Book: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

After agonizing over the Vonnegut book I wanted an easier read, and this one certainly delivered. Finished in two marathon reading sessions, it's the story of the OTHER asshole CEO you love to hate.

Musk carries his own RDF and risks the same "go big or go home" attitude. His accomplishments are legend, as are his failures.

When Ashlee Vance started this book, Musk refused to cooperate. After interviewing hundreds of Musk associates, friends, family, ex-employees etc he finally got Musk on-board and, without veto power, got him to agree in principle to participate. The book is pretty withering in its description of Musk's management style, yet fairly balances this with awe for his accomplishments.

Fascinating, fast-reading, and compulsively entertaining.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Musk carries his own RDF...

Rapid Deployment Force?

NoCoPilot wrote:

His accomplishments are legend...

Wouldn't that more correctly be, "The accomplishments of those employed by him..."?

_Howard wrote:

NoCoPilot wrote:

Musk carries his own RDF...

Rapid Deployment Force?

Reality Distortion Field

_Howard wrote:

NoCoPilot wrote:

His accomplishments are legend...

Wouldn't that more correctly be, "The accomplishments of those employed by him..."?

Even more accurately, "the accomplishments of the founders of the companies he bought into" but Elon WAS the investor who risked a ton of money on these wildass ideas, when everybody told him he was going to lose his shirt. By continuing to fund research, failure-after-failure, his teams have eventually reached the point where their pie-in-the-sky ideas begin to pan out.

The Tesla is a notable accomplishment. As long as they don't forget that is is just a car, it will be beneficial in a small way.

His space program is insignificant in any beneficial way. His idea that we need to send people to Mars is absurd.

It would be great if he would invest more in solar power development and forget about being a spaceman. Maybe look into some way of cleaning the waste we have spread over the earth, in the waters, and in the atmosphere. Too many financial and intellectual resources are being wasted when we have such huge environmental problems.

_Howard wrote:

The Tesla is a notable accomplishment. As long as they don't forget that is is just a car, it will be beneficial in a small way.

By building out a worldwide network of charging stations, Musk is literally "paving the way" for the next generation of electric cars. By building his Gigafactory(s) to manufacture improved lithium-ion batteries in quantity, he is encouraging the next generation of electric cars. Finally, by releasing all of the patents pertaining to the Tesla as open-source and available free to the public, Musk hopes to encourage the next generation of electric car developers.

_Howard wrote:

His space program is insignificant in any beneficial way. His idea that we need to send people to Mars is absurd.

Musk's SpaceX venture has never intended to move people, and is diametrically opposed to the "space tourism for billionaires" ventures of Richard Branson and Burt Rutan. SpaceX is designed solely to provide payload delivery to LEO for commercial satellite manufacturers, and payload delivery to the ISS now that NASA is out of the game. Russian capability comes with a huge cost, putting scientific experiments and satellites out of reach for most customers.

SpaceX is strictly a commercial entity.

The Mars idea is discussed heavily in the book, it's not a single shot (like the moon landings) but a long-range exploration of preparing Mars for eventual human habitation if/when the Earth becomes inhabitable.

It's possible -- you must admit -- that terraforming Mars is a smaller goal than saving Planet Earth.

_Howard wrote:

It would be great if he would invest more in solar power development and forget about being a spaceman. Maybe look into some way of cleaning the waste we have spread over the earth, in the waters, and in the atmosphere. Too many financial and intellectual resources are being wasted when we have such huge environmental problems.

NoCoPilot wrote:

It's possible -- you must admit -- that terraforming Mars is a smaller goal than saving Planet Earth.

No, I don't need to admit that. I do not believe for a moment that such a thing as "terraforming" Mars is at all possible.

Elon speaks: