The other thing I could do without in the Issacson book is his pop psychoanalysis of Elon. I just got to the part where he states that the reason Elon bought Twitter is because he was beat up as a child. Sigh. Interesting opinion(?) but why is that in a supposedly fact based book?
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Elon Musk Biography By Walter Isaacson
- Thread starter Buckminster
- Start date
Tam
Well-Known Member
Blaming the sanctions is not plausible.
Banning selling drones full of bombs to Russia is not the same as banning using drones full of bombs to attack Russia.
If that is the same, then Ukraine could not conduct the Spring Offensive by bringing drones, tanks, and weapons... in Crimea and Donbas regions that are under Russia's control.
It's propaganda that since Crimea and Donbas are under Russia's control, those regions are now Russia.
No. The UN recognizes the borders of both Ukraine and Russia and both Crimea and Donbas are still Ukraine until Ukraine tells the UN otherwise.
Only children would think it's plausible that since there's a sanction for providing Starlink to Russia, that applies to Ukraine as well.
UkNorthampton
TSLA - 12+ startups in 1
SpaceX can't allow Russians to use Starlink for a few reasons.
1) Sanctions (civilian & military use) - criminal consequences
2) Russian military comms is/was terrible, they were using Ukrainian mobile phone networks, they would have used Starlink if they could.
3) If Russians can craft the pre-encrypted request to a server, monitor the encrypted outward request, know the response the server will give, intercept the encrypted response, get the response back post decryption ... I would expect greater risk of hacking Starlink (which happened at least once)
4) During the Kherson offensive/liberation, Starlink coverage had to be extended, it was seemingly always limited to Ukrainian-controlled territory - per wikipedia - "In October 2022, CNN reported Starlink services had to be requested by Ukrainian forces as new areas were liberated.[22]"
All USA had to do was ask SpaceX (example: Presidential Order). Considering USA hasn't provided M1, F16, ATACMS & possibly other important kit to prevent risks of Russians being narked, it can't be left to a civilian company to make unilateral decisions that might risk breaking the law or going against USA foreign policy.
Tam
Well-Known Member
Wrong topic. Russia didn't ask to buy Starlink. Ukraine is the one who asked Starlink coverage to attack Russia at the frontlines.
Since a private citizen owns Starlink, there's no obligation to grant Ukraine's wish.
That's a very nice clean answer. That's it!
But to blame that because it cannot sell Starlink to Russia as the reason to deny Ukraine's wish is nonsense!
I think it was a failure of the Pentagon to recognize that Starlink was something different from a normal bandwidth provider. As a truly global provider with cutting-edge technology, the service has geopolitical considerations and consequences that a service like Viasat does not have.
This all turned out fine, except for the noise. The Pentagon changed its tune (or was successfully strongarmed by Musk, take your pick). They will buy it and they will like it. Shotwell will collect the checks.
Tam
Well-Known Member
Not the first lie. Too many to list:
The Big List of Elon Musk's Hyperbole, Evasions, and Outright Lies
Elon Musk, owner of Twitter (now X) has a long history of misrepresentations, evasions, and lies — from company policy to fighting Mark Zuckerberg.
www.rollingstone.com
Why and how could Starlink ever have been activated over Crimea? That would have given Russian troops access to use Starlink, since it would have been trivial for them to get Starlink terminals and accounts elsewhere and use them in Crimea. So why would Starlink have done that a day after Russia invaded Ukraine proper?Not the first lie. Too many to list:
The Big List of Elon Musk's Hyperbole, Evasions, and Outright Lies
Elon Musk, owner of Twitter (now X) has a long history of misrepresentations, evasions, and lies — from company policy to fighting Mark Zuckerberg.
I listened to it. Not super impressed. It felt repetitive and didn't give a lot more to someone who has listened to a few of his youtube videos.
Eric Berger was great for SpaceX.
Also can recommend the Founders about Paypal which imo is a very under appreciated book to understand a team that all had individual success multiple times including Elon ofc:
Another great book more about AI where Elon shows up which was really good to understand the past and the future of AI:
Tam
Well-Known Member
"Rusians can hack in Starlink" is not the reason cited.
There's no evidence that Russians have been able to access Starlink without authorization.
But since you mentioned, maybe Elon Musk will add that excuse too.
xanderwalker
Member
Walter Isaacson has issued a correction to this part of the book.
"Walter Isaacson says it was simply a misunderstanding.
In an interview with The Washington Post on Monday, the acclaimed author and journalist said that his new biography of tech billionaire Elon Musk contained a flawed account of Musk’s role in thwarting a Ukrainian military strike on Russia’s naval operations in Crimea last year.
Isaacson’s book, “Elon Musk,” was published Tuesday with the disputed reference intact. It will be corrected in subsequent editions, according to Isaacson and his publisher, Simon & Schuster."
Crazy to see a correction like that right out of the gate.
Especially on such a sensitive one.
Yeah, and people will continue to not believe the correction. I do wonder why he didn’t give proof copies to people at Tesla and SpaceX to spot obvious errors like this.
I so wanted this book to provide something new or interesting. If you've heard/read the other biography and paid a little attention, there's nothing new here. Who's surprised that Elon is a complex person and pulls off risky ventures?
What a missed opportunity.
What a missed opportunity.
Guys, we all have read the Vance bio, we all have seen all the interviews and podcasts, we have been obsessing over this man for a decade. Isaacson is not writing for us, but for the billions of people who don't know him.
Well, we are probably not the easiest crowd to please, but after he's finally done spending the first three quarters of the book going over the same anecdotes and stories you've heard before, I was ready for something fresh and interesting to say the least.
For someone who alledgedly spent hundreds of hours litterally 5 feet from Elon, you'd think there would be some unique observation or unexpected happening. Add to that he goes out and debunks the whole misguided Starlink story immediately after publishing it.
What did we learn from this 20-hour (!) mammoth tome? Not a lot, if anything.
For someone who alledgedly spent hundreds of hours litterally 5 feet from Elon, you'd think there would be some unique observation or unexpected happening. Add to that he goes out and debunks the whole misguided Starlink story immediately after publishing it.
What did we learn from this 20-hour (!) mammoth tome? Not a lot, if anything.
Well, good to know, I'll save some time and won't read the whole thing
. I actually think is kinda normal that a decade of collective intelligence on this forum is more than the insight of a man who "only" had direct access to Elon for a mere two years. Probably, there was so much stuff to see and do that what is insight for Isaacson for us is taken for granted.
I love this part:
”His tweets about voting Republican because Democrats were the party of division and hate were sticking in my craw. Even if Uvalde never happened, I probably would have brought it up, because I was angry and offended,” David told Isaacson.”
It has to be said.
”His tweets about voting Republican because Democrats were the party of division and hate were sticking in my craw. Even if Uvalde never happened, I probably would have brought it up, because I was angry and offended,” David told Isaacson.”
It has to be said.
Similar threads
