Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, Quest for a Fantastic Future — The life of the audacious entrepreneur

@eriktorenberg The book started in sort a funny way. I was not an Elon fan at all. He'd always seemed to me like a guy promising the world and then very much struggling to deliver, and I'd pegged him as sort a one note techno-utopian sort of a dude. But then, in 2012, a lot changed for me. SpaceX made it to the ISS. Tesla came out with the Model S, and SolarCity went public. That's an incredible, unprecedented run for an industrialist. This prompted me to do a cover story on Elon for Businessweek in mid-2012, and while doing that I was blown away by Tesla and especially by SpaceX, and I also found Elon to have one of the more interesting life stories I'd ever run across and to be a very complex character. I came away from that cover story wanting to write a book on him and how he operates. Initially, I'd thought of doing sort of a fly on the wall thing where I got tons of access to Tesla and SpaceX. That, however, became unrealistic because Elon would not initially participate with the book. So, I charged off in dogged reporter mode and interviewed hundreds of people - his friends, family, enemies, ex-girlfriends, workers, etc. After doing that for about two years, Elon ended up agreeing to do interviews and to give me access to the companies. In retrospect, I feel like the book that I'd originally set out to do would have been awful. It would have likely ended up as such a love fest, and it would have been too easy. Hopefully most people will agree that the actual book that came out has a lot more teeth and nuance and depth and just a ton more reporting.

@valleyhack @eriktorenberg I was curious why there wasn't more about Solar City in the book. I've always felt that it's looked at as Elon's step-daughter, but it's doing arguably the most to change the world.

@ems_hodge There are so many things - hence the book. But my major feeling after doing the book was that I needed to do more with my life and be more exact about my two or three major priorities and how I planned to achieve them. Elon basically maximizes his life. His lifestyle is too much for me, but I did come away wanting to do more with my time. Also, his life story is extraordinary. Full of so many ups and downs and risks. He's in the running for the most interesting man in the world for sure.

@bentossell Again, this is how the book opens in pretty gory detail. But, basically, I wore him down over time. He seemed to think that I would give up on doing the book, and then when I kept going and going and going and dozens of people told him about my efforts, I think he decided it was in his best interests to cooperate.

@mskakala Elon gave me a play-by-play as he read the book, as you might expect. The first e-mail came in around 3:30 a.m. and many more followed. He objected to a couple of things - mostly the way people described him. Then, a day or so passed, and he came back and said the book was well done on the whole and gave me an accuracy score - a very Elon thing to do - of about 95 percent.

@valleyhack Thanks Ashlee, 95% is pretty great for someone like Elon I guess. You have 150% from us! Thanks again.

@jasonyogeshshah A couple of people are asking the same sort of question here. Ultimately, I didn't leave a lot of stuff out. I certainly tried to use all of my A material. That said, as the interviews between Elon and me went on, he opened up a lot more. We would talk a lot off the record, and I, of course, can't share many details on those chats now. Some of them were about people. Some of them were the gory backstories behind particular deals. To Elon's credit, though, he rarely asked for things to be off the record and, I think, gave genuine answers to just about everything I asked. The only thing I'll add is that he had some wild nights in Russia. I never really thought much about the public perception. Some people worship Elon. Some despise him. Most people are somewhere in the middle and just want a good, accurate story. The truth is stranger than fiction in most cases with Elon, so just plowing ahead with the reporting was the main focus.

@beller Buildings with modular infrastructure that can be upgraded and one day upgrade themselves via robots, so that you always have the latest and greatest technology.

@brentsum No, Elon did not get a say on what went into the book, although he did request control. The book basically opens with our negotiation on this subject. I was most surprised with just how intense Elon is. Because we spent about 3 years interacting, I got a real taste for what his employees and friends and family see. It's only when you're really up close to him that you feel the full impact of how intense he is. Never met anyone like him.

@jacksondahl Yeah, you can certainly argue that it's too soon to do this type of book on Elon. Then again, someone was going to do it, and I wanted that someone to be me. Stay tuned for the sequel.

@nasherasher It's kind of amazing how well it's done on Audible. The numbers were some of the highest HarperCollins had ever seen. Am still trying to figure out if this is because it's skewed toward Silicon Valley or Tesla drivers or what.

@tattle_jz Who narrated the book?

@jeffumbro @tattle_jz An actor named Fred Sanders. He does accents and all

@kunalslab A combo kids car seat/toilet that analyzes their stool for optimal nap time

@bentossell Alas, no. I think Elon has people that hunt products for him.

@erictwillis I have to confess that SpaceX is the story I like the most. It's the most unlikely company. It's the most radical. It had the craziest journey. And certainly if Elon actually gets to reusable rockets and then a colony on Mars, he will have altered the course of the human species - which I think counts as transformational. I also think SpaceX is the hardest company for competitors to deal with. It's such a blank slate in an industry filled with old, slow-moving competitors.