If the publication of Walter Isaacson’s substantial biography of Elon Musk has proved anything beyond doubt, it is that Musk is a seriously weird dude.

In tracing the path that has taken Musk from his rough-and-tumble South African childhood, to the giddy world of turn-of-the-millennium Silicon Valley, and on to becoming the world’s richest man, Isaacson has uncovered new information about his subject. He provides an efficient account of Musk’s astonishing success as a technological entrepreneur.

But as Matthew Ricketson argues in his thorough appraisal of Isaacson’s book, there is also an unreflective quality to the biography that prevents it from addressing some of the larger issues.

The quirks of Musk’s personality, which Ricketson sets out in amusing detail, have become notorious. His ambitions are vast, his opinions are erratic, and his family life is, well, complicated. His tendency to make ill-judged public statements has only been exacerbated since he became the house jester on his own social media site, having bought Twitter (now X) a year ago this week, for an eye-watering US$44 billion.

As Ricketson writes, Musk comes across as a curious mixture of impulsiveness and determination. He seems to be someone who is “genuinely talented as a physicist and businessperson, and genuinely clueless when it comes to human relationships”.

Yet beyond the theatrics of Musk’s public persona is someone who wields enormous power, and who has the technological capability to intervene in world events. The deeper question prompted by Isaacson’s biography, suggests Ricketson, is “how and why has it come to this?”

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