Elon Musk‘s biographer, who spent two years observing the businessman day-to-day, claims he saw him go into ‘demon mode’ that frightened his workers.
Walter Isaacson, who will release his biography of Musk in September, said the billionaire could be like ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ and once ‘chewed out’ an employee whose child had died two weeks earlier.
Isaacson, who observed Musk through the fraught days of his takeover of Twitter, told a Twitter Spaces event on Thursday that Musk had a ‘maniacal sense of urgency’ that frightened his employees, Insider reported.
The writer, who has also published biographies of Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci, said Musk would often fly into a rage at employees during his early days at Twitter when he fired more than half the workforce.
‘He’d go dark and I’d know that he was just going to rip that person apart,’ Isaacson recalled.
Isaacson, who observed Musk through the fraught days of his takeover of Twitter, said Musk had a ‘maniacal sense of urgency’
The writer, who has also published biographies of Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci, said Musk would often fly into a rage
‘He is just brutal, the thing that I noticed is that once he finishes doing it — and it was never physical and it was almost done in a flat monotone — but he would just really attack people and then a few days later, if they absorbed the lesson, he’d forget about it’ Isaacson said.
‘It would be as if he went from becoming Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde and then didn’t even think that much or remember that much of how tough he had been on people’ he explained.
Isaacson reportedly described a scene where the social media executive, who had a ‘real lack of empathy’ verbally attacked an employee for making a mistake, despite the fact that they had lost a child two weeks earlier.
Musk’s employees were left ‘afraid to give him bad news’ according to his biographer but that the Tesla co-founder once told him he viewed empathy towards his workers at the expense of company success as a form of ‘egotism’.
The term ‘demon mode’ was coined by Musk’s girlfriend, the music artist Grimes, Isaacson told the Twitter spaces event.
He claims she once told him that Musk could be ‘unpleasant’ when he was in that mood but that it ‘gets shit done.’
The biographer said his upcoming book will aim to balance Musk’s controversial moments with his ‘incredible’ work at Tesla and Space X, and will argue that many brilliant inventors complex characteristics often made them effective visionaries.
Isaacson suggests that Musk’s ‘dark streak’ may be attributed to the innovator’s relationship with his father, Errol, who Musk has previously described as ‘a terrible human being.’
In a statement shared with Insider Errol Musk denied contributing to Elon Musk’s ‘dark streak’, saying that ‘these days Elon and I are on fairly good terms.’
Musk’s employees were left ‘afraid to give him bad news’ according to his biographer
Musk has caused numerous controversies in his personal and professional conduct
Musk tweeted last week that he believes some illegal drugs work better than SSRIs for treating depression
After smoking a cigar rolled with marijuana on the Joe Rogan Experience, here, the share price of Tesla plunged six percent
Musk has caused numerous controversies in his personal and professional conduct.
This week the Wall Street Journal reported that the Twitter CEO had been seen using the drug, a known anesthetic.
Musk is said to have told people he microdoses ketamine for depression and takes full doses while at parties.
On Tuesday night, the Twitter CEO also tweeted: ‘Depression is overdiagnosed in the US, but for some people it really is a brain chemistry issue.
‘But zombifying people with SSRIs for sure happens way too much. From what I’ve seen with friends, ketamine taken occasionally is a better option.’
Musk had been referring to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) which are the most commonly prescribed antidepressants.
They treat depression by increasing levels of serotonin in the brain and are also sometimes used to treat anxiety disorders.
In 2018 Musk had smoked marijuana while on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ podcast which caused the share price of his company Tesla to plummet.
As a result, he and employees at his space exploration company SpaceX were subjected to drug tests for months.
