Musk's origin story

In 1999, a Salon magazine feature profiled an emerging entrepreneur hardly anybody had heard of. Reading it today is like looking at Elon Musk's DOGE playbook.

Believe it or not, there used to be a time when you could turn on the news or read the newspaper and you would not see a thing about Elon Musk.

That got me thinking recently: when was the first time he was profiled in-depth?

Turns out, as best I can tell, it was August 1999, when Mark Gimein wrote a 2,700-word Salon magazine profile bearing the headline “Fast Track” and the sub-headline “Elon Musk is poised to become Silicon Valley's Next Big Thing. What put him in the driver's seat?”

Particularly in light of how the last 25 years have played out in Musk’s life, it’s an extraordinary and prophetic piece of journalism. With a confident tone that appears to have emerged from many hours of reporting, including close access to Musk, Gimein offers insights about Musk’s modus operandi.

His methods are familiar to so many of us today as the world’s wealthiest—and quite possibly weirdest—person leads the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The Musk feature, as reprinted in The Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator.

Among other concerns with the Trump administration, I’m deeply worried about Musk’s unprecedented and outsized DOGE role. That includes but is hardly limited to the myriad potential conflicts of interest that his actions represent, given his ownership of Tesla and SpaceX, with its billions of dollars’ worth of federal contracts.

Reading Gimein’s feature, it’s stunning to see that at 28 years old, Musk had already solidified the playbook that he’s deploying now as he runs roughshod over the United States government. The seeds are scattered all over—the key elements then are the key elements now:

1. Serial entrepreneurship, marked by jumping into industries without prior experience.

From the Salon story: "Musk's talent for building companies consists of ... a talent for building companies."

2. Musk’s brashness and bravado, which has certainly ramped up to new and troubling heights lately.

From the Salon story: "Musk's ego has gotten him in trouble before, and it may get him in trouble again, yet it is also part and parcel of what it means to be a hotshot entrepreneur."

3. His disruption of finance and the status quo.

From the Salon story: "The thought that he will succeed in building what is in essence the holy grail of online companies, while institutions like BankAmerica and Citicorp have been banging their manifold corporate heads against the seemingly insoluble problems of online banking for years, is amazing."

4. Musk’s marketing genius.

From the Salon story: "You know the ads for Tide? Where there's a name brand and brand X, and brand X always loses? Well, our ads can be like that except that brand X wins."

5. His ability to get people to believe in him and to woo people of influence. (We are all well aware of Musk’s latest conquest, Donald Trump.)

From the Salon story: "Everybody in Silicon Valley is looking for the lucky guy who can lead them to the big score."

The start of Gimein’s feature, as reprinted in The Ottawa Citizen.

A month ago, one of Musk’s former friends, Sam Harris, wrote a deeply unsettling account that—if you haven’t already overdosed on Musk material—I highly recommend:

The Trouble with Elon

The line from Harris that stands out for me:

“Of all the remarkable people I’ve met, Elon is probably the most likely to remain a world-historical figure—despite his best efforts to become a clown. He is also the most likely to squander his ample opportunities to live a happy life, ruin his reputation and most important relationships, and produce lasting harm across the globe.”