Rolling Stone profile depicts Elon Musk as mere human

Tonight, famed entrepreneur Elon Musk will reveal Tesla's electric semi truck. Indubitably, folks will praise his brilliance, critique his speaking style, denounce him as a charlatan and applaud his achievements. Some will call him a visionary genius, others will label him a fool. (Some people might even take interest in the truck.) This week's Rolling Stone profile of the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, though, shows him not as a billionaire savant, but as a mere human, and a fragile-hearted one at that.

And, yes, the article also mentions an unnamed "driver-comfort feature" in the Tesla semi that Musk tells author Neal Strauss would land him in jail if he divulged what it was.

The article depicts Musk as the product of a lonely childhood, one in which he lived with a father he feared and peers who bullied him. He is driven by an intellectual desire to improve humanity, and troubled by a fear of abandonment. Musk discusses his grim mood surrounding the launch of the Model 3, largely due to a recent breakup with then-girlfriend Amber Heard. He tells the author, "I will never be happy without having someone. Going to sleep alone kills me."

He also asks, "Is there anybody you think I should date?"

The article describes Musk's scientific approach to solving problems, as well as his desire to make useful products that are also beautiful. That brings us back to the truck. Musk says of the unspecified comfort feature that, "Probably no one will buy it because of this. But if you're going to make a product, make it beautiful. Even if it doesn't affect sales, I want it to be beautiful."

Go ahead and speculate away on what you might think the feature is. We'll find out tonight. In the meantime, the Rolling Stone article is an interesting read. Check it out, here.

Related Video:

Rolling Stone profile depicts Elon Musk as mere human originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 16 Nov 2017 15:20:00 EST.