A New E book About Elon Musk Is Making Me Rethink His Grasp Plan For Social Media

Who’s Elon Musk, precisely?

A current ebook gives an extremely well-crafted reply to that query.

Elon Musk, by Walter Isaacson, is enlightening, revealing and good. It got here out on September 12, and I’m already about midway into the ebook, which clocks in at a hefty 688 pages.

I received’t spoil any revelations from the ebook in case you plan to learn it, particularly the elements about his household dynamics or the early chapters about his life earlier than changing into the richest individual on the earth. I normally get uninterested in any biography that dwells on early household life an excessive amount of. You wish to examine “the good things” that made somebody well-known. With this ebook, from the opening chapter onward, you get an inside peek into Musk’s early life.

The ebook is extremely detailed relating to his interior world — you begin to perceive what makes him tick. There are well-placed quotes by pals, household and Musk himself sprinkled all through the ebook that put a stamp of authenticity on the described occasions, however what actually holds your consideration is simply the psychology of probably the most well-known entrepreneur on the planet. The man is a genius, after all. But, what actually struck me is how random he could be, in accordance with Isaacson.

One story within the ebook covers the historical past of SpaceX and the way the corporate began testing its rockets. It used launchpads in California initially, however then Musk all of the sudden determined he didn’t wish to look ahead to the federal authorities to complete its personal launches. He shipped rockets to the Kwaj Atoll, which proved to be a mistake because of the distant location and different components.

I needed to cease and take into consideration that for a second. You begin a large firm referred to as SpaceX, and because of what Isaacson calls impatience, you all of the sudden resolve to launch rockets midway throughout the globe as an alternative. On the time, everybody round Musk questioned the choice.

I made a fast leap to the current day. In accordance with the Wall Road Journal, Musk has made a number of sudden selections about Twitter. He fired a bunch of individuals, he modified the title, now he would possibly begin charging everybody a month-to-month charge to make use of the app. Isaacson paints an image of somebody who’s extremely random, and the way that’s irritating to everybody round him. He’s abrupt and makes rash selections on a dime, like transferring these rockets.

And but.

Isaacson additionally covers the primary profitable SpaceX launch and hints at higher issues to return. I haven’t learn far sufficient to know this from the ebook, however clearly Musk additionally turned Tesla right into a dynamo.

This all has made me rethink his grasp plan for X, the corporate that was once referred to as Twitter. Just like the tech geniuses earlier than him, Musk is stirring the pot as a lot as doable. He appears to love it that approach. When there’s a smart move to be made about retaining model integrity with Twitter, he does the other and randomly decides to dump the model. When most of us would by no means pay to make use of social media, he all of the sudden makes a snap determination to cost us for the app. He isn’t going to attend to construct X into one thing price a subscription.

I truthfully don’t suppose any of this may work. X is bleeding customers proper and left. It’s nearly like Musk prefers to fail as a lot as doable after which see what occurs.

Lots of these early rockets exploded. Twitter itself can be imploding. Perhaps that was the objective all alongside? Perhaps disruption and innovation, at this scale, all the time has intense drama.

I’m rethinking every little thing about his technique. He’s purposefully blowing up Twitter, possibly as a strategy to see what’s left and who remains to be . As I found within the ebook, he’s somebody who likes to create chaos and confusion after which see what’s nonetheless standing, and he all the time has.

It labored earlier than. I ponder if it might probably work once more. We will see.