「悪魔」に突き動かされる大物実業家、マスク氏伝記が発売

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】実業家イーロン・マスク氏の伝記「イーロン・マスク」が１２日、世界同時発売される。それに先立ち、米国の複数メディアが内容を抜粋し報じた。（写真は実業家のイーロン・マスク氏）
　執筆したのは、ベストセラーとなったアップル創業者の伝記「スティーブ・ジョブズ」を手掛けた評伝作家で、タイム誌元編集長のウォルター・アイザックソン氏。
　米小売り・ＩＴ大手アマゾン・ドットコムでは、発売数時間前の予約段階から米国内でベストセラーとなった。
　マスク氏の生い立ちの大半は既に有名だが、多くの注目を集めているのは、加虐的で支配的な父親エロル・マスク氏についてだ。
　本書でマスク氏は、破局と復縁を繰り返しているミュージシャンのグライムスさんが「悪魔モード」と呼ぶものに突き動かされ、高い生産性を発揮していると描写されている。
　また、自身の手法を疑問視して批判する人々に報復するマスク氏の執念深さについてもたびたび取り上げられている。
　昨年のツイッター買収後、マスク氏と側近は、従業員の電子メールやソーシャルメディアを徹底的に調べ上げ、新経営者となった自身を批判していた数十人を直ちに解雇。最終的に、７５００人いた従業員の３分の２をくびにした。
　マスク氏は、ビル・ゲイツ氏がテスラ社の株価下落を狙っているとして、慈善事業を一緒に行うことも拒否した。
　さらに本書では、少子化を懸念するマスク氏には、これまで公表されていなかったグライムスさんとの間に生まれていた子ども１人を含め、現在１０人の子どもがいると書かれている。
　マスク氏は、自身の脳インプラント開発企業ニューラリンクで幹部を務めているシボン・ジリズ氏との間でも、精子提供で双子を授かっている。
　書評は賛否両論で、米紙ワシントン・ポストはアイザックソン氏について、「エピソードや舞台裏の話の暴露を優先している」と失望を示している。
　ジャーナリストのカラ・スウィッシャー氏は、「孤独で賢い息子が、徐々に自分が忌み嫌っている父親そっくりに変貌していく」話だとし、マスク氏は「正しいことも多いが、時に間違いを犯す変わり者」として描かれていると評している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/09/12-17:17）

A hotly anticipated biography of Elon Musk describes the turbulent tycoon as a man driven by childhood demons, obsessed with bringing human life to Mars and who demands that staff be hardcore.
Elon Musk is written by star biographer Walter Isaacson, a former editor in chief of Time magazine who is best known for his best-selling portrayal of Apple founder Steve Jobs as well as his looks into the lives of Albert Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci.
Some US media outlets got early access to the more than 600-page book ahead of its official global release Tuesday, and several excerpts were published in recent days.
Hours before its release on Amazon, advance orders had made Elon Musk the site's best-selling book in the United States.
Much of the billionaire's early life is already well known, with attention focused on his abusive and manipulative father Errol, who Musk despises.
The book proposes that Musk is driven by what his former partner Grimes calls the demon mode, which, according to Isaacson, makes him highly productive and is common among overachievers.
Many of the account's unknown nuggets come from a more recent period, when Isaacson shadowed his subject with fly-on-the-wall access into his everyday life.
A widely reported passage recounts how Musk personally scuttled a plan by the Ukrainian military to carry out a major operation in Crimea by denying Starlink internet access, drawing a furious response from Kyiv.
But Isaacson was forced to walk back his description of the episode after Musk tweeted that the Starlink access was not yet up and running in Crimea at the time of his decision.
Musk's chaotic and impulse-driven takeover of Twitter (now renamed X) also gets a lot of attention, with the billionaire seen as struggling to recognize that technology and sheer will power will not create miracles.
Another recurring theme in Isaacson's telling is Musk's vindictive tendencies toward doubters and critics.
- Lacks 'Critical lens' -
After acquiring Twitter late last year, Musk and his closest lieutenants combed through email and social media, and immediately fired dozens of employees who had criticized the new owner. Eventually two-thirds of the 7,500 strong staff would be axed.
In another episode, Musk defied warnings and with the help of a small team moved critical servers out of a Sacramento data center to cut costs, which led to a series of major outages.
He also refused to join forces with Bill Gates on charity endeavors because the Microsoft founder had bet against the success of Tesla on the stock market.
The book also says that Musk, who frets about depopulation, now has 10 children, including a previously unknown child with on-and off-again partner Grimes.
He has also fathered twins as a sperm donor with Shivon Zilis, an executive at Musk-owned company Neuralink.
Reviews of the book have been mixed, with the Washington Post praising the reporting but disappointed that Isaacson prioritized revealing anecdotes and behind-the-scenes reportage over a sophisticated critical lens.
Influential US tech pundit Kara Swisher said the book told the story of a sad and smart son (who) slowly morphs into the mentally abusive father he abhors.
Often right, sometimes wrong, petty jerk always, Swisher said of Musk's portrayal in the book.