Walter Isaacson on Elon Musk

Featuring Walter Isaacson, bestselling biographer, Professor of History at Tulane University, and former President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, on his newest book Elon Musk (September 2023). Isaacson delves into the life and story of one of today’s most intriguing and controversial figures. How did Musk become a leader in such diverse industries, from electric vehicles to space exploration to Twitter?

[@peterforsythe3643]

I’ve read Isaacson's bio of Musk and it’s fabulous. Then, I’ve been a Musk fan-boy for a long time. This talk made me a Walter Isaacson fan-boy as well. Deep respect for the talk and for his really nuanced answers at question time.

[@jook360]

It's hard to be an Elon fanboy in front of an audience of Elon Musk admirers and more vocal skeptics. Arguably the most accomplished biographer of our time must defend a mercurial futurist and disrupters of industries who wants to make life more sustainable and humanity multi-planetary. I hope Elon Musk will keep Walter Isaacson in his inner circle without the pressure of another book deal.

[@kreek22]

Musk has no need for Isaacson or any other censorship promoter.

[@David-wc5zl]

LOL. This "biography" was already revealed as bunk. I

[@Laurie-eg8ct]

I hope Elon keeps someone in his inner circle not pushing him but parallel to him, calming him.

[@rwhirsch]

If you are worried about being hurt by Elon's inability to be empathetic towards you then stay out of his way don't go work for him and then otherwise be quiet it doesn't concern you

[@pt1122]

If u need a friend buy a dog…

[@manasyoga]

😊❤

[@David-wc5zl]

LOL. "Anyone who criticizes Elon should be silenced!" So you hate freedom just like Musk.

[@sagitarius1591]

👍✨

[@dnoordink]

So a sociopath is trying to save the planet, and don't worry? I doubt your cognitive abilities.

[@dkgong]

Just finished the book. It's a fascinating read.

[@danerose575]

"We should probably try and be nice to the people around us rather than solve the world's epic problems for humanity..." Are you nuts? Our world is filled with pleasant people - often out of fear of looking bad - who are doing nothing about epic problems. You have it completely wrong: We need a few generations of 30 Elon musks to solve the epic problems for all of humanity that no one else is motivated enough to do anything about and THEN we can sit around in utopia and be nice to one another, able to defend against asteroids, help heal etc.

[@franklangrell5824]

Elons mission 3 will show you a clear energy path, Peter Diamondas abundance, Ray Kurtzweil Ai with immence compute power enabling humanity to evolve a non biological substrate benefiting us immeasurably

[@kevinreddington4251]

He’s accomplished 100,000x what the average person does in one lifetime. Is anyone surprised he’s tightly wound?

[@Laurie-eg8ct]

Someone needs to lose him up.

[@InfiniteTravelingSpirit2BE]

@49:00 NO EMPATHY, because he is NOT normal or even a human, a walk-in. google what El - on means.

[@topdog5252]

He takes on immense personal risk in order to mitigate risks to civilisation and our future potential. Most people don’t focus on the long term and the whole of consciousness like he does. He cares a lot, but about all of humanity and he doesn’t please people in front of him, (though of course he loves his close friends and family).

[@Think-dont-believe]

@@topdog5252txt book asperger’s..

[@DCGreenZone]

He's an investor impersonating a genius engineer. Call it what it is.

[@TheSarissa22]

❤❤❤Thank you for telling about his life.. I Love him and like him so much. He a very good man and strong man. ❤😊I line him the way he is. ❤❤❤❤❤😊

[@MrAlanfalk73]

We need 10 more Elon Musks. We need to learn from him how to run a company and be innovative. I for one will do My small part in supporting him, by getting a blue check mark on X, buy a Tesla and in time their solar roof and powerwall.

[@laviniamartinscfp814]

Amazing!!! Thank you! Great session & great Q&A!!!

[@belahatvany]

We need to create a society that does not give money political power.

[@kreek22]

Communism? No, that was scarcely even true in most communist regimes. I know, Utopia.

[@Florence-p8g]

I love this author,Walter Issacson,he a list of positive, enduring thinking of future & generous,obsessively truthful like the one he authors,EPIC!! We want more of your writings. ANY WORKINGS,!!Just keep going,we love& want your insight. !!❤🎉❤😮😀!!❤🇺🇸✝️🤎🫡🤝🤝✨️. We love him,right,Folks?? ❤❤🎉❤🎉! Peace prayer❤✝️

[@klauszinser]

56:31 "..be a player in the game having done Einstein I know the Heisenberg problem which is the Observer can change the story I made it I was very careful" Very well said.

[@balaji-kartha]

Elon is a doer. An engineer with a vision who will put all he has to make that vision come true. There have been science fiction writers, mystics, armchair futurists and day dreamers who have all fortold the future, but this is the first time in human history that we have a man who folds up his selves and gets down to create and make the future that he can see! He is, single handedly, pulling the whole human species into a future which could / would be better for everyone! We are blessed to be alive when this man walked the earth!!

[@thearianrobben]

Oh boi.

[@dnoordink]

Elon is an engineer like a candle is a nuke...

[@elizabethhoeppner8881]

The best way to judge a person is not so much from who their friends are, but from who their enemies are.

[@sandybayes]

I just started the book and already I get a sense of the truth that is pervasive in Isaacson's writing. Such a rarity!

[@pinoyguitartv]

Thanks for posting this 👍👍👍

[@ThomasButryn]

Great talk, thank you.

[@belahatvany]

Thank you Walter and Elon

[@diogenes4124]

Comparing Benjamin Franklin to musk or any one who operates in the modern era is unfair .The Sheer complexity that exists right now is far more than anyone in the past would have encountered.Its a fair comparison only if they are within a specific century or separated by a few decades

[@kreek22]

Character is fate, circumstances are secondary.

[@spotter_]

I love listening to walter.

[@davidwilkie9551]

The way to herd Cats is to move their food to where you want them to go, so we're told. Note that the corporate mission has stayed the same.

[@gladysvaz590]

Would love to read the book👍

[@dr.sarahsunliewforcongress884]

Best ❤

[@kbadgett123]

inspiring!

[@JessicaQChen-lv5uk]

Thank you for the wonderful book and wonderful presentation!. The questions from the Q&A sessions are little underwhelming though.

[@dnoordink]

Hmm he can't even say the truth about Tarpenning and Eberhard? I doubt everything this guy says now. Don't trust, verify.

[@julietpalmer9294]

Wish you luck on your way to Mars Elon God bless you

[@jaywilldoit]

That woman at the end asking the absolutely pointless stupid question is everything wrong with America today. She just doesn’t get it. It’s this exact type of mindset that Elon musk is trying to push up against. There are millions like her with this rigid, backwards, limiting, self-righteous, time-wasting mindset that are holding innovators back.

[@hunglukenguyen]

a lot of engineer helped him, this author just says Musk Musk Musk!

[@towerace1238]

fear not and just do it

[@peachnehi7340]

best on speed set at 1.75 maybe even at 2

[@questioneryusef8264]

The oil industry is a big bully. So their screwed.

[@ananeidarodrigues1767]

Bom dia !!!!❤❤❤🥰🥰

[@Oentience]

If he lacks empathy, to the point where he's genuinely cruel, showing a lack of not just cognitive empathy (although perhaps not) but affective empathy, plus he has all of these grandiose fantasies about humanity, AI and the like, along with many difficulties with various insecurities, well... _all of these things are more than just kinda correlated with being a grandiose narcissist not autism._ Honestly though, I don't know and I'm open minded, however, given the openness by which the speaker here is disclosing his cruel nature, need for drama and clearly is driven towards grandiose fantasies that subconsciously are probably more designed towards making him feel like a powerful hero where his mind gets to concentrate on how people view him as "all good", because he's not able to concentrate on others, this is a drug for him clearly. And, he's not going to change, unless he gets his narcissism treated if that is indeed what he has, which objectively though I'd rather not see him that way however its not really my 'choice' its just a matter of what is reality and what is not, which seems to be very much the case. If he lets go of his fantasies, he will be forced to grapple with the present moment where absolutely nothing is ever happening other than the groundedness of the void vs fullness of his own being. On the one hand, people love to speak about others and most of that is a waste of time, my greatest concern is with respect to the technology of neuralink and no doubt as well how this will be interlaced with other tech. He created a fantasy about how AI will in his words, view humans as no greater than a house cat, to stimulate innovation and discussion on how we can increase our own, it is my hope that our potential here will not reach its cognitive limit through such invasive measures, and my only concerns with intelligence enhancement for non-biological or biological is humans, not AI, especially if we have another grandiose much more malignant narcissist Adolf Hitler, be allowed to have the liberty to increase their intelligence to whatever level they wish. Such technological power available to such childish psyches is a recipe for disaster. We all must heal ourselves for the coming mind-tech world, not just Elon. We are our own existential threat, not AI, and that's not a fantasy, Elon with his efforts, have proven that by clearly getting the existential threat either wrong on purpose or wrong because of his own addiction to said grandiosity. I've always really liked Elon, mostly all of us have, it doesn't change reality though if everything is as the author is portraying.

[@Anon_nonA]

Agreed. He’s an engineer, solving engineering problems. But anything even remotely related to humanity rather than technology, then he’s completely lost.

[@Karl-Benny]

The Problem with Elon is he makes every one else look Bad

[@InfiniteTravelingSpirit2BE]

@33:00 "psychological safety"? lol don't wake up.

[@peachnehi7340]

ok at speed 2 best = or > 1.5

[@krishnarajbastola50]

Krishna Raj bastola like 😊😅❤

[@nn-gr7kw]

I will save my money.

[@llewellynjones1115]

And will remain blissfully ignorant unfettered by a story filled with a bunch of facts that doesn't concur with your narrative.

[@ExecutiveZombie]

Yay! Sir Musk. 🚀Botas All Dem kids🥺😂🧟‍♀️

[@myselflove-bf3uv]

If he doesn’t like the way Elon is. Just go be a nice person of his own and go make a rocket to go to mars. Period Otherwise it’s just a whining of a child.

[@briangrimmer8225]

We are now post musk He’s peaked

[@spaguyster]

I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet. He’s going to upset so many industries. Not just the auto industry.

[@briangrimmer8225]

@@spaguyster it’s over, he’s now in victim mode

[@spaguyster]

@@briangrimmer8225 You watch Lex Fridman episode 400 w/Elon from a day ago? Lots of interesting thoughts to think about but requires an open mind to intelligence.

[@bukurie6861]

Thank you that in Plane🌐t is E🌟lon Musk❤Best creative advanced Tech...⚡️

[@tomc8888]

I'm a former fan of yours, Mr. Isaacson. I'm sorry, but despite your best efforts and after enduring 600 pages, I'm not going to idolize a bullying, narcissistic overgrown juvenile with a messiah complex who treats employees like s**t, lacks empathy and learned all the wrong lessons from the comic books he read and video games he played. More Jennifer Doudnas, Leonardo da Vincis and Ben Franklins and less lionizing of Phony Stark types, please.

[@Think-dont-believe]

lacks social empathy comes across juvenile and narcissistic etc etc … next time you may want to use his diagnoses of asperger’s instead of defining it as he is txt book..

[@davidsand195]

I guess he doesn’t need to defend the animal abuse …

[@David-wc5zl]

LOL. Isaacson is a sycophant with one simplistic and naive "Genius" storyline for his books. This definitely doesn't apply to Elon Musk. This is so embarrassing for the Aspen Institute & every other group promoting both Musk & the hack Isaacson blindly.

[@expertsconsultingservices.8824]

I like him love him the way he is. He so strong heart that why i love him. He nave give up. He strong too.😍😍

[@InfiniteTravelingSpirit2BE]

@53:00 what BS. total bs. "we probably should say thats bad" ....lol but we won't

[@MrAlanfalk73]

Musk dident say he doesnt want his workers to unionise, he invited them to come and ask the workers. There is actually quite a few line workers who has become millionares because they get stock options. I like this better, as if the company does well then everybody does well, which will motivate more. Just see what is happening to Ford, Stellantis and GM, the workers will bankrupt them now (and no , before you say, the CEO makes a lot of money, then think about this, even if you took ALL the CEOs money and spread them out to the workers, they would all get only 10$ each !). And is it compassion when all those workers looses their work ? I hope UWA goes bankrupt. And just so people know, Tesla is not the only auto company that isent unionised!!

[@monicasung6827]

Jewish contributes to wisdom

[@InfiniteTravelingSpirit2BE]

@36:00 Twitter IS a communications technology company, and the danger moderating or suppressing content lie in its potential to wield disproportionate influence over public opinion. By selectively curating the content users see and suppressing certain voices or perspectives, Twitter risks creating an echo chamber where users are exposed predominantly to information that aligns with their existing beliefs. This can lead to a polarized and distorted public discourse, hindering the open exchange of diverse ideas. Additionally, the subjective nature of content moderation policies and the potential for algorithmic biases may result in the unintentional promotion or suppression of particular viewpoints, contributing to a skewed representation of public sentiment. The platform's power to shape trending topics and deplatform individuals or groups further raises concerns about the manipulation of narratives, potentially limiting the diversity of voices and perspectives essential for a healthy and informed public discourse. As a key player in shaping online conversations, Twitter's content moderation practices carry the responsibility of safeguarding democratic principles, freedom of expression, and the integrity of public opinion. You fascist NPC.

[@llewellynjones1115]

Although Isaacson refers to Musk having Asperger's Syndrome - his book shows no research into Autism which he surely could have done given the depth of study into the condition that is available now. Had he done so, I think he would have got a much better handle on empathy of autistic people in relation to Musk, as well as a better understanding of the underlying anxiety of autistic people and how this can present itself as "demon" mode. That said, I really enjoyed the book.

[@sagitarius1591]

THANK you! 👏✨. Asperger's Syndrome it is NOT autism. And I don't like what this book's author says about Elon Musk.

[@sagitarius1591]

Why does Walter I. say SOME" things"? I do NOT like him. He has no IDEA what he talks about. He should educate himself. I haven' t red this book yet because it will be 22.11.23 in my country but....I just DO NOT like what Walter I. talks about Elon Musk. In my "opinion" lot of Walter's "conclusion" about Elon are SUBIECTIVE, UNFAIR and UNTRUE.

[@llewellynjones1115]

@@sagitarius1591 Now, you've said that without even typing into Google "Aspergers and autism". At a minimum you haven't even looked up Asperger Syndrome in Wikipedia. You actually know nothing about autism - and yet you still felt confident enough to type absolute bolloçks and press Send. Moreover, you confidently declare that you haven't read the book (which I have) - and it shows.

[@sagitarius1591]

There are a lot of research about Autism and I don't need to red ( I have madical competition, experience about helping children and adults with Autism and I red lot of scienist books too) about Asperger's Syndrome besause I have "IT". If somebody doesn't have " IT" that person will never understand people like me or Elon Musk.

[@Think-dont-believe]

@@llewellynjones1115i was just commenting that they have put asperger’s under the autism umbrella which is a mistake IMO…Elon is txt book Asperger’s….

[@sjhaji]

Yeah master blaster xchamp celbratiy 🌹