and both cars are EVs
Just received my hardcover too. Showed up the next day from Amazon. Keeping it for my long Atlantic flight next week.
Chickenlittle
Banned
Enjoyable but very incomplete and I suspect inaccurate in parts. Only a mention that they went public without any details of what it took, no mention of tweets some tweets said a lot about the man and his personality. Stormy in shortsville not mentioned for instance. These tweets public knowledge and not there. Controversies like George clooney not mentioned. Broder response barely touched on. Only examples. Inaccuracy that musk put everybody on phone shoring up orders halfway into qtr because of large deferrals. Like a call in mid February to snare an order could generates thousands of cars orders finalized and large number not only built but delivered. They were not making a thousand cars a week then but in low hundreds. I expected some details on notorious detractors like Corey Johnson. Some history would have been nice from personal drive with musk to irrational naysaying was quite a change that must have had a story behind it
anticitizen13.7
Not posting at TMC after 9/17/2018
I suspect that the book is incomplete and contains inaccuracies, but that is going to be the case with any work where the author's and editor's subjectivity plays a large role in determining what is important information.
What I found most interesting in the book was the story of Elon's beginnings in South Africa and his journey to the United States. Growing up largely unsupervised in a rough environment, learning to fight physically and mentally, and somehow surviving it all says a lot about Elon. Did he thrive because the environment pushed him to his maximum potential, or did he survive because of his enormous mental drive?
The story of the early years of SpaceX was also illuminating, because it really highlighted the difference between the agile upstart and the aerospace establishment, which is complacent in its monopolistic orthodoxy. SpaceX seemed much more organized than Tesla in the early years. I can see why Elon felt the need to take a much more active role in Tesla, and I'm glad he did.
The lack of stuff about Broder and Johnson -- I'm not at all disappointed about it, because I don't think they are ultimately important to the story of Elon/SpaceX/Tesla.
What I find exciting is that the story is not even close to being over. In 20 years will we be reading about how Tesla went mass market in an unprecedented way? Will we be reading about trips to Mars? There is sure to be a lot more drama on the way.
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Discussing Elon is ok and necessary, he is a part of Tesla's brand and critical driver of Tesla business.
It might be an idea to set some boundaries on discussing private stuff, for multiple reasons.
Everyone has a right to some privacy, even our favourite CEO.
People in Elon's life that have no connection to Tesla are none of anyone's business on TMC. Discussing them is better not done as it is likely to be inaccurate and hurtful.
Parties discussed above can not come here to set the record straight when hurtful and possibly inaccurate statements are made.
Private stuff is what it is, private, lets leave it that way, it is a classy thing to do.
It might be an idea to set some boundaries on discussing private stuff, for multiple reasons.
Everyone has a right to some privacy, even our favourite CEO.
People in Elon's life that have no connection to Tesla are none of anyone's business on TMC. Discussing them is better not done as it is likely to be inaccurate and hurtful.
Parties discussed above can not come here to set the record straight when hurtful and possibly inaccurate statements are made.
Private stuff is what it is, private, lets leave it that way, it is a classy thing to do.
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