"When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies ... But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist. His father's impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive. ... For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with ... tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?"

Prologue: Muse of fire
Adventures
A mind of his own: Pretoria, the 1970s
Life with father: Pretoria, the 1980s
The seeker: Pretoria, the 1980s
Escape velocity: Leaving South Africa, 1989
Canada: 1989
Queen's: Kingston, Ontario, 1990-1991
Penn: Philadelphia, 1992-1994
Go west: Silicon Valley, 1994-1995
Zip2: Palo Alto, 1995-1999
Justine: Palo Alto, the 1990s
X.com: Palo Alto 1999-2000
The coup: PayPal, September 2000
Mars: SpaceX, 2001
Rocket man: SpaceX, 2002
Fathers and sons: Los Angeles, 2002
Revving up: SpaceX, 2002
Musk's rules for rocket-building: SpaceX, 2002-2003
Mr. Musk goes to Washington: SpaceX, 2002-2003
Founders: Tesla, 2003-2004
The roadster: Tesla, 2004-2006
Kwaj: SpaceX, 2005-2006
Two strikes: Kwaj, 2006-2007
The SWAT team: Tesla, 2006-2008
Taking the wheel: Tesla, 2007-2008
Divorce: 2008
Talulah: 2008
Strike three: Kwaj, August 3, 2008
On the brink: Tesla and SpaceX, 2008
The fourth launch: Kwaj, August-September 2008
Saving Tesla: December 2008
The Model S: Tesla, 2009
Private space: SpaceX, 2009-2010
Falcon 9 liftoff: Cape Canaveral, 2010
Marrying Talulah: September 2010
Manufacturing: Tesla, 2010-2013
Musk and Bezos: SpaceX, 2013-2014
The falcon hears the falconer: SpaceX, 2014-2015
The Talulah roller coaster: 2012-2015
Artificial intelligence: OpenAI, 2012-2015
The launch of autopilot: Tesla, 2014-2016
Solar: Tesla energy, 2004-2016
The boring company: 2016
Rocky relationships: 2016-2017
Descent into the dark: 2017
Fremont factory hell: Tesla, 2018
Open-loop warning: 2018
Fallout: 2018
Grimes: 2018
Shanghai: Tesla, 2015-2019
Cybertruck: Tesla, 2018-2019
Starlink: SpaceX, 2015-2018
Starship: SpaceX, 2018-2019
Autonomy day: Tesla, April 2019
Giga Texas: Tesla, 2020-2021
Family life: 2020
Full throttle: SpaceX, 2020
Bezos vs. Musk, round 2: SpaceX, 2021
Starship surge: SpaceX, July 2021
Solar surge: summer 2021
Nights out: summer, 2021
Inspiration4: SpaceX, September 2021
Raptor shake-up: SpaceX, 2021
Optimus is born: Tesla, August 2021
Neuralink: 2017-2020
Vision only: Tesla, January 2021
Money: 2021-2022
Father of the year: 2021
Politics: 2020-2022
Ukraine: 2022
Bill Gates: 2022
Active investor: Twitter, January-April 2022
"I made an offer": Twitter, April 2022
Hot and cold: Twitter, April-June 2022
Fathers day: June 2022
Starbase shake-up: SpaceX, 2022
Optiumus Prime: Tesla, 2021-2022
Uncertainty: Twitter, July-September 2022
Optimus unveiled: Tesla, September, 2022
Robotaxi: Tesla, 2022
"Let that sink in": Twitter, October 26-27, 2022
The takeover: Twitter, Thursday, October 27, 2022
The three musketeers: Twitter, October 26-30, 2022
Content moderation: Twitter, October 27-30, 2022
Halloween: Twitter, October 2022
Blue checks: Twitter, November 2-10, 2022
All in: Twitter, November 10-18, 2022
Hardcore: Twitter, November 18-30, 2022
Miracles: Neuralink, November 2022
The Twitter files: Twitter, December 2022
Rabbit holes: Twitter, December 2022
Christmas capers: December 2022
AI for cars: Tesla, 2022-2023
AI for humans: X.AI, 2023
The starship launch: SpaceX, April 2023