Vance is so enamoured with his subject that you find him deflecting criticisms of Musk. Both are fantastic books, but Issacson is the better journalist. In both, you will read about how an asshole with vision can create wonderful things by brute forcing his way through the inconveniences of reality.

It's a nice complement to Walter Issacson's Steve Jobs. It is refreshing to read about someone who apparently suffers from no mere human limitations. Books like this are probably so entertaining because there is so much mediocrity in our own lives. This book basically exploits your desire to read about extremely competent people, and you'll love it. More than any other entrepreneur today, Musk has dedicated his energies and his own vast fortune to inventing a future that is as rich and far reaching as the visionaries of the golden age of science-fiction fantasy. Vance uses Musk's story to explore one of the pressing questions of our age: Can the nation of inventors and creators who led the modern world for a century still compete in an age of fierce global competition? He argues that Musk - one of the most unusual and striking figures in American business history - is a contemporary, visionary amalgam of legendary inventors and industrialists, including Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs. Ashlee Vance captures the full spectacle and arc of the genius' life and work, from his tumultuous upbringing in South Africa and flight to the United States to his dramatic technical innovations and entrepreneurial pursuits. In the spirit of Steve Jobs and Moneyball, Elon Musk is both an illuminating and authorized look at the extraordinary life of one of Silicon Valley's most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneurs - a real-life Tony Stark - and a fascinating exploration of the renewal of American invention and its new makers.Įlon Musk spotlights the technology and vision of Elon Musk, the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, who sold one of his Internet companies, PayPal, for $1.5 billion.

Elon musk book ashlee vance