Biographer describes Elon Musk's 'demon mode' – Evanston RoundTable

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Saturday morning at Cahn Auditorium (600 Emerson Street) on Northwestern University’s campus, political consultant David Axelrod interviewed journalist and author Walter Isaacson about Isaacson’s most recent book, an authorized biography of Elon Musk.
The biography, Elon Musk, has been on the The New York Times‘ hardcover nonfiction list of bestsellers for four weeks.
Isaacson said he followed his subject around for two years, attended meetings, read emails, and also talked with colleagues, relatives and family members, in addition to Musk himself. Isaacson had total access and Musk did not have any say over anything that went in the book. Isaacson said Musk told him he has yet to read the book.
According to Isaacson, Musk believes he has unique abilities to change the world, considers himself a disruptor who questions and breaks rules and restrictions, and demands that his employees do the same. Musk currently is believed to be the richest person in the world. According to Bloomberg, as of September 2023, Musk has an estimated net worth of at least $232 billion.
Isaacson said, “He has these ideas of justice, almost like a Captain Underpants or comic book X-Man, which to some extent are applicable. There are three big epic quests. One is sustainable energy on the planet. [Tesla] Number two is taking us all to planetary space again [Space X], and third is protecting us against artificial intelligence and robots gone wrong [OpenAI and xAI] … He has a great feel for engineering … He talked about having Asperger’s Syndrome, but in his case, it means he doesn’t have deep emotional receptors.”
Isaacson said Musk is an engineering genius capable of brilliant problem-solving.
He described how only hours after Musk finally acquired the company then known as Twitter, he and Musk flew to Boca Chica, Texas, where Space X engineers were stymied on a problem. Within two hours, Isaacson said, Musk had figured out the solution. He did not mention the acquisition of Twitter, nor did anyone in the conference room at Space X mention it. Musk focused on the problem at hand.
If engineering brilliance is Dr. Jekyll, Musk’s Mr. Hyde is the cold, monotonal cruelty he will unleash in an instant. Isaacson said.
“He has multiple personalities,” he said. “Elon can be charming. He can be inspirational. He can be fun, but then he goes into what one of his girlfriends called ‘demon mode.’ And you watch it happen when he goes really dark and he’ll be cold to the people in front of him. It happens mostly on engineering issues. And no, he never did that with me.”
Where does this demon mode come from in Musk?
Musk’s mother, Maye Musk, summarized the internal battle when she told Isaacson, “Here’s the story. The danger for Elon is that he will become his father.”
Maye Musk divorced Errol Musk in 1979 and has described him as abusive.
Elon’s father is one of the first topics Axelrod brings up to discuss with Isaacson.
“If there is a character in the book who moves almost as large as Musk himself, it’s his father. He is a specter that looms over every almost every page of this book. Let’s talk about him and the influence that he had on Musk’s life,” said Axelrod.
“Elon was constantly being beaten up at school,” Isaacson said. “At one point, he was beaten so badly that he ended up in the hospital for a week. And after he comes home from the hospital, his father makes him stand in front of him, erect, for two hours while he tells him that he’s stupid, he’s worthless, it’s his fault he got beaten up, and takes the side of the people who beat him up. So this makes Elon withdraw, obviously, and have the demons in his head.”
As an adult, he is capable of the same emotional cruelty in pursuit of his goals.
A brilliant engineer/visionary leader, and a demanding, emotionally insensitive man-child capable of cruel verbal attacks: the Musk described by Isaacson seems to be both. On Saturday, Isaacson didn’t say with certainty whether Elon had become his father, but that is almost beside the point. The chaos Musk creates in his drive to advance civilization are the focus of his life.
Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson, published by Simon & Schuster on Sept. 12, 2023, is 688 pages. The hardcover price list price is $35. It’s available for sale online at Simon & Schuster and local bookshops, and to check out from the Evanston Public Library.
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Wendi Kromash is curious about everything and will write about anything. She tends to focus on one-on-one interviews with community leaders, recaps and reviews of cultural events, feature stories about… More by Wendi Kromash
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