Tag: Twitter

Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson (Biography)

Isaacson does a great job of bringing odd, but clearly brilliant, characters to life. He did it for Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo Da Vinci, and now he does it for Elon Musk who makes a great subject for Isaacson’s style of biography — one full of relevant detail along with well-rounded, attributed commentary every step of the way. From childhood to the creation of one industry disrupting business after another (eg Tesla, SpaceX, StarLink) all the way through to the (hostile, messy, and yet full of interesting disclosures) acquisition of Twitter, we get the full story as synthesized from interviews, public records, and the occasional clearly labeled author opinions. The coverage continues through December 2022. What comes through clearly is Musk’s passion, drive, and brilliance, as well as what he is like as a human being. My overall takeaway aligns with this Bill Gates comment: “You can feel whatever you want about Elon’s behavior, but there is no one in our time who has done more to push the bounds of science and innovation than he has.” After reading the book, I am a fan, albeit a fan who has no interest in either befriending (not a likely scenario in any case!) or working for the man

I love that Musk is motivated by pushing humanity forward on the grandest scale: making humans multiplanetary; leveraging renewable energy sources to fight climate change; ensuring that human consciousness survives; and enabling freedom of information through networks and speech platforms. I like that he has the courage to stand by the need for a strict meritocracy in his companies, not subscribing to what he calls the “woke-mind virus.” (I understand that this is a contentious issue but I fall on his side, at least in terms of optimizing for competence when hiring). His “simple” test for the people he hires (or keeps) is that they are “excellent, trustworthy, and driven.” Here excellent means actually excellent as in qualitatively MUCH better than average — not the inflated excellent that is designed to make everyone feel good. Also, his version of driven is intense — he keeps things moving with a “maniacal sense of urgency.” While I’m well beyond the energy levels required to work in such an environment, how exciting would it be to be a part of actually changing the world in such a direct, uncluttered, way? Anyone who has ever worked in a (larger) tech company knows the frustration of trying to get anything done with all of the bureaucracy and frankly mediocre gatekeepers along the way. The issues surrounding Twitter are a completely different kettle of fish. Isaacson says, “He thought of it as a technology company, when in fact it was an advertising medium based on human emotions and relationships.” There is extensive coverage and I’ll let you make up your own mind about it.

The book is full of detailed engineering information (made surprisingly accessible and interesting to readers with varying degrees of background and experience) ranging from the behavior of materials to principles of process design. We’re also treated to Musk’s ongoing verbal annotations at each step as to what he was doing, why he was doing it, how he made it happen, and what he would have done differently (not much, really, but some). I found it all pretty engaging.

So was it a good book? I thought so — it was superbly organized and curated so that topics were introduced at the appropriate time. The book proceeds in date order so you get a real sense as to the number of (giant and complex) balls Musk was keeping in the air at once — each with its own urgencies, engineering issues, political aspects, funding problems, etc. He didn’t take a lot of vacations. Isaacson had access to — and extensively interviewed — almost everyone who had any large part to play in the pages. This included family, friends, colleagues, past employees (both disgruntled and appreciative), reporters, industry luminaries, and, of course, Musk himself. Isaacson’s biographies are never dry reading and his style is blessedly clear and concise (we’re still talking 700+ pages — imagine what the length would have been had it been written by a lover of tangents!).

Well worth reading.

The Ink Black Heart by JK Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith (Mystery)

Writing: 5/5 Plot: 5/5 Characters: 5/5
I’ve been a JK Rowling fan since I bought the first Harry Potter book in England before it was released in the US. She is just a fantastic writer. This book was over 1,000 pages, and I got through it in three days because I could not stop reading, much to the irritation of family and friends whom I was supposed to be paying attention to!

The Ink Black Heart is the sixth book in the Cormorant Strike series. Best one yet. This one tackles murder both spawned and executed within the anonymity of social media with the convoluted detection progressing simultaneously in both online and real life. Edie Ledwell, the now successful author of a surprise hit cartoon, approaches the agency begging them to help her uncover the identity of an online figure who has been publicly tormenting her for years, almost driving her to suicide. With the agency already overloaded and no real skillset in cybercrime, Robin rejects the request, only to be shocked days later when Edie is found brutally murdered.

The ensuing puzzle to identify Anomie — the anonymous tormentor — is muddied by an incredibly complex web of characters — both online and in real life. Reminded me of the old logic puzzles I used to love where you have to match which person goes with which car which goes with which dessert etc. While I’ve been “aware” of some of the nastiness that happens online, the progressing story included plenty of excerpts that brought the nastiness to life in a way that made it finally real for me. From incels (involuntary celibates) to alt-right nasties to pedophiles to naive victims, it was a whole unsavory world I’m glad I have no contact with. And it’s a world that I’m guessing Rowling knows first hand as she has been targeted by various “unhappys” in some very aggressive and loathsome ways. As an aside, I always search out the original comment or event that gets people riled and rarely find anything worthy of the reaction. Certainly not in Rowling’s case. I sure wish people would think and investigate before they jump on the vicious attack bandwagon.

So why are these books so good? Firstly, Rowling has a writing style that I just love — it’s so clean that you completely forget that you’re reading and yet she manages to reduce very complex topics and events to easily comprehensible dialog and action. Yet the complexity is not oversimplified, it’s just explained clearly. Maybe she should run for office. The plots mimic the cacophony of real life — lots going on, plenty of opinions, multiple opportunities for internal biases to raise their ugly heads, and tedious and slow moving mechanisms for verification. Rowling has an incredible ability to juggle multiple complex plot lines into a cohesive whole. Plenty of philosophic commentary on people, the internet, and the inability to think for themselves. Nothing she writes about fits neatly into a “type,” an “identity,” or a “role.” I love it.

I also like the characters a lot — while they are flawed (as is the preference these days in crime fiction) — they have characteristics and values that are important to me — they care about right and wrong, they are intelligent, they understand their flaws and actually work to improve themselves. I would be very happy to spend time with these people were they so inclined!

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord (YA)

These days I’m in great need of light, happy, books.  This is a great one for that!

Pepper is a Nashville transplant, tagging along with her mom — the founder of the very successful “Big League Burger” franchise. Jack is the secret genius behind Weazel, the social platform with anonymous interactions which “pop” with your pal’s identity after significant chatting (pop-goes-the-weasel, get it?) and heir-apparent of his family’s deli — Girl Cheesing. Both attend the elite Stone Hall Academy, have a keen sense of snark, and are devoted to their family businesses. Both are also engaged in a Twitter war over competing grilled cheese product — and it’s gone viral.

Funny, as “cute” as advertised, well-written, and far more surprising than I expected. A fun read.

Quotes:

“Just the infinite, suffocating void of trying to navigate the world without my phone in my pocket.”
“Jack is the kind of person who fills silences. The kind of person who doesn’t necessarily command attention, but always seems to sneak it from you.”
“… wondering how someone can be so aggressively seventeen and seventy-five at the same time…”
“I’m competing for Ivy League admissions with legacies who probably descended down from the original Yale bulldog.”
“I know she went to high school in the nineties, but that does not excuse this fundamental misunderstanding of how teenage social interaction works.”
“There’s nothing quite as awkward as living in a shadow that is quite literally the same shape as yours.”

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on January 21st, 2020.