Oddbean new post about login | logout The Verge's Elizabeth Lopatto has a superb takedown of Isaacson, author of the Musk hagiography. One glaring misstep: calling Musk's incessant lies "hilarious" -- his deceit has damaged a lot of people, and has highlighted the continual failings of a compliant press and government, both of which have enabled him. https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/1/23895069/walter-isaacson-biography-musk-review
I'm a fan of Isaacson's biographies of people who died before he started his research. I particularly liked his Benjamin Franklin book. But his biography of Steve Jobs (and now Musk) betrays a central problem in the genre. When immensely powerful people, about whom there is intensely curiosity among the general public, give one biographer uniquely close access, they are giving huge gifts -- sometimes worth millions of dollars -- to the biographers.