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Elon Musk is not exactly a name that rolls easily off the tongue, like say Tony Stark, the fictional person to whom he is most often compared, or even Steve Jobs, a real-world visionary, whose mantle Musk now wears. There is no question that Musk is a special individual, someone with BIG dreams and the drive, talent, and money to make them happen. But, like Jobs, and Stark for that matter, he might be an acquired taste on a personal level. In Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantast...
Pretty good and interesting. Not life-changing but certainly gives a nice insight into the various Musk-related businesses + early life, which is interesting and most of it was new to me.
3.5 StarsI like the can-do attitude Vance took with hounding Musk and wearing him down till he agreed to cooperate with this biography. I also appreciated all the "Holy crap, Musk is CRAZY. CRAZY like a fox," moments I had while reading this. The only thing that keeps this from being a 4-star book is that the reporting and writing leans too heavily on idolatry. There were passages where I literally cringed at how much of a fanboy Vance sounded like.
(Regular Review) Elon Musk is considered as a cross-pollination of Thomas Edison and Tony Stark. SpaceX, Tesla, Paypal, SolarCity are some of the few companies started by him. The above names are more than enough to understand Musk's potential. Ashlee Vance shows us the not-so-famous childhood of Musk in South Africa. He compares and contrasts Musk's entrepreneurial brilliance to Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and his Scientific prowess to Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. His role in preventing gl
Excellent and inspiring. This book brought up one key question: do you have to be a bit reckless to be good? Musk was reckless in two areas: in the risks he took, and the way that he manages his companies.As for the first, the number of near-death experiences that Tesla, SpaceX and earlier companies went through is almost a running joke throughout this story. The Falcon 1 failed three times, exhausting the company's funds, before achieving a successful fourth flight. Tesla avoided bankruptcy by
I found the tale of Elon Musk's childhood all the way through Zip, Paypal, Solar City, SpaceX and Tesla fascinating and inspiring. One thing in particular stood out. He's not motivated by greed. I've met my share of entrepreneurs and there are countless motivations that power these people. Some are narcissists, some like the idea of being in charge (ego), some are battling the demons of their parents (Musk most likely has a piece of this in his psyche), but the best ones are compulsive problem s...
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ashlee VanceElon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future is Ashlee Vance's biography of Elon Musk, published in 2015. The book traces Elon Musk's life from his childhood up to the time he spent at Zip2 and PayPal, and then onto SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity. In the book, Vance managed to get regular interviews with Musk, those close to him, and those who were with him at the most important points of his life.تاریخ ن...
I'm not sure why the reviews are so universally high across the board for this book. I thought it was poorly written and focused on all the wrong things. Each chapter, particularly those towards the end, was repetitive and paced as though it was a stand-alone article, which made the pacing of the book very choppy. The author focused on the failures of each company but completely glossed over what made each product and each company climb the peak to success. I'm assuming the author didn't underst...
4.5 starsBillionaire Elon Musk is a businessman, engineer, and inventor with a radical vision for the future of mankind. In fact Musk wants nothing less than to establish a human colony on Mars.....with a view toward exploring Jupiter's moon Europa someday. Jupiter and EuropaMusk fears there will be another mass extinction event - like the asteroid that destroyed 75% of Earth's species at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary 65 million years ago - and he wants people to have somewhere to go. I agr
Space. Renewable Energy. Internet. This is a man after my own heart. Out of all the super entrepreneurs and technological legends of the modern era, Musk ticks all the boxes on my dreams and passions, particularly space. Space has always been the frontier that intrigues me the most; for a single man to dream of colonising Mars and actually doing all he can to make that a reality is just simply astounding. And then of course, there is Tesla. Aside from the clean energy technology which I am a hug...
Let me offer this thought: SpaceX is the coolest and most exciting company in the world at this moment in time.Yes, Tesla is also extremely cool. And inspiring. But nothing can beat that feeling of power, wonder and deep inspiration that SpaceX will give you as soon as you start to understand what that company is actually doing. As Vance says, "SpaceX IS Elon Musk". So who is this man? How is it humanly possible to achieve what he has achieved? What else can he achieve in the future? Will he bec...
There are few people outside of the fiction world that I truly admire, but barring some unseen or future tragedy, I think Musk might well be on the way to becoming my hero.If I didn't know any better, I might be looking at all his stated claims and seeing all the echoes of Asimov and Heinlein being dragged out of the page and brought to life.Skip the whole Iron Man image for a second.Let's talk about Ayn Rand.Musk is John Galt. As in Atlas Shrugged. Sure, he's also Dagney, too, or perhaps more l...
Whether you follow him or his companies/works, Elon Musk is an important innovator of our times, and I would suggest everyone to read this book to get inspired or experience another world. I really admire how Vance captured his biography, which is not an easy thing to do. If you read a little bit, you'll understand Musk is not the most easy going person in the world. The author opens the book in a very intriguing way starting from why Musk allowed him to write his biography, which starts to shed...
I wish I could rate this book 2.5 stars. It's a great long read Atlantic or Wired piece about a visionary person with an interesting childhood that is at the forefront of a technology shift and an unsuccessful emotional biography. There are a ton of details about Elon's upbringing, especially about his father and brother, who always felt like a mystery to me. I got a good understanding of how Elon's early mentor, a Canadian banking executive, gave him some insights towards starting X.com, a serv...
Elon Musk is a revolutionary entrepreneur of the 21st century. His life was full of struggles whether it's a family affair or a professional one. He has witnessed a long list of hardships in his life but he never scummed to those. The book by Ashlee Vance has wonderfully written those pieces of information that will be very delightful for the readers to read. He was thrown out of Paypal, multiple failures of SpaceX and many more came in his life. He took lessons from his failures and never stopp...
“It’s nuts that people would want to vilify Elon. He might say some things that rub people the wrong way, but at some point, the being nice to everyone thing doesn’t work.“ Elon Musk is fascinating. I could simply tick off some biographical points such as him having been married twice and having five children with his first wife (a set of twins and a set of triplets), but that is not why I read biographies and, in fact, why I dislike most of them. Either the people the biographies are about a
A couple of weeks ago I was glued to my television set as SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket, carrying two astronauts on their journey to the International Space Station. The launch was followed shortly thereafter by the amazing spectacle of seeing the main body of the rocket separate before flipping and completing a descent, culminating in a vertical landing on an autonomous drone ship. This still feels to me like something out of a sci-fi movie – I’m hardly able to believe what I’m seeing! A
Really enjoying this book, but I'm struck by how Musk, like Jobs and Bezos, is a total asshole. A Space-X employee missed a work event to witness his child's birth, and Musk calls him on the carpet for it. He expects his employees to have no life and discards people as soon as they're no longer useful. Just a nightmare boss. Not somebody I'd ever want to work with. Apparently I'm not the only one who had this thought. From NY Times: The Bad Behavior of Visionary LeadersAs I was reading Ashlee Va...
At first, the idea of reading 380-page autobiography about a technology-savvy made me downhearted. However, eventually I extremely relish this book that I cannot put it down.Takeaways:1. There is nothing wrong about being an introvert and enjoying reading books. You will find a lot of inspirations for your career. Don't give up your childhood dream.2. Working hard is the only way that lead to success. I vividly remember that he has to take about 170 flights a year. Thanks for his hard work, he c...
This is an incredibly inspiring book, a important look into a game-changing worldview, and a valuable lesson to the world. As Musk says, "If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it."Strangely enough, I've followed Space X' and Tesla's progress for a very long time, but I never actually read many things about the person behind them. I still cannot believe what a visionary Elon Musk is, and how persistent he's about anything he does. He is a mad scie...