Elon Musk has a ‘demon mode’ says biographer who shadowed him for two years – but it how Musk “gets sh-t done”

Bestselling author Walter Isaacson, who has observed Musk’s daily life for nearly two years, was debating the tech mogul in an interview via Twitter Spaces before releasing his Twitter, Tesla, and SpaceX bios.

But he didn’t take credit for coining the term to describe Musk’s alter ego. In fact, it was revealed that Musk’s ex-girlfriend and mother to two of his children, music artist Grimes coined “Devil Mode.”

She allegedly told the writer that when a tech mogul moves into such a space, it can be “unpleasant” to be around, but that’s how he “gets it done.” According to Insider.

luck I’ve reached out to the Canadian music artist, whose name is Claire Boucher, for comment.

Many leaders click on their brutal situation

It can be useful for leaders to go brutal at times, for example during a company crisis or when deciding whether layoffs are the only way to effectively cut costs and keep investors happy.

This is why, according to Isaacson, many of the successful people he wrote about, including Steve Jobs, do just that.

By tapping into their “dark streak,” Isaacson said, leaders were less burdened with empathy and were able to focus on bigger picture issues.

But in Musk’s case, Isaacson suggested, his dark streak sometimes gets in the way of business and scares off workers.

This was especially the case when his staff didn’t match his “morbid sense of contingency” — “he’d faint knowing he was about to rip this guy off,” Isaacson said, According to Insider. He added that this happened a lot when Musk took over Twitter and did mass layoffs. His outbursts of anger were sometimes “uncomfortable” to notice.

“It’s just brutal,” Isaacson reportedly added. “The thing I noticed was that once he was done doing it — and it wasn’t physical at all and it was done almost monotonously flat — but he would really lash out at people and then a few days later, if they had learned their lesson, they’d forget about it. It would be like he moved on from that He becomes Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde and after that he doesn’t think much or remember much of how powerful he is over people.”

Musk explained to the writer that wanting to sympathize with one person and endanger the bigger picture is a form of “selfishness.” But according to Isaacson, his “brutal” approach is only effective about 80% of the time – for the other 20%, he’s not only “problematic” but his people are actually “afraid to give him bad news” likely out of fear of his reaction.

This revelation is not necessarily new

According to Insider, the biographer’s book, which hits shelves this September, delves into how the complex personality of the world’s richest person balances his “dark streak” and his work at Tesla and SpaceX.

However, readers shouldn’t be too surprised by Isaacson’s insight into Musk’s character — another bio on the billionaire has already pointed to Musk’s obviously short fuse.

the Wall Street JournalMusk’s Tim Higgins has revealed Musk’s habit of unleashing a beast on anyone—from hourly workers to strangers to CEOs—in Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century.

Meanwhile, Musk’s tough approach to business is no secret.

The serial entrepreneur publicly encouraged employees to prove their dedication to their work by sleeping in the office (or under their desks, as he did in the past), working at least 40 hours a week in the office and burning 3 a.m. in oil. .

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