Backchannel

NOTE: Bumping this post because of the readathon - start reading the book and share your thoughts with us at #PHReadathon - Ashlee will chat with us tomorrow about the book, stay tuned for more details :) It is my pleasure to welcome author Ashlee Vance for a live AMA starting at 1130 AM PST...Ask questions in advance! Remember: We're reading the Elon Musk book as a community by Sunday and then we'll talk to Ashlee again about it Sunday night! Readathon link: https://www.facebook.com/events/... Also - check out this beautifully done video of the book by @pfanis:

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10yr ago

Martin Skakala

WakesApp

@valleyhack the Audible audiobook is just amazing (flow). I also think the book or story is better as both of you develop a relationship through the journey. Ashlee, did you guys speak after the book came out? I believe someone like Elon would be preserving his personal life stuff, thus his "controlling" would appear natural. I remember well the negotiating at the beginning ;-). Did he tell you anything after the book was out? Thanks, amazing piece Ashlee!

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10yr ago

Ashlee Vance

Elon Musk and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Maker

@mskakala Elon gave me a play-by-play as he read the book, as you might expect. The first e-mail came in around 3:30 a.m. and many more followed. He objected to a couple of things - mostly the way people described him. Then, a day or so passed, and he came back and said the book was well done on the whole and gave me an accuracy score - a very Elon thing to do - of about 95 percent.

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10yr ago

Martin Skakala

WakesApp

@valleyhack Thanks Ashlee, 95% is pretty great for someone like Elon I guess. You have 150% from us! Thanks again.

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10yr ago

Erik Torenberg

Backchannel

@valleyhack: Can you start by telling us a bit how the book originated? What was your intended goal when starting and how did that change, if at all, while writing?

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10yr ago

Ashlee Vance

Elon Musk and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Maker

@eriktorenberg The book started in sort a funny way. I was not an Elon fan at all. He'd always seemed to me like a guy promising the world and then very much struggling to deliver, and I'd pegged him as sort a one note techno-utopian sort of a dude. But then, in 2012, a lot changed for me. SpaceX made it to the ISS. Tesla came out with the Model S, and SolarCity went public. That's an incredible, unprecedented run for an industrialist. This prompted me to do a cover story on Elon for Businessweek in mid-2012, and while doing that I was blown away by Tesla and especially by SpaceX, and I also found Elon to have one of the more interesting life stories I'd ever run across and to be a very complex character. I came away from that cover story wanting to write a book on him and how he operates. Initially, I'd thought of doing sort of a fly on the wall thing where I got tons of access to Tesla and SpaceX. That, however, became unrealistic because Elon would not initially participate with the book. So, I charged off in dogged reporter mode and interviewed hundreds of people - his friends, family, enemies, ex-girlfriends, workers, etc. After doing that for about two years, Elon ended up agreeing to do interviews and to give me access to the companies. In retrospect, I feel like the book that I'd originally set out to do would have been awful. It would have likely ended up as such a love fest, and it would have been too easy. Hopefully most people will agree that the actual book that came out has a lot more teeth and nuance and depth and just a ton more reporting.

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10yr ago

Jeff Umbro

Rocketship.fm

@valleyhack @eriktorenberg I was curious why there wasn't more about Solar City in the book. I've always felt that it's looked at as Elon's step-daughter, but it's doing arguably the most to change the world.

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10yr ago

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest

Provides the first inside look into the life of Elon Musk.

Provides the first inside look into the life of Elon Musk.

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest

Provides the first inside look into the life of Elon Musk.

Provides the first inside look into the life of Elon Musk.

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