NPR technology correspondent Bobby Allyn spoke with Scott Detrow about covering billionaire Elon Musk, from his business dealings to the Department of Government Efficiency, from his tweets to his 2 a.m. emails.
Here is an excerpt:
DETROW: What, if anything, from that period of time helps you understand what Elon Musk is doing in his position of power right now?
ALLYN: Yeah, I mean, what that whole saga illustrated is just how many versions of Elon there really are. What you’re often seeing on X is this – is the demon mode – right? – is this very sort of childish, impulsive kind of version of Elon, who’s sharing memes and criticizing people and spreading silliness or spreading disinformation. But there’s another side of him, too. I mean, he does have a certain amount of engineering genius to him, right? I mean, he’s the richest man in the world for a reason, right? He does have – when it comes to material sciences, when it comes to engineering, he has a really special mind.
But he’s also just, like, the most impulsive person I have ever dealt with, and I think that’s important to dwell on in this moment. People are all always asking me, Elon Musk just did this controversial thing that’s grabbing headlines. What is his end goal? And sometimes with Elon, he doesn’t quite know, right? He’s operating in the moment. It’s this id-driven kind of thing, and what he thinks and how he feels today might change in 24 hours. This is just being part of the Elon Musk vortex, and it’s full of mayhem, and it’s full of constantly being confused and trying to make sense of it. But that’s what it is.
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