Elon Musk

由《達文西傳》、《賈伯斯傳》作者，知名傳記作家Walter Isaacson所寫。經過兩年籌畫、三年貼身採訪，並多次跟隨馬斯克於他的公司和工廠採訪相關員工、朋友、家人、公司顧問等，也親訪馬斯克本人多次。馬斯克的公眾形象多變，一舉一動始終都是媒體關注焦點，近期也因為大動作對推特進行一番「改動」而備受爭議。

從馬斯克的在南非度過的童年開始，受到同儕霸凌與面對有暴力傾向的父親，對他的性格塑造留下深遠影響，在他身上可以發現各種矛盾的面向─他對高壓挑戰有極度抗壓性，對於熱愛的事物有使命必達的決心；同時他又渴求充滿戲劇化的發展，且不時引爆的狂怒與對旁人來說極為殘暴且充滿毀滅性。

Walter Isaacson接受新聞媒體訪問時談到，在採訪過程中就親眼目睹馬斯克「進入魔鬼模式」般暴怒飆罵員工，仿若《化身博士》裡面的傑可醫生擁有雙面人格，令他感到非常不安；但另一方面，他也看出馬斯克在挑選高階主管和內部人才時，有獨到的手段與眼光，他認為，或許所有頂尖的企業領導人─無論賈伯斯和馬斯克，都存在這樣複雜且耐人尋味的特質。

From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter.

When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.

His father’s impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive.

At the beginning of 2022—after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth—Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. “I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,” he said.

It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground.

For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?