Of course I reached for the brand new Elon Musk takedown the moment it hit shelves. Breaking Twitter is an expose of Elon Musk’s doomed takeover of the social media site, told in a narrative style either with direct insider information from people who were present for the takeover, or with direct observation of Elon in order to frame bits from his perspective.
First off, if you’ve been following the Twitter takeover closely, there isn’t a ton of new information here. Most of the latest revelations from his book have already been reposted as clickbait articles: that Elon let out a profanity-laced scream against Zuckerberg when he took Twitter over, that he was so upset after the Chappelle booing that he locked himself in his office and the Twitter staff considered calling for a wellness check. Apart from that, just about every detail has already been reported. What’s new about the old is how much of it is framed as Elon bullying ahead as people desperately try to talk him out of his bad ideas. This is interesting, but I wouldn’t call the information super reliable in part because what’s bad for him helps to rehab other people who came out looking meh after the takeover.
I’m not sure I recommend this book. It’s a little too much of what a very anti-Elon person like me is actively looking for and not very academic. It does give Elon’s motivation the benefit of the doubt, if muddled by obvious narcissism and pig-headedness, but ultimately I would more recommend something like Ludicrous by Edward Niedermeyer if you need a fair and accurate reason to be upset by something Elon is doing.
