Elon Musk and the one trillion-dollar algorithm that explains everything he does

Elon Musk has never written a book, but if he did he might call it The Art of the Algorithm. Unlike the brash boardroom bravado that Donald Trump claimed was the key to success in his 1987 business manual, Musk takes a far more scientific approach. 

It is detailed in Walter Isaacson’s new biography of the tech billionaire, which saw the writer spend two years shadowing his subject and speaking to more than 100 of his friends, family members, colleagues, employees and rivals. 

As a result, the book offers an unparalleled insight into Musk’s life, work and motivations, ranging from the trivial – you learn that Musk’s parents were originally going to call him Nice after the city he was conceived in – to the deeply personal.