Primary source
Elon Musk
Biography by Walter Isaacson · 2023 · grounds Elon Musk
Overview
Isaacson's authorized biography after two years of shadowing Musk. Source for the manufacturing algorithm, the idiot index, and the 2008 crucible.
A full write-up of this book has not been published yet.
Skills drawn from this book
Installable Claude Code skills grounded in this text. Each one teaches a framework the book actually argues for.
/elon:first-principlesFirst-Principles ReasoningDecompose to physics, materials, and hours. Compute the irreducible floor. Attack the process around the constraint.
/elon:five-step-algorithmFive-Step AlgorithmQuestion, delete, simplify, accelerate, automate, in that order. The order is the algorithm.
/elon:idiot-indexThe Idiot IndexFinished cost / raw material cost. Above 10x means you are paying for inefficiency, not value.