The world seems to be made up of three kinds of people—those who adore and admire Elon Musk, those who hate him and consider him a danger to humankind, and finally those who do not know he exists. Indifference is not an option when it comes to the SpaceX and Tesla boss who is eyeing the Moon, Mars, and motor cars.
The two latest additions to the large collection of books on Musk rather fittingly look at both these aspects of the man. On the one extreme is The Book of Elon by Adrian Jorgenson of the bestselling The Almanac of Naval Ravikant fame, which hails Musk as the messiah of entrepreneurship. On the other is Muskism by Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff, which looks at Musk’s manner of doing business and its (worrying) impact on the world.
Musk as entrepreneur supreme
Eric Jorgenson’s The Book of Elon and Muskism by Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff. (Generated using AI)
At about 400 pages, The Book of Elon is the larger of the two books, but is by far the easier read, as the content is not densely packed but split into more than eighty chapters (or sub-sections), each spanning 2–3 pages at most, with generous margins, spacing, and large highlights.
In The Almanac of Naval Ravikant, Eric Jorgenson had taken a number of statements from one of Silicon Valley’s famous figures, Naval Ravikant, and arranged them in the form of a conversation to give the reader the impression of reading a discussion. It was a superbly easy-to-read template, and Jorgenson sticks to it in The Book of Elon.
The book has four broad sections: Pursue Purpose, Ultra Hardcore Work, Building Companies, and On Behalf of Humanity. Each of these sections contains smaller sub-sections, which revolve around Musk’s descriptions of events and concepts. In many cases, each section is a carefully arranged collection of quotes taken from different sources at different times on the subject, so one is literally reading about Musk in his own words.
Curated perfection, minus controversy or chronology
The book is a tribute, thanks to Jorgenson’s research and skilful curation and arrangement. For instance, in a sub-section titled “Be Useful,” the opening quote (“Don’t aspire to glory, aspire to work”) comes from a video released in 2025, while its opening passage (which includes “I want to maximise my utility. It is difficult to be useful at scale.”) comes from a 2024 podcast, and yet another paragraph (featuring “I try to take the set of actions most likely to improve the probability that the future will be good”) is from a 2022 documentary.
It is a format that will shock classical historians, as it places quotes from different times one below the other without attention to chronology. However, Jorgenson’s mix-and-match skills have resulted in the closest thing we can have to a Musk autobiography—until he writes one himself.
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This makes The Book of Elon the perfect book for Elon Musk fans. It has the Musk success story in Musk’s own words. It is not a biography, as Jorgenson points out in the introduction, but is pretty much business, work, and life in Elon Musk’s own words, with most contentious issues and controversies kept away. There is no deep analysis or examination of context—the reader is given Musk’s perspective in isolation and is expected to accept it as the truth. It is a book for the Musk-wannabes.
Musk as an OS for the 21st century
Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff have a rather different take on Elon Musk. Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed is not just about Elon Musk as a person, but about the impact his way of working is having on the world. The authors derive the term “Muskism” from “Fordism,” which was used to describe the system popularised by Henry Ford, a figure almost as polarising as Musk himself.
Just as Fordism dominated the twentieth century with its stress on mass production, the authors contend that Muskism will dominate the current one. In their words, “Muskism offers a possible operating system for the twenty-first century.”
But what is Muskism? Slobodian and Tarnoff (the former a historian, the latter a tech writer) define it as a system in which sovereignty is offered through technology:
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“Musk does not just sell cars, rockets, or satellites. He sells the fantasy that, in an increasingly unstable world, both states and individuals can fortify their self-reliance by plugging into his infrastructure.”
The key words here, of course, are not “self-reliance” but “his infrastructure.” For, as the authors point out, “What is sold as techno-sovereignty is entry into Musk’s walled garden, to which he holds the master key… trying to unplug from Musk, you realize he owns the socket.”
Needless to say, Slobodian and Tarnoff do not see Musk as the blessing to humanity and entrepreneurship that Jorgenson paints him as. He comes across as a much colder and more calculated person, especially during his DOGE days, when he seems to treat human beings and emotions almost as bugs in a machine.
Eccentric genius or dark wizard
At slightly under 250 pages, Muskism is a shorter but deeper—and much sharper—look at Musk. It too does not claim to be a biography, but actually tells us more about Musk and the events that shaped his thinking (growing up in apartheid South Africa left its mark), and his way of working.
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At the end, the authors leave us with different directions in which Muskism could head, with a cyborg-dominated future being one of them.
Where Muskism stumbles is in its constant cynicism towards the person after whom it is named. If The Book of Elon makes Musk look like a slightly eccentric Harry Potter, Muskism puts him squarely in the role of He Who Must Not Be Named. We also felt that the authors try a little too hard to portray his erratic actions as part of a carefully thought-out strategy, which seems unlikely.
Muskism is a great read for those who want to know more about Elon Musk and what he represents, rather than be inspired by him. The case for Muskism as an “OS for the twenty-first century” is not entirely compelling, but the authors cover more ground than Jorgenson does, simply because they look at the world beyond the man, while Jorgenson treats the man as a world in his own right.
So which of the two should you be reading? The Book of Elon is perfect for those who believe in Musk, want to be like him, and enjoy an easy read. Muskism, on the other hand, is for those whose view of him is less rosy and who do not mind a more intense, probing read.
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The Book of Elon
Eric Jorgenson
Magrathea Publishing
400 pp
Rs 799
Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed
Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff
Penguin
247 pp
Rs 2499