# The man who followed Elon Musk everywhere: Walter Isaacson

> An episode of The diary of a CEO, An interview with Walter Isaacson on Elon Musk

An episode of <The diary of a CEO>, An interview with <Walter Isaacson> on <Elon Musk>

## Memo

Working closely with the Elon:

- Has a superhero complex.
- Elon is mostly focused on engineering, rather than design. He is a great engineer.

Elon Musk's childhood:

- <Leonardo da Vinci> (Left-handed, gay), <Albert Einstein> (Jewish in Germany), <Steve Jobs> (adopted)
- <Elon Musk>:
  - <Autism spectrum disorder>.
  - No friends.
  - Often beatten up by friends and father. Could be the origin of his <superhero complex>

Musk's 'demon-mode':

- His father was like <Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde>.
- Elon also has it in him. "He truely gets cold."
- He has multiple personalities.
- Having demons to harness tends to drive you a bit more.

Could anyone become Elon Musk?

- Elon wasn't a good student.
- But he has an intense focus on the things he likes.

First principle thinking:

- Whenever you face the problem you just go to the very basic physics of it, not all rules and regulations.
- Regulartos vs. risk-takers.

Elon's change of ideology & his child transitioning:

- Xavier: "I'm transitioning. My name is now Jenna, and don't tell my father now."
- Elon said to W. Isaacson: "Nothing caused me more pain."

Buying Twitter:

- Urgent insensity over <psychological safety>
- He wanted a "hard-core all-in environment."

Did <Steve Jobs> and <Elon Musk> want to be liked?

- "If you try too hard to be liked, you're not going to be disruptive enough."
- "Empathy can be your enemy."

Elon's mission to conquer Mars

- He said he has three missions:
  - To get humanity to Mars.
  - To have sustainable energy.
  - To make robots safe.
- Why Mars?
  - Human <consciousness> is rare, or could be unique.
  - It's the great adventure. We need an inspiring vision.

Elon's fear of dying before accomplishing his mission

- His estimation is about 10 years. But his estimation is alway wrong by 2 to 3 times. lol
- Elon's diet is very unhealthy compare to <Sam Altman> and <Jeff Bezos>

Concerns about Elon's mental health

- His [mental health](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Mental%20health.txt) is not great.
- Has kind of a multiple personalities.
- Took prescribed medications for bipolar disorder.

Commonalities between <Steve Jobs> and <Elon Musk>:

- They have passion.
- They both cared about details.

Are they delusional?

- They are crazy and crazy enough to think they can change the world.
- Reality distortion field is a geek's way to saying delusional.
- It works 80% of the time, but sometimes it doesn work:
  - Jobs tried to will his cancer away but failed.
  - Elon's full self-driving car. (He said for past 10 years that it could be done in a year.)

Is Elon happy?

- No. He doesn't value happiness.

Elon is afraid of being alone?

- He likes drama, fighting, and intensity.
- But he's always afraid of being alone. He said that he was so lonely as a child.