From alarming questions on Elon Musk’s function in Ukraine’s , to new particulars about his difficult private life, there was no scarcity of bombshells from Walter Isaacson’s just lately launched biography of Elon Musk.
The guide covers his childhood in South Africa, in addition to his enterprise dealings, from his first startup to Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink. Maybe unsurprisingly, greater than 1 / 4 of the guide is dedicated to Twitter.
Isaacson spent two years with Musk and thus had a front-row seat to his takeover of Twitter, starting along with his transfer to develop into a significant stakeholder Whereas a lot of the drama that unfolded at Twitter (now, X) during the last yr and half has been well-documented, Isaacson’s account provides telling — and at instances weird — new particulars about the way it all went down.
Musk virtually instantly regretted his determination to purchase Twitter
Isaacson describes Musk’s preliminary bid to purchase Twitter as impulsive — the results of one in every of his frequent “manic” moods. And he writes that Musk regretted the plan virtually instantly after the deal was put in movement — each as a result of he thought he was overpaying, and since he was so unimpressed with Twitter’s former management. Musk later admits, greater than as soon as, that he purchased the corporate as a result of he didn’t have a alternative.
“I don’t know why I did it,” he says two weeks after the deal lastly closed. “The choose mainly mentioned that I’ve to purchase Twitter or else, and now I’m like, okay, shit.”
The principle motivation for rising Twitter Blue subscriptions
We already know that Musk desires to and funds options to X, however the guide makes it clear that these ambitions are very a lot intertwined along with his push for Twitter Blue (now referred to as X Premium) subscriptions. Isaacson writes that Musk was so centered on Twitter Blue as a result of he noticed it as a solution to “get a person’s bank card data into the system, enabling Twitter sometime to develop into the broader financial-services and funds platform.”
Nonetheless, the plan was considerably derailed by Apple, as most of Twitter’s subscribers signed up through its iPhone app, and Apple doesn’t share person knowledge, like bank card and different monetary particulars, with app makers. Extremely, upon studying of this, Musk instructed Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of belief and security, to “simply name Apple and inform them to provide the knowledge you want.” Roth, realizing that such a request wouldn’t go over nicely with Apple, declined to make the decision.
Musk would later meet amid a separate dispute associated to Twitter’s iOS app, however, in accordance with Isaacson, Musk opted to not convey up the person knowledge challenge. However it underscores simply how necessary monetary knowledge is to his imaginative and prescient to make X an “every thing app.”
Musk tried to ban the ADL and different activists in 2022
Musk typically portrays himself as a noble defender of free speech, however even a sympathetic biographer is fast to level out all of the methods Musk put his pursuits forward of free speech after buying Twitter.
Months earlier than Musk would the #BanTheADL hashtag, he needed to ban the group and different activists for urging advertisers the platform, Isaacson writes. Musk apparently went to Yoel Roth, twitter’s former head of belief and security, and demanded he “cease customers from urging advertisers to boycott Twitter.”
Musk then tried to advert lib a brand new coverage to justify what would have been an unprecedented ban. “I’m altering Twitter coverage proper now … blackmail is prohibited as of proper now. Ban it. Ban them,” Musk mentioned. Roth deflected and Musk apparently dropped the difficulty.
Musk flip-flopped on whether or not to revive Donald Trump’s account
Regardless of joking to his sons that he was shopping for Twitter to assist Trump get reelected, Musk isn’t any fan of Trump, in accordance with Isaacson.
“I need to keep away from the bullshit disputes about Trump,” Musk had advised me a couple of weeks earlier, emphasizing that his precept had all the time been to permit free speech provided that it was throughout the bounds of the regulation. “If he’s engaged in legal exercise — and it appears more and more that he has — that’s not okay,” Musk mentioned. “It’s not free speech to subvert democracy.”
Musk, after all, would change his thoughts and determine {that a} was a greater solution to determine the difficulty. Isaacson doesn’t speculate on a purpose for the reversal aside from saying he was in a “feisty temper” that day.
How the “hardcore Twitter” pledge happened
Within the a number of weeks following his chaotic takeover of Twitter, Musk laid off 1000’s of Twitter staff. Isaacson sheds new gentle on how these selections have been made, writing that Musk tapped his two first cousins and their shut good friend — all of whom labored at Musk’s different firms — to assist him determine who ought to be lower.
Round this time, one of many extra notorious tales to come back out of Twitter was a web-based kind despatched to the remaining staffers, giving them two days to decide to the brand new “ model of the corporate. In accordance with Isaacson, the shape was impressed by one in every of Musk’s cousins, who after digging by way of Twitter workers’ public Slack messages, “urged to Musk that he give workers the possibility to choose out.” Musk later determined to make the shape opt-in, reasonably than opt-out. “We would like individuals who declare they’re hardcore.”
What actually occurred to Twitter’s servers
Final December, Musk determined to maneuver 1000’s of Twitter servers from an information middle in Sacremento to a facility in Oregon with a purpose to lower your expenses. However when Twitter engineers mentioned the transfer would take no less than six months, Musk grew indignant, saying he felt just like the “head-explosion emoji.”
Then, two days earlier than Christmas, Musk made an impromptu go to to the Sacramento facility and declared transferring the servers didn’t “appear tremendous onerous.” By the following day, Christmas Eve, Musk had tapped his cousins and others to start out the transfer. The group started rolling the two,500-pound server racks, which contained “completely crucial knowledge” onto a Oregon-bound transferring truck. Twitter’s guidelines required servers with person knowledge to be wiped earlier than such a transfer, however Musk opted to make use of Apple AirTags and store-bought padlocks to safe them as an alternative.
Finally, all the servers have been relocated inside weeks, reasonably than the a number of months the corporate’s engineers initially estimated. However the transfer additionally brought about months of instability inside Twitter’s methods. This resulted in plenty of points, together with reside stream with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who was virtually unable to announce his presidential bid.
The hasty transfer has additionally attracted the scrutiny of the FTC, which is investigating X over plenty of privateness and knowledge associated points. Just lately revealed refer on to the incident for example of the corporate failing to comply with its personal safety insurance policies.
Musk’s obsession with a cell technique recreation referred to as Polytopia
The guide is crammed with particulars about Musk’s private relationships. However one of many weirder particulars is his long-running obsession with a cell technique recreation referred to as that lots of his confidantes say is essential to understanding him. Musk is seemingly so hooked on the sport that at one level within the narrative he skips a gathering with Tesla managers so he can maintain taking part in.
Musk is so obsessed that he’s roped a lot of his interior circle, together with Grimes, his brother Kimbal and Shivon Zilis, the Neuralink government with whom he has twins, into taking part in as nicely. All of them finally deleted the sport, along with his brother Kimbal saying it was “destroying” his marriage. Musk, however, deleted the app from his cellphone however, a pair months later, opted to maintain taking part in.
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