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Elon Musk says he’s not quite as insane as a new book makes him out to be

Published May 12th, 2015 11:17AM EDT

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On Monday,  The Washington Post published some excerpts from a new book on Elon Musk written by Ashlee Vance called Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future that really made the brilliant Tesla and SpaceX CEO look fairly insane. However, Musk took to Twitter on Tuesday to specifically refute one particular excerpt in the book that alleged he ripped into an employee for missing a company event to witness the birth of his first child.

BACKGROUND: New book makes Tesla CEO Elon Musk sound borderline insane

“It is total B.S. and hurtful to claim that I told a guy to miss his child’s birth just to attend a company meeting,” Musk said. “I would never do that.”

Musk also took issue with a quote in which he purportedly referred to himself as a “samuri.” He also said that Vance’s book “was not independently fact checked” and thus “should be taken with a grain of salt.”

Of course, these two quotes weren’t the only ones that made Musk look somewhat crazy. Musk didn’t challenge Larry Page’s story that Musk often asks to crash on his couch whenever Musk visits Silicon Valley. Nor does he dispute the book’s amazing quote on dating in which he makes maintaining a relationship sound like maintaining your lawn.

“I would like to allocate more time to dating, though,” Musk is quoted at one point in the book. “I need to find a girlfriend. That’s why I need to carve out just a little more time. I think maybe even another five to 10 — how much time does a woman want a week? Maybe 10 hours? That’s kind of the minimum? I don’t know.”

Brad Reed
Brad Reed Staff Writer

Brad Reed has written about technology for over eight years at BGR.com and Network World. Prior to that, he wrote freelance stories for political publications such as AlterNet and the American Prospect. He has a Master's Degree in Business and Economics Journalism from Boston University.