Elizabeth Lopatto on Walter Isaacson’s ‘Elon Musk’

Elizabeth Lopatto, not mincing words at The Verge:

While Isaacson manages to detail what makes Musk awful, he seems unaware of what made Musk an inspiring figure for so long. Musk is a fantasist, the kind of person who conceives of civilizations on Mars. That’s what people liked all this time: dreaming big, thinking about new possible worlds. It’s also why Musk’s shifting political stance undercuts him. The fantasy of the conservative movement is small and sad, a limited world with nothing new to explore. Musk has gone from dreaming very, very big to seeming very, very small. In the hands of a talented biographer, this kind of tragic story would provide rich material.

Related: My 2012 take on Isaacson’s Steve Jobs.

★ Wednesday, 4 October 2023