Thread by @JoshuaLisec

If I were Elon’s ghostwriter, here’s what I would do.

>>> The Thread <<<

If you haven’t noticed (you have), biographers like Elon Musk.

And Elon likes biographers. Readers like both.

The famed writer Walter Isaacson is releasing his Elon bio this September.

It’s said that Walter spent 2 years with Elon to hear it all, uncensored and uncut.

But what about Elon the Author?

What would Elon write a book about, what would he say, and for whom?

Your favorite ghostwriter has ideas.

First, some context:

I’ve ghostwritten more than 20 autobiographies, memoirs, and memoir mash-ups for HNW and UHNW individuals and their families.

So I can tell you what they want from their books that perhaps Elon might want from and for his—and then some.

The #1 most common reason to write a book I hear from UHNW clients:

“I want my kids and grandkids to know what it was really like. And make sure the lessons and the values and principles that I held to, they can hold to as well ..."

"... And because I am the one writing down all these insights and lessons and stories, they’ll know what they are. And they will be from me, not second- or thirdhand.”

Interesting.

So Elon, authoring his own book, might say what he hasn’t said before in public. It would be what he wants his children and his children’s children to know. To take to heart. To ensure it’s passed down as the world changes and what it means to be human changes.

However . . .

This is not the only reason Elon would author his own book because successful people never do anything for just one reason.

Writing a manuscript-length letter to his progeny—that’s not enough. He’s given scores of interviews they can and will one day find.

After all, Elon is not shy about sharing what he thinks.

So . . .

What would Elon say in a book that he hasn’t said in an interview?

I don’t think it’s a narrative, a Walter-style autobiography.

The man is a self-taught scientist.

If I were the ghostwriter, here’s his book:

"How to Die on Mars, Just Hopefully Not on Impact: The Mental Models I’ve Used to Move the World"

The book would be his worldview models—the ones he uses for running his businesses, for raising his children, and so on.

Example: @synthesischool

Synthesis is the embodiment of Elon’s model for education: Don’t teach tools, teach problems.

Give kids an engine, and they’ll reach for a socket wrench to add a turbocharger. Don’t teach them how to use a hammer, from a slideshow and spreadsheets.

(h/t @MichaelGuimarin)

There’s more where these come from. Elon’s well-known models include:

- First Principles Reasoning
- Questions over Answers
- The Tree of Knowledge
- Probability Predictions
- 5 Steps for Optimizing
- Chunk Up Then Down
- The Platonic Ideal
- Seeking Criticism
- Duty

“I thought you said they’re well-known and his book needed to be fresh?”

Correct, anon.

Elon could cover other, not-shared-prior models. The “special and dangerous” ones. And give previously-private examples of ways he applied those models—and failed ... and why.

Think deeper insights, untold tales, tangible advice.

Contrast this with what influencers do now, which is grab a quote or section of an Elon interview, write a thread with excerpts, and say "here's how to apply 1st Principles to your business today.” Mhmm. Sure it is.

That content is shallow, short-sighted, and midwit-tier at best.

“You mean all I have to do to be as successful as Elon is calculate probabilities of X happening???”

No, anon. No.

Can you see why the world needs Elon in Elon’s own words?

And a book does what an interview cannot, especially a book written with a professional ghostwriter. Yes, great preparation goes into an interview. And stream-of-consciousness greatness can spontaneously appear.

Finding the best way to say it in print comes from deep, extended thought amid the back-and-forth. A literary masterwork is not the first rough draft; it’s the final polished draft that billions can hold in their hands. Contrast this with a podcast!

(There is no contrast.)

Back to How to Die on Mars, Just Hopefully Not on Impact by Elon Musk with Joshua Lisec.

I’d also take a page out of successful nonfiction that reaches a vast demographic.

The book would be written so teens could grok it, be that teen a Musk or otherwise.

Think straightforward language. Concrete examples for each abstract concept. No previous understandings assumed. Not just “how I did” but also “how you can, too.” A true memoir mashup beyond “Musk wrote this, so you should read it.”

This is the way for Elon’s own nonfiction book because, again, there are already plenty of interviews on what his favorite models are and examples of how he’s used them

BUT . . . to teach them to a 14-year-old—so they can understand and apply them?

Most mental models are business and process-oriented, for engineering and innovation. Solving hard problems. What about soft problems? Influence. Moving people. What about Elon’s personal life mental models? How did he discern what works from what doesn’t?

What has Elon taught his children that’s not in the news? This is what the people want.

And not just Elon’s own but also the children of Earth. His book can solve the problems of AD 2323 by teaching the next generation how to teach these mental models to the next gen after.

Yes, Elon's book would contain embedded instructions for sharing. Because to teach is to learn.

But what if Elon the Author is nonfiction’ed out? What if authoring a nonfiction book he finds boring and not in a Boring Company way?

I have thoughts.

Consider how legendary Northern Irish theologian C.S. Lewis taught Christian principles to children via The Chronicles of Narnia and how he dismantled postmodernism (there’s a joke there) via The Space Trilogy.

As I have said, the best way to teach truest truth is through fiction. Great novels are trancework.

No reason Elon could not do the same.

After all, Elon told The New Yorker:

“The heroes of the books I read [as a kid], ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and the ‘Foundation’ series, always felt a duty to save the world.”

And what is Elon’s stated mission?

To make humans an interplanetary species. In his words:

“We have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness to make sure it continues into the future.”

There’s something else.

You may have heard Elon say, “I’d rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right.”

Could an Elon-authored novel take place in the future he’s creating, amid a clash between those who have a stake in that future and the neo-woke of AD 2323?

Perhaps the novel takes place on the Mars colony itself, quietly revealing how it was all possible?

Interesting.

The story, of course, would be driven by the agenda and motive of the antagonist—as I have told you previously.

Who’s the antagonist?

Elon knows.

All the while, Elon’s novel (or series) gives humanity a specific target to aim at, in narrative form. Characters larger than life. Who use (and abuse!) his mental models. Which teaches readers below the threshold of conscious awareness how to (and how not to) apply them.

Of course, Elon’s never-before-shared mental models would be woven into the story with care and subtlety. So readers the world over would come for the premise—“Dude, Elon wrote a novel!”—and stay for the meaning.

So one day, perhaps in 2323 . . . perhaps on Mars . . . perhaps there’s a Great Man who says:

"The heroes of the books I read as a kid, like ‘How to Die on Mars, Just Hopefully Not on Impact,’ always felt a duty to save the worlds."

And then he does.

Remember I said, “...teaching the next generation how to teach…”

We’d pull a few pages from the hypnosis playbook, working suggestions (commands) into the dialogue between characters. Readers will remember what Elon wants them to—and how one character taught another.

Now readers can teach his models to others, too.

Trancework, baby.

There’s a lesson in all this for the folks at home, here on Earth with me right now:

Whatever your book is about, do NOT let it be a mere restatement of all that you’ve previously said—or a look-at-me-I’m-special autobiography.

You may have said good things. And you may have a neat story.

The thing is?

No one cares.

What do we want?

We want what’s in it for us.

So where is your edutainment?

The perceptible value, timeless wisdom, and unprecedented vision for the future so bright and bizarre and optimistic it might be wrong!

I want you to write that book.

Perhaps you’ll ask me to ghostwrite it.

But first—

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