"Free-spirited Musk Like a Boy Refusing Toilet Training"

Elon Musk Biography to be Published on the 12th

'Designer of the Future', 'Innovator of the 21st Century', 'Liar and Villain', 'Genius and Clown'.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who has built a vast empire in cutting-edge scientific fields such as electric vehicles, space exploration, solar power, and artificial intelligence (AI), led by Tesla and SpaceX. A 688-page biography titled Elon Musk, which offers an unfiltered look at the man who is always at the center of controversy, will be published on the 12th (local time). Walter Isaacson, who gained worldwide fame for writing the biographies of Apple founder Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin, observed Musk closely for two years to write this book.

[Image source=AFP Yonhap News]

Isaacson described Musk as a "boy who refuses potty training." He believed that a "restrained Musk" would not have been able to achieve as much as a "free-spirited Musk," viewing unfiltered and unrestrained behavior as Musk’s essence. He further noted that sometimes great innovators like Musk are like boys who risk refusing potty training. He wrote, "Innovators can be reckless, intimidating, and sometimes toxic. They can be crazy, and crazy enough to believe they can change the world." Isaacson also mentioned Musk’s dictatorial management style. Musk has a rule of responsibility that every part, every process, and every specification must be named. Isaacson explained this as Musk’s "hardcore leadership" style intended to assign responsibility to someone when something goes wrong.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, "This book also covers Musk’s 'Texas house,' which is being built with Tesla company funds," and said Musk showed special affection for this house, reportedly requesting that it look "like a structure from another galaxy falling into a lake" during its construction. The report added, "Musk is under investigation by the U.S. federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over allegations that Tesla funds and personnel were used to build this large glass house for his personal use." The house, being built near Tesla’s headquarters in Austin, Texas, has an exterior reminiscent of a giant glass box, with the glass alone reportedly costing millions of dollars.

The book also includes Musk’s sharp criticism of competitors in the generative artificial intelligence (AI) business he recently entered. Isaacson said, "Musk has been concerned that chatbots developed by OpenAI and Google could be politically biased and could be misused to spread misinformation on X (formerly Twitter)." He also wrote that Musk said the data collected through X could be an asset used for machine learning or training AI models.

The book covers controversial business stories such as the acquisition process of Twitter (now X) and involvement in the Ukraine war, as well as Musk’s dictatorial management style that pushes employees to their physical and mental limits. It also details Musk’s personal life, including school bullying that shaped his personality, his twisted family relationship with his eccentric father Errol Musk, and the process of becoming a father to 10 children with three women.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.