sahar’s Reviews > Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future – A Bestselling Biography of a Technology Entrepreneur > Status Update

“SpaceX’s top managers work together to, in essence, create fake schedules that they know will please Musk but that are basically impossible to achieve.”

“People who have spent significant time with Musk well test to his abilities to absorb incredible quantities of information with near-flawless recall. It's one of his most impressive and intimidating skills and seems to work just as well in the present day as it did when he was a child vacuuming books into his brain.”

“He would trap an engineer in the SpaceX factory and set to work grilling him about a type of valve or specialized material. ‘I thought at first he was challenging me to see if I knew my stuff, then I realized he was trying to learn things.’”

“Take that a bit further and you arrive at a pleasure-pain, sadomasochistic vibe that comes with working for Musk. Numerous people interviewed for this book decried the work hours, Musk’s blunt style, and his sometimes ludicrous expectations. Yet almost every person—even those who had been fired—still worship Musk and talked about him in terms usually reserved for superheroes or deities.” Wtf dude lmao😭

“He gives you the crazy eye, and it's like, yes, we can get to Mars."

“Elon doesn't know about you and he hasn't thought through whether or not something is going to hurt your feelings,“

"People who know Musk well tend to describe him more as a general than a CEO, and this is apt. He's built an engineering army by having the pick of just about anyone in the business that SpaceX wants.“

“People who know Musk well tend to describe him more as a general than a CEO,”

“Musk wants to conquer the solar system, and, as it stands, there's just one company where you can work if that sort of quest gets you out of bed in the morning."

“Part of this comes from Musk’s maniacal attention to detail and involvement in every SpaceX endeavour. He's hand-on to a degree that would make Hugh Hefner feel inadequate.”