#395 – Walter Isaacson: Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Einstein, Da Vinci & Ben Franklin
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The following is a conversation with Walter Isaacson, one of the greatest biography writers ever, having written incredible books on Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, Jennifer Doudna, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Kissinger, and now a new one on Elon Musk. We talked for hours on and off the mic. I'm sure we'll talk many more times. Walter is a truly special writer, thinker, observer, and human being. I highly recommend people read his new book on Elon. I'm sure there will be short-term controversy, but in the long term, I think it will inspire millions of young people, especially with difficult childhoods, with hardship in their surroundings or in their own minds, to take on the hardest problems in the world and to build solutions to those problems, no matter how impossible the odds.
In this conversation, Walter and I cover all of his books and use personal stories from them to speak to the bigger principles of striving for greatness in science, in tech, engineering, art, politics, and life. There are many things in the new Elon book that I felt are best saved for when I speak to Elon directly again on this podcast, which will be soon enough. Perhaps it's also good to mention here that my friendships, like with Elon, nor any other influence like money, access, fame, power, will ever result in me sacrificing my integrity, ever. I do like to celebrate the good in people, to empathize and to understand. But I also like to call people out on their bullshit with respect and with compassion.
If I fail, I fail due to a lack of skill, not a lack of integrity. I'll work hard to improve. And now a quick few second mention of each sponsor. Check them out in the description. It's the best way to support this podcast. We got Masterclass for learning, NetSuite for business stuff, BetterHelp for mental health, ExpressVPN for security and privacy, and Shopify for, well, buying and selling whatever on the internet. Choose wisely, my friends. Also, if you want to work with our team, our amazing team, we're always hiring. Go to lexfriedman.com slash hiring. And now onto the full ad reads. As always, no silly ads in the middle. I try to make these interesting, but if you must skip them, friends, please still check out our sponsors.
I enjoy their stuff. Maybe you will too. This show is brought to you by Masterclass. You can pay just a little bit of money and learn from the best people in the world at doing whatever it is they do. There's many ways to learn a thing. One is by doing. Another is by reading. or watching other people give tutorials on how to do the thing. And the other is to observe the people that do the thing at a world-class level, or who are the best in the world at doing that thing. And I think, well, while it's not the only thing you should be doing, that is as good as it gets. That's the advice I've always been given, and I've given. One of the best ways to excel in life, and not in some shallow way, but in a deep way, is to find the people in this world who you want to become, and do anything you can to work with them, to be around them, to learn from them.
And not because they sit down and give their time to you to teach, but by just being in their presence and observing how they work, and then giving everything you can to contribute to that effort, to that mission, to sort of the passion that pulls them and that drives them. In some sense, watching a masterclass is a way of doing that. I'm a big fan of watching not just teachers, but the doers in this world. I can go on. The list is incredible. From Chris Hadfield to Will Wright. Man, I should really talk to Will Wright. Carlos Santana, and I should talk to Carlos Santana. And not just talk. Talking is not enough, friends. Play guitar. Anyway, get unlimited access to every Masterclass and get 15% off an annual membership at masterclass.com slash lexpod.
That's masterclass.com slash lexpod. This show is also brought to you by NetSuite, an all-in-one cloud business management system. They are turning 25 years old this year.
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